Advent,\n a preparatory time of waiting and watching, communicates the message of\n hope, assisted by the color of the sky, BLUE. Our Christian faith rests\n on the hope that Christ, who came in history assuming our flesh, will \nalso return on the last day of time from that same blue sky he ascended \ninto long ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During\n Advent we are urged to slow down, wait, and look past ourselves. We do \nthis by taking our time (four Sundays and weekdays) getting to the \nmanger. We do this by staging our journey to Christmas in steps \u2014 Advent\n greens, an Advent wreath, Christmas trees, a Christmas manger scene, \nand then \u201cJoy to the World\u201d and \u201cSilent Night.\u201d We do this by keeping \nChristmas long after the trees are put outside and the decorations \npacked away \u2014 a full twelve days that stretch out what we have waited so\n long to celebrate. It’s important to realize that when we \nover-schedule church activities, we mirror the busyness of the world in a\n bad way. Sometimes there are so many things going on at Church that it \nseems literally like a roller coaster ride to Christmas. Advent should \nbe slower and much more deliberate. During this season, we do not \ncompete with the harried schedules of the world around us by matching \nthem event for event. No, we compete by offering what no one can find \nexcept in the Church \u2014 the Gospel of the Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ! \nMost importantly, we celebrate Advent by listening to the Word of the \nLord, and by hearing that Word with the ears of faith, and by the joyful\n acknowledgment that the Christ of the manger has come among us to \ndeliver the fulfillment of His promised gift of forgiveness, life and \nsalvation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Advent, a preparatory time of waiting and watching, communicates the message of hope, assisted by the color of the sky, BLUE. Our Christian faith rests on the hope that Christ, who came in history assuming our flesh, will also return on the last day of time from that same blue sky he ascended into long<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archines"],"yoast_head":"\n