First Sunday in Advent
Happy Thanksgiving! I pray that today will be a day filled with joy, gratitude, and reflection on all the many gifts of God that surround you. I pray that no matter what the day brings, you will be able to recall some gift of grace over which to give thanks. And I want to share with you a quote from Julian of Norwich that I’ve been pondering since I read the book, Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic and Beyond by Matthew Fox. (I had hoped to share it in my message last Sunday but like so many things in sermon preparation, it was left on the editor's cutting floor.) Julian saw an intimate connection between gratitude and prayer, writing, “Giving thanks is also a part of prayer. Thanksgiving is a true, inner awareness. Charged with the quality of reverence and loving awe, we turn ourselves with all our might toward the actions our good Lord guides us to, rejoicing and thanking him inwardly. Sometimes the soul is so filled with gratitude that it overflows and breaks into song: ‘Good Lord, thanks be to you! Blessed are you, O God, and blessed may you always be.” (p. 33)
Whether you are moved to break into song or not, know that to be grateful is to reflect a heart of prayer. Gratitude invites connection with our God from whom all blessings flow. I pray you will experience that intimate connection with our loving creator God and with your loved ones as you gather around a Thanksgiving table.
This Sunday in worship, we are so excited to begin the Advent journey with our Advent/Christmas message series, “Declutter Christmas”. We hope to invite you to declutter your life in such a way that the heart of Christmas, the gift of God’s love in the baby born in Bethlehem will be able to take center stage in your Advent and Christmas celebrations. There is so much about Christmas that is lovely, exciting, and just plain fun. The challenge is to be intentional in choosing to make time and space for those practices that will lead us deeper into the mystery and grace that is the coming of Jesus. What are the things that you can do, the ways that you can declutter your life, and your soul, so that your relationship with Christ and others can flourish and grow during this sacred season?
To aid you in that, you should be receiving our Declutter Christmas postcard in the mail. On one side of it, you will find important dates and times of special events at Suntree UMC during Advent and Christmas. On the other side, you will find an old-fashioned Advent calendar with practical suggestions of things you can do to help make your Advent and Christmas truly centered around the message of Christmas. We hope you will put it on your refrigerator or with your bible and other devotional materials so that you can refer to it through the season.
This Sunday in worship we begin the journey to “Declutter Christmas” by focusing on hope and the promise that not only did Christ come long ago but that someday Christ will return to complete the work of healing and transformation that began with the incarnation. (You may want to read Luke 21:25-34 in preparation for worship.) Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged with life the way it is. But Christ’s followers live as people of hope, believing that even now Christ’s work of healing and transformation continues, and will one day be complete. Rather than fear the future, we hold our heads high, eagerly anticipating the work of Christ in the future.
Again, Happy Thanksgiving, and I look forward to worship this Sunday as we begin the Advent journey together!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Annette