Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Are we getting ready.....
So recently I have been thinking how hard it is to practice or participate in Advent. I was in Best Buy today and got this overwhelming sense that the emphasis on Gifts creates a world in which the real reason for Christmas is subverted. Currently I am preparing a small 'talk' for the College and Career Christmas Banquet and am having a hard way concentrating on what to say. While in the line today....any idea of waiting, which is what advent is for...is lost..can a christian practice or participate in advent with all the emphasis on buying, hurry, etc. Just wondering...if anyone has some thoughts on this...please share...
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3 comments:
Chris,
I've been thinking on some of these things lately as well. The churches I've been a part of have never paid much attention to the church calender (unfortunately) so the idea of immersing myself in the church's story of waiting for the Messiah is often lost amidst the other "stories" of commercialism etc. Thanks for these thoughts - I needed to be reminded to "wait."
Chris -- I heard a really good sermon on this a few weeks back from a church in Portland. The website is imagodeicommunity.com -- I listen to their podcasts but you can also get the sermon on streaming audio from their site. It was about 4 weeks ago or so, the message is on advent and the speaker was their pastor, Rick McKinley. He challenged their congregation to reduce Christmas spending and use the money they saved to help the less fortunate. There was more to the message than this, and it is worth having a listen to if you are contemplating these things.
One of his key ideas was spending billions of dollars on gifts over Christmas really doesn't have a lot to do with Jesus' birth.
I was looking at the origins of Christmas on Wikipedia a while back, and it seems that the idea of giving gifts actually originated in a pagan religion and was adapted into Christmas. That provided me with some food for thought, too.
- Bryan
Bryan...
Thanks for the sermon. I actually have a book by McKinley 'Jesus in the Margins.' Haven't read it yet..but looks good. Thanks for the post
Chris
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