Elliott's Muses

  What does one do in Advent?  I have spent a lot of time thinking about ways to celebrate and "enter" into the Advent season.   The prevailing themes of the Advent season, and the symbolism behind the activities which churches and families share, are varied among many traditions.  Europe’s churches celebrate Advent with festivals such as St. Lucia day and St. Nicholas day.  Ethnic celebrations add to the interesting ways others around the world embrace this season.   From the beginning, I tried to turn Advent into a season of reflection, meditation, slowing to embrace the mystery of the Incarnation. Words that I have learned to describe Advent are:  Preparation, Expectation, Anticipation, Fulfillment, Hope, Peace, Joy, Sharing, Faithfulness, Mystery, Love, and more. These themes are varied, but whatever the word/themes they became a means of reflection about the reason for Christ’s coming.   When we began as a family to ce...

  What is the Advent Season? The word "Advent" means "arrival" or "coming" (in Latin from the word adventus ) .  Advent celebrates the mystery and the wonder of the first “coming” of Christ Jesus in his birth.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a person – Incarnation.  Theologically, the Incarnation and the Trinity belong together.  Jesus is God in flesh, and yet truly human.  John 1:14 (NIV) 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.   1 Timothy 3:16 (NIV) 16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory .  Advent begins the Christmas season and as well, the Church year for many churches in the western world.  Advent is a seasonal celebration, a tr...

From the Preface of my Christmas Devotional book on Amazon:  "An Advent Sojourn"  Advent or Christmas? My Story   Advent celebrates that God entered into our world the first time as Immanuel – “God with us” in Jesus Christ (John 1:1-14).  Now, beyond that first coming, it reminds us that God will come back again, entering into our world in full redemption when Jesus returns a second time. Advent reminds me that to know God I must begin where God began – where the “eternal word became human and lived for a while among us” (John 1:14, The Message).  I do not celebrate Advent because I have nothing else to do around the Christmas season.  I celebrate Advent because I want to be immersed in the story that reminds me over and over again that God saw in us, his people, the beauty and wonder of His “image” - so much so that he entered into redemption through the act of the Incarnation – Jesus, the Word became flesh. Why I wanted Advent instead of just Christ...

  “Why celebrate Advent?” For many Evangelical and Charismatic churches, Advent remains a “distant”, if not unnecessary event of the church’s celebrations.  That is sad but true, and I know it to be true because I’ve lived the entirety of my adult years as a part of those churches.  In my experience, Christmas was warmly greeted, but the season of Advent that leads up to Christmas was not embraced at all.  Advent for most of my friends was a strange time that “others” got into, not them. I grew to love the season of Advent – slowly.   I did not start my Christian walk with it, but several years into my walk with Christ I embraced it.   Why?   Because I was leading a church and busy “in Christmas”, but did not see the beauty of Christ in the Incarnation – the reason why we even celebrate Christmas.   I put all of my attention on getting to the one day, Christmas, and missed the days of celebration that led up to it.   It was Helmut Thielic...

 I remember it well...the question was "when did you receive Christ as your Savior?"  The answer is not pinned on a day or time because there were several events that all seemed to fold together into a time period of recognition of both Christ and my needs.  The Holy Spirit began to tangibly work on me in my "mother's womb", and at age 8 in a church service, and at age 14 during a series of Lenten services, and at age 16 when people said things to me that I never forgot, and at age 18 when a man I worked with rebuked my behavior and I could not let it go.  There were many things that God did over the course of life that grabbed me by the collar and took my thoughts to a place where the events were put in a library of memory. But then, an event happened and Jesus became very much front and center in the place of my need - and in a lame, not very believing way, I asked for help.  It was the beginning not the end of my receiving.  It was the beginning of many ...

All Saints Day is November 1 on the Church's Calendar.  It is also a day of reflection and commemoration as we remember that Martin Luther used this date to bring back to the Church the missing message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Luther had been a troubled monk who had battled in the interior of his soul with the need for God's righteousness - a righteousness that he knew he did not have despite all of the religious works that he had tried to do to earn it.  He was asked to teach - in order that he might know - and in teaching at the University of Wittenberg (Germany) he began to read the book of Romans.  Here, he immediately was confronted with the dilemma.  Paul had written inspired words from the Holy Spirit setting forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   Romans 1:16-17 16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17  For in it the righteousn...