THE TIDINGS December 2023 | Volume XXVII | Issue XII
A Word from Pastor Dan Dear Church Family: How soon is too soon to start saying, “Merry Christmas?” It was October 27th (and for those of you who are counting, that’s four days before Halloween), and I walked into Lowe’s Hardware, and there they were — lit Christmas trees, giant in atable Grinches, archways made out of giant bows, and life-size Santas who would “Ho-ho-ho!” at you as you walked by. And across the aisle from this onslaught of Christmas still stood twelve foot skeletons, cackling witches with glowing eyes, and fake JackO-Lanterns pre- lled with LED lights. I’m sure you’ve had this experience before, too. But for some reason it struck me as particularly odd this year — maybe because I’m experiencing our culture with fresh eyes, because Christen and I are hosting Maé this year, our exchange student from Belgium. When I showed her a photo of this collision between Halloween and Christmas, she said, “What?! Christmas already???” Clearly Christmas in October isn’t common everywhere. How soon is too soon to start saying, “Merry Christmas?” About 1,6000 years ago, the Church built in a method to prevent the faithful from wishing each other Merry Christmas too soon.
Advent is more than a measurement of time. It is a spiritual posture. While our calendars ll up with parties and dinners and concerts and events… and extra church services, in Advent our interior selves ought to be growing in quiet anticipation of the day when the Christ child will be born. In this month’s edition of The Tidings, you will nd a number of ways to participate with your church family as we prepare together for the joy of Christmas. We hope you will join us, so that the next four weeks won’t feel like you’re simply standing in the aisle between Halloween and Christmas, but that your heart will be ready to receive the Christ child once more. Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas! Rev. Dan Schumacher
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December 5, 2022
They called it Advent, meaning “the arrival.” It was set apart as a season of preparation for the arrival of the Christ child. At its core, what the season of Advent encourages us to do is to pretend for four weeks that Jesus hasn’t yet been born. It asks us to imagine the world before his arrival — a world without his teachings and his miracles and the hope that he uniquely bears.