How important is the Advent season?
I'm glad you asked, because I think it's a shame that so many Protestant denominations have forgotten about what's called the "liturgical year."What can families do to create a deeper meaning for Christmas?
It sounds boring, but it's just the calendar of the church that was established to help us live our lives around the life of Christ.
Advent was established by the church to be a four-Sunday period to have a time of introspection, a time of reflection, and even to some degree, a time of fasting.
Last week I was challenging my congregation about whether we really have taken seriously the idea that Jesus became flesh to redeem all flesh.
We always complain about the secularization of Christmas, and then we don't do anything to establish a greater meaning for that day.
One of the things I would suggest they do is to create some family rituals. "Rituals" sounds dead, but they aren't dead, they're just things we do to shape our lives.What about churches that won't have services on Christmas Sunday?
Years and years ago for Advent, my wife got a wreath that we stuck four candles in, and each Sunday after church we would light a candle and have a devotional reading.
Another thing families could do is something like what we're doing at Wesley Chapel, which is that we're all fasting one meal a week.
We're setting aside the money that we would spend on that meal, and we'll put that in an offering on Christmas day. It's a way to give of ourselves to remind us that God gave himself for us.
You've talked for years to people about trying to capture and reclaim your family's life by what you do together.
We are a time-enslaved people, enslaved to clocks and calendars. It's so easy to forget to just stop and sing a song together, or read a passage of Scripture.
Those are basically just pagan institutions.
Mr. Blakemore's assertion that by not going to a meeting house and having a meeting on a certain day is highly offensive to me.
ReplyDeleteThe Holy Spirit lives in ME. That means I am the church. When my family gets together to swap birthday presents (It is Jesus' birthday we are celebrating), we are gathering in His name. And when we go to grandmas house for brunch and share the story of His birth, we are celebrating and worshiping Jesus name. I don't see these as any less effective ways to worship my Lord and Savior than going to a building with a bunch of other people and sharing the same story and the same love of Jesus.
Mr. Blakemore's assertion that not going to church on Christmas Day is somehow paganistic, is simply well... wrong. The purpose of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior not have a corporate meeting. The very idea that having a meeting with a bunch of people is more important than celebrating the Birth of Jesus takes away from the whole purpose of the holiday.
Jesus was more concerned with saving sinners than getting together with other believers. My personal opinion is that if Jesus were around today, he wouldn't want us to get together and give him a party, He would rather we went to a homeless shelter and spent time with those who really need help.
This is a first for me but what he said really has stuck in my craw. With everything I have heard you say about being in the fight and all, what he said flies in the face of that and what Jesus would want people to do to honor Him.
Worshiping with other believers at a 'meetinghouse' on Sunday and being an 'in the fight' Christian are not mutually exclusive; rather, they go hand in hand. The same Bible that te...aches us to care for the needy warns us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves for worship, teaching, and encouragement. There's nothing antithetical about what Dr. Blakemore is recommending. Christians do not choose between worship and witness--we do both! When Jesus called the disciples in Mark 3, they were to be with Him privately and then to go represent Him publicly through preaching and meeting needs. Corporate worship LEADS to public proclamation and serving others in Christ's name; it does not detract from it.
ReplyDeleteDr Blakemore made my day this morning when he emphasized the importance of corporate worship on Christmas morning. Thank you for the encouragement!
ReplyDeleteWe need to wake up and realize our actions speak way louder than our words - If we say Christmas is a Christ centered holiday (holy day) but put our family tradition ahead of meeting as the bride of Christ, we tell our children, and the wold around us, worship is not important. As for being "in the fight", unless your family tradition is going out to the homeless shelter, or prison, or other area of true service to others, that's not really in the fight, it's rationalizing.