Shawna R. B. Atteberry

John Hay Jr., the senior pastor at West Morris Street Free Methodist Church in Indianapolis, has been sharing excerpts for the book he is reading for Advent, Advent 2006—A Great Joy for All People. Here are three of excerpts that he has shared.

How Jesus Comes to Us

Advent Is About Seeing the Signs

Advent Curmudgeon

John Wright also has his reflections on this week’s Sunday lectionary readings: Second Sunday of Advent.

I have been waiting for a non-Christian religious group to say they have the same rights in the public forum that the Religious Right have insisted on having. It has finally happened in Virginia. This is what happens when we take freedom of religion seriously instead of thinking that the only religion is “our” particular brand of religion: Falwell’s Faux Pas Leads to Religious Equality. This is why separation of church and state is a good thing: if you want your Christian flyers put in a public school’s publicity packet then do not be surprised (and pleased don’t be outraged–it makes all of us look stupid) when in the next school packet there is something from the Moslem mosque or the Buddhist temple or even the local Wiccan coven. This is what religious freedom looks like in a pluralistic society, and if Falwell did not insist on obliterating the separation of church and state then we wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. May be Falwell and his collegues need to revisit Deuteronomy where Moses tells parents that it is their responsibility to teach their children about God and why they believe what they believe. It is not the public school’s job (or any sector of government) to teach our children faith: that is the family and church’s job.

1. A favorite ’secular’ Christmas song. My favorite secular “holiday” song is Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song.”

2. Christmas song that chokes you up (maybe even in spite of yourself–the cheesier the better) “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”–especially Bing’s version, gets me every time.

3. Christmas song that makes you want to stuff your ears with chestnuts roasted on an open fire. Mariah Carey butchering “O Holy Night.”

4. The Twelve Days of Christmas: is there *any* redeeming value to that song? Discuss. Getting a group of people to sing it and collapsing in laughter around the eight maids a milking–oh yeah you’re also acting out the song as you sing.

5. A favorite Christmas album–the Charlie Brown Christmas album.

I guess this is a case of better late than never. The first Sunday of Advent was December 3, but I was sick earlier this week and fell behind. Here is a meditation for the first Sunday of Advent.

Zechariah 14:4-9; 1 Thessalonians 3:12—4:2; Luke 21:25-38

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. We are starting a new year, new beginning, a new time of looking both back and forward. This is a new time to once again birth the holy in our lives. Once again we are called to reorder our lives around the Savior as Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and the Magi did.

Our passages today remind us that God is sovereign. God is the one who is in control. In Zechariah’s day, the Jews had returned to Judah from exile in Babylon then Persia. They had rebuilt the Temple, they were offering sacrifices, and yet they were still a vassal state under a pagan world power. The Messiah had not come; God’s reign was not here. What of the promises of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel? Zechariah reassured the people that God had not forgotten them or his promises to them. God would keep his word, and he would come to Jerusalem to put things right.

In our Gospel reading, the Messiah is here, but he is not what the people were looking for. He does not overthrow the Roman government, and yet he declares that “The kingdom of God is at hand.” He declares that even under foreign occupation that the kingdom of God has broken into this world, and is now growing. In Luke 21 Jesus once again shocks (and scandalizes) his followers by declaring that the Temple would be destroyed. Sometimes when the Messiah comes, he is not what we expect.

In his letter Paul tells us how to live while we wait: to increase in our love for one another and be found blameless. With Paul and the Thessalonians we live looking for the return of our Savior. He tells us not to waste time on speculation but to do the things that Jesus commanded us to do: Love God and obey him and love and serve each other.

Where are you this Advent? Are you wondering where God is and where his peace is in our violent world? Is Jesus not who you expected? Is he asking you to trust him and his nutty ideas? Spend this season waiting on God and listening to what his Spirit says to you. Then go out and do as Paul always did: Love God and others and dedicate yourself to growing and abounding in your love for God and the people he has placed in your life.

December 2 marked the beginning of the Christian New Year. We are now in the season of Advent. This is the time we remember the first coming of Christ as we look toward his return. Ben Witherington and John Wright both had wonderful thoughts on their blogs about this season. I am planning on publishing a meditation during the Sundays of Advent. I am behind this week because I have been sick. So enjoy what Drs. Witherington and Wright have to say about this time of the year and pray over the challenges they give us.

Strengthen in Holiness by John Wright (Professor of Theology and Christian Scriptures at Point Loma Nazarene University).

Happy New Year! by Ben Witherington (Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary).

1) Do you observe Advent in your church? I will be starting to attend a new church this Sunday, so I will find out. The last four churches I have attended or pastored at have observed Advent.

2) How about at home? Yes, I normally use an Advent devotional during my morning prayers and have an Advent wreath.

3) Do you have a favorite Advent text or hymn? It’s cliche but I really do like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” My favorite text is Isaiah 2:2-4: “In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

4) Why is one of the candles in the Advent wreath pink? (You may tell the truth, but I’ll like your answer better if it’s funny.) I can’t think of anything funny, so I’ll have to go with traditional answers. The pink candle was orginally the Mary candle, but we Protestants balked at that (heaven forbid we should give due reverence to the Mother of God), and now it is the joy candle.

5) What’s the funniest/kitschiest Advent calendar you’ve ever seen? Well, the most irreverant one I’ve seen had reindeer is “compromising” positions.

What St. Peter’s looks like when the president of Italy is visiting–we decided not to wait around to see how long he got a private tour. So we went here:

This is the Pantheon. It has the largest masonry dome in Europe at 142 feet. When Michaelangelo designed the dome for St. Peters, he made it 138 feet in deference to the Pantheon. In 608 Emperor Phocas donated the pagan temple to Pope Boniface IV, and doing so ensured that this marvelous Roman building would be preserved and maintained pretty much unaltered as the Christian church, Santa Maria ad Martyres. It is absolutely gorgeous inside. (I still need to get the indoor pics off My Hubby’s computer: his camera does much better on indoor shots than mine.)

Although my camera did come through for me on taking a picture of the dome. The tour book said not to be disappointed if it was raining and go to the Pantheon because the rain fell like a waterfall through the hole in the dome. When we left St. Peters it was raining, but the rain had stopped when we got to the Pantheon, so we didn’t get to see the waterfall.

About three (may be four) blocks from the Pantheon is Largo di Torre Argentina: this is where Julius Caesar was killed on the Ides of March.

Here is St. Peters when the Italian president isn’t visiting. The collonade was designed by Bernini to be outstretched and curving as the arms of the church reaching to embrace the faithful.

The Swiss Guard at St. Peter’s Basilica.