It’s Advent! I adore the cyclical seasonal changes, but I have a particularly soft spot for Advent. It combines the hope in God’s promises, and a defiance against the increasingly shorter and colder days. May you have a happy and blessed Advent!
We have several options for Advent formation. On Wednesdays (December 3, 10, and 17), we will be practicing generosity with the Living Compass series. Everyone is welcome to join us in the Chapel on Wednesdays. We meet at 9 a.m. for worship, and try to begin our book discussion by 9:30 a.m. Booklets can be found in the Church narthex.
On Sunday mornings (December 7, 14, and 21) at 9 a.m. we will be going deeper on the topic of incarnation. Not to be confused with reincarnation (the belief that the soul or consciousness is reborn into a new body after death), the incarnation refers to Jesus becoming human. We will look at topics like Justice (December 7), a Child Born for Us (December 14), and the Message translation’s phrase “the Unforced Rhythms of Grace” (December 21). Please join us in the Library after you grab coffee and a snack.
This Sunday is the last opportunity to donate to the Kettle Moraine Food Pantry. Starting December 7, we will have two outreach projects. The first, and most familiar, is collecting gifts for the youth at Lad Lake. We will have a list handout, as well as the list printed in the bulletin. Gifts for the Lad Lake youth should go into the brown tote in the back of the church.
We will also be collecting gifts for the children of Mary’s Room. These are children ages 0-5, who are clients of St. Paul, Watertown’s outreach. We have a donation list for these children as well, and their gifts should go into the cardboard box wrapped in Christmas paper.
I hope you find some time to prepare yourself for Christ’s entry into the world and your life. I know that everyone has to-do lists that they could use to repaper their walls, but I invite you to drop what brings only anxiety, and remember that Jesus is born for us without our help. As it says in Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, “It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
Prayers and Blessings,
Mother Pippa