Advent: A season set apart for HOPE

The rhythm of the Christian year is building to a climactic point.... can you feel it?  After several months of "Ordinary Time," we now get ready, this Sunday, to enter a most meaningful season:  Advent.

As we've remarked on this blog before, observing special seasons give us the opportunity to interrupt our normal lives, which can have a tendency to blur days and years together in the midst of our busyness, and change our patterns to help us focus on a bigger Truth.  I love doing things for just a season.   Implementing long-term change is hard; implementing short-term change is much easier.  Monotony does not even have a chance to set in!

The mantra of Advent is "Come, Lord Jesus."  As Richard Rohr says in his little devotional book, Preparing for Christmas, this means that all of Christian history has chosen to live out of a deliberate emptiness -- for now.  We know that someday we will have perfect fulfillment, but the present will not be enough to fully satisfy. 

"'Come, Lord Jesus,' is a leap into the kind of freedom and surrender that is rightly called the virtue of hope.'"  -- Richard Rohr

This season is a perfect time to add a new tradition or ritual to the daily life of your family to help us focus on this HOPE.  Although it can be a busy season, with all the preparations for Christmas, it is a good time to find a way to say "no" to some things so that you can say "yes" to others.

Some of our family Advent traditions:

On the first Sunday of Advent we always make our family's Advent wreath, sometimes with friends, sometimes on our own.  The easiest way we've found to make a wreath is to go to the local Christmas tree lot, ask the guy for some free branches (which he always gives us), and then attach them to a foam wreath form with wire or pins.

Each evening during dinner we light the candle(s), adding one candle each week.

 We also make a paper chain countdown, and on each link we write some people to pray for, and a Bible passage to read.  During our dinnertime Advent wreath lighting, we take the link down for that day (everyone argues about who gets to do that job!), and then we read and pray together.

Then we try to remember to blow out the candles before the house burns down.  (One close call with that one year!)


Some years we've implemented an idea from my friend Heather:  Mary and Joseph "hide" each night as they travel throughout the house on their way to Bethlehem.  The kids run around and look for them each morning.

They're hiding!

 By Christmas Eve they have arrived at the stable, and they await baby Jesus, who arrives in the morning.

Arrived at the stable, after the long journey

 And, one of our favorite things to do as a family, is read an Advent story by Arnold Treeide.  We started with Jotham's Journey, and the following year read Bartholomew's Passage,   This year, we're reading Tabitha's Travels.

 There is a good amount of adventure (i.e., kidnapping, danger, even killing) in these books, so they would not be recommended for younger children.  But we are always amazed at how the author ties in the truths, and even people, from the Bible so well, so we have enjoyed the family reading time tradition.

There are plenty of other great resources out there to help you and your family focus on Jesus' coming.  A Jesse Tree is always a good way to remind children about the Old Testament, and how the promise of Jesus was there all throughout.  (See here for Ann Voskamp's free printable ornaments.)  

Whatever books, routines, or traditions you choose to implement, let them lead you closer to Christ as you turn eagerly to Him, saying "Come, Lord Jesus!"  May this season interrupt your normal lives in ways that have eternal significance.

Thanksgiving

I’ve been thinking lately about the different ways people pronounce the word “Thanksgiving.”  Largely, I’d put people into 2 groups:  those who say “Thanks-GIV-ing” and those who say “THANKS-giv-ing.”  (I’ve also heard a few Southerners draw “thanks” out into 2 syllables, but I’ll still put them in the second category.)

Today I was pondering this, and wondered which way was more appropriate.  Should we be emphasizing the “thanks” or the “giving?”

Turning to the original word for it in the Bible is no help at all.  Thanks to Ann VosKamp, many of us now know that the Greek word for thanksgiving in the Bible is “eucharisteo.”  Coincidentally, this word is also pronounced several different ways with the emphasis sometimes on the “eu” and sometimes on the “char” – and sometimes on the “is” or the “te.” ( Perhaps the Ohio State fans in my life would like to emphasize even the last syallable?)

But really, I guess my exercise in determining the most correct way to say the word is futile at best and stupid at worst.  Of course both aspects are important;  being grateful without offering up thanks is just being “happy” in today’s language, and giving without the thanks is probably legalism.  (because doesn’t every fault of Christian behavior eventually lead back to legalism on one side?)

Regardless of how you say it, we Americans will be glad that a special day is set apart each year to do the thing we should be doing every day:  overflowing with thanksgiving to the One from whom all blessings flow.  And we get to have special food besides.

The internet runneth over with recipes for that special food, as well as turkey crafts for the kids, creative nature-based centerpieces for the tables, and then recipes for the leftovers.  So we will not use our little internet space to add to the bounty.

Even though Thanksgiving is not a traditional “church calendar” holiday, it is one through which many people develop strong family traditions, and through which God is praised, so we say go forth and celebrate!

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” – Psalm 100:4

Ready to Think About Santa Yet?

Ok, so there are 2 weird things about this post right off the bat:

1.  I’m referring to a Christmas character and it’s only October for crying out loud

2.   I’m talking about Santa – and this blog is supposed to be about the CHURCH calendar

Now here are the 2 reasons for why I’m being so weird:

1. In order to alter our thinking, and possibly traditions, about this key figure, we might need to start planning early

2. Santa, like it or not, is part of our culture and we need to figure out what we’re going to do with him in our families!

There are probably at least 3 options for how families can deal with Santa Claus:

(I’ll switch to letters now since the numbers are getting a little old)

A.      They can try to completely ignore him, focusing only on Jesus and the true Christmas story

B.      They can go along with the normal culture, embracing the jolly ol’ fellow, encouraging all the mall visits and naughty-and-nice lists

-or-

C.   They can proactively find a way to incorporate the legend of Santa into their family life, while clearly delineating his fictional aspects from the factual truths of Jesus.

Perhaps you can see where I am going with this.  :)

Years ago, when we first read Martha Zimmerman’s book about celebrating the Christian year (see sidebar for details), we were introduced to the concept of celebrating St. Nicholas Day.  I would venture to say that this has become one of our most favorite family traditions of all.  Not only does it cleanly and happily take care of the Santa/Jesus delineation, but it also has given us a whole new party day!

Our kids love St. Nicholas Day because it involves 4 things:  all things Santa, a party with friends, secretive giving missions, and STOCKINGS.  And truthfully, one of the things we love about giving stockings on St. Nicholas Day is that it spreads out the gift-giving a little bit.  The kids can really enjoy the things in their stockings, as opposed to them just being the “warm-up” to the real deal on Christmas morning.

(In our house we give stockings on St. Nicholas Day, a couple gifts on Christmas morning, and one more on Epiphany…. so it’s a full month of gifts all spread out.)

But the real best part for us is that on December 7, after St. Nick has been fully celebrated and honored, we put away all things to do with Santa, and the rest of the season is now freed up to focus on the true star, Jesus.  There seems to be a lot less confusion that way.

So, I write this now, to put a little niggle in your brain in case you, too, would like to celebrate Santa in this way.  As it turns out the man behind the legend, St. Nicholas, was quite a fascinating man and definitely worthy of emulation in some ways.  Perhaps this is the year you’d like to celebrate the true story as a family.

I know switching the giving-of-the-stockings date can throw people off, so put it on your calendars now- December 6 is St. Nicholas Day.  In the next couple of weeks I’ll post a little more detail about who St. Nicholas was, as well as some suggestions for how to specifically celebrate the day.

In the meantime, start gathering those stocking stuffers!

Pentecost: A good day for cake!

After all of the intensity and solemnity of the long Lenten season, the whirlwind of Holy Week, and the celebratory festivities of Easter, I was happy to have these last several weeks of regular living.  There are 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, a mixture of the ordinary and the extraordinary.

I’ve wondered what Jesus did with His disciples and followers for those weeks after His resurrection – we don’t get a lot of detail from that time.  We know a few extraordinary things that happened – including His Ascension! – but perhaps many of the days were filled with the regular things of life.   

For the Israelites in the Old Testament, these weeks were sandwiched between two major holy days, one that commemorated the beginning of the grain harvest, which took place during Passover, and one that celebrated the end of it, which was Pentecost. (See this article for more detail) 

When Jesus came, he brought a whole new dimension – THE dimension – to those holy days.  He offered up Himself as the Firstfruits, the Passover Lamb, and the final sacrifice during the first set of Holy Days, and then sent His Spirit to start the first true church during the second.

Traditionally, it is believed that the Ten Commandments were given on Mt. Sinai on the day of Pentecost.  What amazing symmetry that presents:  On the same day of the year that the Law was given, which could not save, the Spirit of the Risen Christ was given, who totally does!

We now celebrate Pentecost as the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers, and therefore the birthday of the Church.   So it’s a big deal - -and worthy of a big celebration!  As Peter J. Leithart reminds us, we should be a noisy and joyous group when we have the Spirit living in us!

As we’ve mentioned before, we love the fact that Christians have more reasons to celebrate, and we love to do this as much as we can! So here is another day to make a cake, put up some balloons, open the Scriptures and remind yourselves and your children about the crazy and wonderful things that happened years ago.

Here are some suggestions:

• Read the account of giving of the Spirit in Acts 2.  Other passages to read/think about are Galatians 5:22-26, and 1 Corinthians 12.  Praise the Advocate, the Spirit!

• Talk about how the events in Acts 2 contrast with what happened at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.

• Decorate the table with red petals. 

• Cook something spicy to represent the tongues of fire.

• Serve fruit salad and talk about the fruit of the Spirit. (Gal 5:22-23)

• Bake a birthday cake and sing “Happy Birthday” to the Church!  Light candles and talk about the flames of fire that were above the disciples’ heads.

or

• Make cupcakes with strawberries as tongues of fire.

One last note:  The Western church and the Eastern church (Orthodox) often do not have coinciding holidays.  I never knew this until we spent some time in Eastern Europe and realized we got to celebrate each of the holidays for 2 weeks in a row (which was pretty cool!).  But this year, 2014, the holidays DO line up, so all Christians everywhere will be observing Pentecost tomorrow.  Happy birthday to the WHOLE church!

Resurrection Day traditions

Some ideas for celebrating that HE IS RISEN!!

Music-to-Wake-the-Family-By

"Christ The Lord Is Risen Today" -- modern version and traditional version

"The Easter Song" by Glad A Capella group

"Beautiful Rescuer" -- by David Walker (thanks, Donna H.!)


Symbolic "Sweets"

1. Easter Story Cookies:  I have loved going through the process of making these cookies with my kids (and nieces and nephews), as each step has something meaningful attached.  The actual cookies themselves were less than impressive, though.  :)  (Maybe we did it wrong?  Meringue is a tricky thing!)

2. Resurrection Rolls:  These are easy, tasty, and have a nice "wow" factor for kids!

3. Empty Tomb Cake:  This could be made in a variety of ways, of course.  It's nice to see an Easter dessert that's not all about bunnies and chicks once in awhile!


Afternoon Activities

If you want to give the kids something to do while you're preparing dinner (or resting after preparing dinner!), here are a few ideas:

1. Egg hunt:  If you haven't already done a neighborhood egg hunt, now might be a good time for whoever is around.  Using "Resurrection Eggs" makes it especially meaningful and useful for teaching.

2. Lego activity:  Tell the kids to make something like this!

3. Coloring pages:  There are some good ones on this site.

Remembering

My dear friend Lisa, celebrated a Seder last night. She and her beautiful family walked very tangibly into the act of remembering. These are her words...

Tonight, we remembered.

We remembered the first Passover.

We heard it, saw it, smelled it, felt and tasted it.

I have learned that is what the seder is all about.

We leaned on pillows to remember we are not slaves but are eating at our leisure . . . free.

We said the traditional blessings, (in English of course) and retold the story of the deliverance from Egypt.

We dipped the bitter herbs in salt water to remember the bitterness and tears of slavery.

We ate a horseradish and chopped apple matzah sandwich  while thinking about the cruelty of 

slavery and the hope of freedom.

We spilled drops of wine/grape juice from our glasses for each plague-emptying some of the joy from our 

glasses.  (Sad for even our enemies who suffered)

We searched for the broken matzah.

We experienced it with all our senses.  

So we can remember it again . . . and again.

Because we have been set free. . . and I need help remembering..

Good Friday Traditions

Observing this Holy Day, both "Good" and somber can draw us ever closer to Christ, reminding us of the great price He paid for us.  Here we have compiled a few suggestions of things we can do as we contemplate and worship:

• In Celebrating the Christian Year, Martha Zimmerman suggests helping the whole family be mindful of the significance of the day by keeping the home completely dark. (The "Light of the World" left this earth for the 3 days.) Keeping the curtains closed and even draping cloth over lights will serve as a good reminder.

• She also suggests placing a 3x5 card at each family member's place at the dinner table, with a person written on it, such as "Mary" or "Pilate" or "a religious person."  Spend time sharing what you think each person's reactions would have been that first Good Friday.

• Another idea would be to keep the home (or wherever you are) completely quiet from 12 pm - 3 pm, turning off all electronics and using the time for focused prayer and reflections.

• Many churches offer services during the day or in the evening, and there is also an online broadcast opportunity this year from 6 pm until midnight through The Secret Church.  (This does cost money and requires registration.)

• If you're looking for a certain, unique food to make, one traditional ones is Hot Cross Buns.  See here for a recipe that I have used and like.  Or, you could try "crown of thorn pancakes," such as these.

• For the younger kids in the home, here is a list of cross-focused crafts they might enjoy.

• On Good Friday, we will come to breakfast to find a black stone in front of each place. The size good for sticking in a pocket and holding on and off through out the next two days. Its a simple reminder of the waiting in darkness. Then, on Easter Sunday, each person will awake to find a white stone and we will read the beautiful verse from Revelation 2:17 "I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it". These stone ideas also came from Ann Voskamp and they've been very meaningful. 

• This Good Friday, we will plant another round of goodness into the large garden we share with dear friends/neighbors. What beautiful symbolism. We will also gather around together to pray blessing over all that we've planted.