Traditions on Pause

First Sunday of Advent, Year B

Lectionary Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 (NRSV) 

I love Thanksgiving!  As I remember Thanksgivings past, I think fondly of our trips to my grandmother's house on a small farm in Houston, Missouri.  One of my favorites growing up were her green beans.  That may sound odd for a child but these were definitely a southern recipe!  Sheryl found her recipe card - this was written down by my mother and I'm appreciative that Sheryl kept and found it.  If you try it out, you will thank me, but only if you have a sweet tooth!

This year, my guess is that your Thanksgiving will be the most sparsely attended celebration dinner of your life.  It certainly will be at our house.  The pandemic has brought a lot of restrictions to us and these have had mixed reactions among people.

Some are battening down the hatches and limiting contact.  Others are careful while continuing many of their activities.  Still others are trying to maintain their lives as close to how they were last year as possible. 

Most families have a mix of all of these types of people.  It will make for a different Thanksgiving for sure.  If you gather with extended family, it will only be the latter two categories getting together as those who are distancing the most will not be in attendance.

While this is sad for family traditions, I am thinking more along the lines of pausing rather than missing our traditions.  In the church, this will be the First Sunday of Advent.  This is always a time of excitement as we look toward Christmas.  Of course, it also has a lot of traditions.  We will continue to offer online worship even as we have paused worship in person.

This will allow us to consider what Christmas really means to us.  How do we understand incarnation in isolation?  I will be exploring the epistles from the lectionary during Advent as we adapt to a different environment for Christmas.  For this week, I focus on Paul's statement that God continues to be faithful to us and calls us to fellowship within the Body of Christ.  How do we make this work during a pandemic?

I hope you'll join us sometime online.  Our worship will be released on Sunday morning but you are welcome to engage anytime!

Blessings to you and have a Happy Thanksgiving and a contemplative First Sunday of Advent!

In Christ,

Sam