Advent

We are well into the Christmas Season. The stores are cheerfully decorated and filled with shoppers. Of course the economic news is not very encouraging, but there are still a lot of shoppers. I love this season. I love just about everything about it. I love the decorations, the smells – the goodies. I love the music. Of course I love the wonderful story about Christ’s birth. What really makes the season though, is family. It is just good to be together.

A week ago I informed the church that this really wasn’t the Christmas Season. In the church calendar we are in the season of Advent. Advent is a wonderful time of the year. Advent comes from the Latin language. It refers to the coming of the Lord. We expect the celebration of his first coming at that Christmas some 2,000 years ago. It also looks forward to his coming again. We normally call this time the Christmas season, but in the church calendar, the Christmas season runs from December 25^th to January 6^th (Epiphany) – thus the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. Usually, four themes are chosen for the four Sundays. This year the themes are: Hope, Peace, Light and Joy. We Baptists are not very good at liturgical things, but I usually lead a meditation upon the theme for the week and then light the appropriate candle.

Saturday as I prepared for the first Sunday in Advent, I discovered that we didn’t have an advent candle holder. I quickly journeyed to San Diego and went to the Catholic Book Store. After choosing the appropriate holder, the clerk said, “I just love this season, are you buying this for personal use?” “No,” I replied, “I am buying this for my church.” “Oh, are you a priest?” “Actually, I am a Baptist pastor.” She looked at me, smiled and said, “Oh my father is a Baptist Pastor.” I laughed and replied that my son had converted to Catholicism.

This was just a short exchange of pleasantries, but I think it was more than that. Two people, one a Catholic, one a Protestant, but both love the Lord meet and share a common heritage. Isn’t God good? I felt encouraged and warmed by a “chance” encounter.