Month: December 2023

The holidays are only holy if we make them so.

These words popped off the page of one of my Advent and Christmas devotionals a couple of weeks ago when I was perusing the books in my pastor’s study while crafting the Advent sermon series. They seemed to pierce through the holiday distractions, as if to ask: Is the holiness of God’s light and love, mercy and grace, finding room in the devotion and action of my days amid the hurried rush of this busy season?

The holidays are only holy if we make them so. I began thinking about those places where I experience holiness in the bustling, joyful, painful, complicated season of Advent which is about something so much deeper than all the stuff we often get caught up in.

I imagine I’m like most of you. On top of the usual daily rhythms, I’ve been buying gifts and wrapping them up, writing notes and scurrying to the Post Office, donning the dog with a Christmas collar and hosting friends for dinner, making family plans and packing a suitcase for travel. I would suggest that all of this busy-ness is a form of holiness, in that it is bound up in love and joy, but not all of it is pure devotion to God.

When our children were young and Christmas was even more chaotic, I used to wrap their presents in my church study and store them in my closet under my robes and stoles because there was no good hiding place in our house. On Christmas Eve, the four of us went to the afternoon family friendly service, then home for dinner, and I returned to lead the later one. Before preaching and presiding over communion, I’d load all the Christmas presents into my car so I was ready to head out when worship was over and the church locked up. What I remember most about that midnight drive home was its holiness. Gratitude for candlelight and Silent Night, a quiet and solitary sense of peace and joy, awareness of wonder while I gazed at the stars on my drive home. Holiness.

That’s what I hope for each of you come Sunday. In worship may you find the holy in your holiday, and may the quiet holiness of peace, joy and wonder lead you home.

The word “Advent” means “coming,” or “drawing near.” During this season, Christians throughout the world prepare for the anniversary of Christ’s first coming through reflection on our yearning for wholeness and salvation. Such reflection can serve to heighten our sense of anticipation for the Christ Child’s birth, which we will celebrate on Christmas. The Advent season also reminds us that Christ will come again at the end of time to reign over heaven and earth in majesty.

To help you “draw near”, the Sanctuary Choir, Singing for Life, Youth Chorale and Bryn Mawr Festival Brass will present an Advent Service of Lessons and Carols, this Sunday, December 10, at 4 p.m. This service originated in 1880 with E. W. Benson, Bishop of Truro Cathedral in England. His service included readings and carols for Christmas, and was offered as a prelude to the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass. It was adapted in 1918 by Dean Eric Milner-White for use at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, England. The BBC began broadcasting this service nationally in 1928. Today, it has been broadcast internationally for more than seventy- five years and is among the most popular and widely heard church services in the world.

In 1934, Dean Milner-White created A Procession with Carols on Advent Sunday for use at King’s, basing it on his earlier Lessons and Carols for Christmas. In his preface to this new service, Milner-White wrote: “In the old English liturgies, the Advent Offices made a preparation for the coming of our Lord to this earth far more vivid and eager than those of our present Prayer Book. The purpose of the service is “not to celebrate Christmas, but to expect it.”

Sunday’s service is filled with gorgeous choral works, readings chosen to prepare you for the coming of Christ, and many carols for you to contribute your vocal gift to the glory of God. An offering will be received to benefit Prevention Point Philadelphia, an organization committed to helping drug addicted people in Philadelphia and the surrounding area.