Advent 1 – Sacred Time (Hope)

Advent One – Sacred Time (Hope)

“… you know what time it is. The hour has already
come for you to wake up from your sleep… the night
is far gone, the day is near.” – Romans 13: 11-14

“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what
day your Lord is coming.” – Matthew 24: 36-44

The busy-ness of the holiday season can overrun the
sense of the sacred. The irony is that setting apart
time for connection with the sacred gets pushed aside in order to create the trappings of what is supposed to be the season of celebrating the incarnation of the Holy! We will begin our Advent journey toward Christmas by emphasizing the gift of being awake to the “now”… the gift of sacred time with God, with each other, and with those in need of hope.

Advent 1: Sunday, November 26 ~ Sacred Time” @ 10am
Advent 2: Sunday, December 3 ~ “Sacred People” @ 10am
Advent 3: Sunday, December 10 ~ “Sacred Space” @ 10am
Advent 4: Sunday, December 17 ~ “Sacred Knowing” @ 10am
Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24 ~ “Sacred Being” @ 5pm & 8pm

Advent Theme: Reflecting the Sacred
by Marcia McFee

As religious folk, it is imperative that we grapple with our incarnational faith and what it calls us to be and do. Advent and Christmas is as good a time as any to talk about incarnation. Our wrestling with theology matters because religion has, and does, move us to create a particular
kind of world. And the world we live in at the moment has its problems (did I hear an “amen?”). The way we see the world, relate to the world, live in the world and with each other has theological roots. In other words, what we believe about the holy, what we think is “sacred” or not, determines how we treat each other and creation.

The worship series logo features a “bokeh” light effect–a term that graphic designers use to describe “the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image.” We’ve chosen this look to highlight the idea that we can look through a “lens” of the sacred to see the
beauty of the Christ reflecting in all things. When we have a “hard-focus,” things appear two-dimensional. With this kind of lens, we tend to criticize, we nit-pick, we judge, we even fret about perfection. But when we add a “soft-focus” like the “portrait” setting on our phone cameras,                          that which we are looking at becomes more three-dimensional, more stunning against the blurred backdrop. We see it in a different way. More fully. Perhaps even more beautifully reflecting the sacred. Can we use a lens this season that highlights the holy all around us? Can
we see life as pregnant with Christ… not just Mary in a story from long ago, but everyone and everything capable of bursting forth with goodness and grace?