12/04/2006
happy new year
Yesterday, as I'm sure you all noted, was the first Sunday in advent and thus the start of a new liturgical year. I was going to leap into my annual early-December diatribe about the commercialism of Christmas, the death of advent, and the widespread ignorance of the liturgical calendar (and that's just in within the church body!), but I don't think I will this year. Maybe I'm giving up the fight. Instead I think I'll go read some of those wonderful Isaiah prophecies and reflect on the hope we celebrate this season. In my favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption, Andy makes the claim that "Hope is a good thing - maybe the best of things." If we follow the allegory through and imagine ourselves as prisoners trying to make the best of the world we live in, we can find comfort in the hope of its restoration and encouragement to struggle against conforming to the sin of this world. In the movie they call it "becoming institutionalized," and hope is what keeps it from getting the best of Andy, and especially Red. So, we hope. Maranatha, Lord Jesus!
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5 comments:
You didn't put it in quite these terms, but I sympathize with this: I'm tired to complaining. I mean, I don't refrain entirely from commenting on the unintelligibility of the way our culture celebrates Christmas, but, similar to the way I feel these days about the Anglican Communion issues, it's not my job to change everyone's mind, but to be faithful to Christian practice.
Happy Advent yourself!
Yesterday I gave my liturgical calendar speech in chapel and explained why I love Advent (and the liturgical year as a whole). I was surprised as to how many people were unfamiliar with it, and apparently I need to add something to my introduction - "This is not just a Catholic thing - it's a Christian thing." Although I realize that many Protestant churches have moved way from this (and especially a lot of "seeker oriented" churches), I was still a little surprised at how many people came up asking me if what I talked about was Catholic.
Regardless, I will continue to celebrate the liturgical seasons with zeal...and use them to enrich my own life and the life of the Christian community around me!
ah matt you make me smile
I do love Advent; sometimes I wish they'd invent a liturgical season where we wait for and anticipate Advent.
Kent - I celebrate my own pre-advent excitement. However, my early advent enthusiasm makes me burn out by week 3.
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