Sermon for Ad Te Levavi, the First Sunday in Advent

Happy New Year! Today begins a new church year. It is the first Sunday of Advent. The world looks at this as the Christmas season, but for the church, that starts on Christmas day. Advent means “coming” and one of the “comings” the church looks forward to is the advent of Jesus Christ being born in the manger at Bethlehem. There is certainly nothing wrong with starting to put up decorations now and listening to Christmas music all December long. Yet as Christians, Advent does give us the opportunity to examine how we are celebrating Christmas. Do we understand what it means, what Christ means for Christmas, or do we see it as a general season of kindness and cheer? As Paul Gerhardt says in his hymn, “O Lord how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?”