Is it time to “do” advent?
When asked about how I choose the passages that I preach on, I often say that I gave up on the Lectionary years ago. The lectionary is a three year cycle of Bible passages for reading during Sunday worship. Preachers who use the lectionary generally confine their preaching to one or more of the passages listed for the day. There are a number of reasons why I gave up. I grew tired of the it. After the first couple of times through the cycle, I certainly found it repetitive. I also have a rather perverse liking for Bible passages that are obscure and often forgotten and would not want to be denied the opportunity to preach on them just because they weren't in the lectionary. But, in many ways, my biggest beef was Advent. The season of Advent is the season immediately before Christmas – starting 4 Sundays before the big day. My problem with Advent is that the themes of the season in Christian tradition and in the lectionary are all about the end of the world. All of...