Advent Eve

I have ordered some Happy New Year headbands for the children's sermon tomorrow.  It's a good time to talk about how the lectionary year works and to think about all the ways a new year can work and not work (but I'll probably talk about how it does work).

It's a strange Advent this year.  It starts very late, because the 4th Sunday in Advent is also Christmas Eve--my least favorite way of having Advent and Christmas Eve.  At the church where I serve, we will have a 2 p.m. service, and I'm fine with that.

Once I would not have been; I would have been insistent that we must have Advent 4 in the morning and Christmas Eve later in the day.  I have always loved a Christmas Eve evening service, so that candles look more beautiful, but I am aware of how many people are not going to be able to join us at night.  These days, I may be that person myself.  My night vision is not what is used to be.

It's also a strange Advent because we're at that time in the lectionary cycle where we have more John the Baptist and apocalypse than other years.  When I thought of being a SAM and leading the church through Advent, I had forgotten about this set of readings.  But given the world events, I think I'm up to the task.

In some ways, it feels like Advent has already started, the way that it usually does, with the Sunday after Thanksgiving, or even earlier.  I wonder if that could be a starting point for a sermon?  

As you can see, I'm still not ready with sermons for tomorrow, either the children's sermon or the adult sermon.  Let me go for a walk and ponder it all.