Advent and the New Church Year

Advent and the New Church Year

God declares “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). And so our Church Year is renewed with the coming of Advent. “Newness” in scripture is often connected with Jesus and the Gospel. Indeed this is especially true with Advent and the New Church Year.

Advent is a time for spiritual renewal as we await our coming Savior. If you have allowed your devotional life to become less than the best, make Advent a time to refocus your attention on the cross and Christ. Set aside time each day during Advent to light your own personal Advent wreath and share family devotions. If you have children, let them share in the lighting and extinguishing of candles.

You may wish to use the excellent Advent devotional booklet produced by Lutheran Hour Ministries and titled “Christmas Memories” for your daily devotions. Copies are available today from the ushers and will be available on the Visitor’s Center through the Advent/Christmas Season. Your devotion time can be enhanced by using the order of Daily Prayer on page 294 in Lutheran Service Book. At least once a week you may choose to use the Responsive Prayers found on pages 282 and 285.

Advent is a time of preparation. Since we know that we must be prepared for Christ’s Second Advent, this preparation should include sober reflection and repentance. Since we are preparing for the joyous celebration of Christ’s First Advent on Christmas, we will want our Advent preparation to be subdued. We will then break forth in beautiful song with the angels in celebrating our Savior’s birth. For this reason we do not include the Hymn of Praise (Gloria in Excelsis) in our Sunday worship.

Take note that three of the four Advent Collects call for God to stir up His power and our hearts. On the third Sunday in Advent we ask God in the Collect that we would rightly respond to the message of John the Baptist who prepared the way of the Lord.

Advent is a time for Hope! Blue on our altar reminds us of the hope that is ours in Christ. Hope in this sense is not wishful thinking but a sure expectation of the fulfillment of all of God’s promises in Christ.

Advent is a time for revisiting the prophecies of the Old Testament that are fulfilled in Christ. Read the first chapters of Matthew and note how often Matthew reports that these events happened to fulfill the prophecies of the comings Savior. From the giving of His name and virgin birth to His nativity in Bethlehem, Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s great plan of Salvation.

One of the most loved Advent hymns is “O Come, O come, Emmanuel.” It is based on the Great “O” Antiphons. You may wish to ponder them during Advent by reflecting on the words of hymn 357.

The prophecies and scripture references in this hymn are rich indeed:

Stanza 1: Is. 7:1-14; Ex. 12:31-42; Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:21; 1 Tim. 2:6; Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45 & Hosea 13:14.

Refrain: Isaiah 59:20; Matt. 1:23; Zech 9:9; 1 Thes. 3:9.

Stanza 2: 1 Cor. 1:18-31; Prov. 1:2-7; Gen 1:31.

Stanza 3: Ex. 3:1-15; Ex. 19:9-13; Ex. 20:1-17.

Stanza 4: Is. 11:1-5, 10, 11; 1 Cor. 15:54-57; 2 Sam. 7:10-11; Ps 80:14-15; Jer. 33:15-16; Rom. 15:12; Rev. 5:5.

Stanza 5: Matt 16:13-19; Is. 22:22; Rev 3:7; 2 Sam 7:13;

Stanza 6: Is 9:2-7; Is 60:1-2; Luke 1:78

Stanza 7: Jer. 10:1-10; Ps 2:6-7; Is 52:7; Hag. 2:7

May God richly bless our Advent preparation and our Christmas celebration that we may more deeply understand and trust in the wonderful love of our Beautiful Savior!

Pastor Quardokus

Thanksgiving Proclamation - President George Washington, 1789

Thanksgiving Proclamation

Issued by President George Washington,

 at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go. Washington

Thanksgiving Proclamation - President Abraham Lincoln, 1683

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

This proclamation (October 3, 1863) set the precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving. Prior to this, each state scheduled its own Thanksgiving holiday at different times, mainly in New England and other Northern states.

The Church Year

    The majority of Christians follow a worship calendar known as The Church Year. Unfortunately it is foreign to many American Protestants who have forgotten or rejected their connection to the Church throughout history.
    The Church Year follows a rhythm of focusing half of the year on the life on Christ and half a year on the life of the Church (or Christian growth). This discipline is helpful in keeping individual pastors or churches from becoming one dimensional in their spiritual lives. It is also helpful for Christians throughout the world to express their unity through their weekly sharing of the same lessons from God’s Word.
     We are at a turning point of The Church Year today.  The Church Year ends with our focus on the return of Christ at the end of the age.  Today all around the world Christians are rejoicing in the blessed anticipation of seeing their Savior return with all of His angels to bring a culmination to all of the promises of Holy Scripture.
    Next Sunday we begin anew our annual celebration of Advent with its dual focus on both the first and second coming of Christ.  We will again hear the cry of John the Baptist.  We will join Isaiah in joyful anticipation. We will overhear Gabriel’s grace filled greeting to Mary as she learns that she will be the mother of our Savior and Lord.
    About 50 years ago the series of lessons read on Sunday was reformed to include more Scripture than had previously been read in the churches.  The old one year lectionary was replaced with a three year cycle of lessons that reflect the Church Year more broadly from all four Gospels.  Today we conclude Series B in this cycle which as you may have noticed draws most of the Gospel lessons from St. Mark.  Next Sunday we begin Series C. The Gospel According to St. Luke will provide most of our Gospel lessons for the coming Church Year.
    A summary of the Church Year is found on page x in Lutheran Service Book. The lessons appointed for Series C are found on page xviii. Since Easter is the key day around which the Church Year pivots, the Epiphany Season is shortened this year because Easter is early, falling on March 31, 2013. The dates of Easter until the year 2050 are found on page xxiii.
    While you are exploring the introductory pages of Lutheran Service Book, turn to page xxiv and review the glossary of worship terminology. The Church has used most of the terms defined on those pages for over a thousand years. Sports fans and hobbyists, professionals and specialists become familiar with the distinctive vocabulary for their chosen interests. Christians who seek to be more than just casual observers will also want to explore the richness of our historic vocabulary of worship and worship practices.

  Pastor Quardokus