Dear Church,
The Season of Love has begun … no, not the Summer, the
Season!
Advent, the four weeks leading to Christmas, began on Sunday with a service of unusual beauty – thank you to Jubellance, Tracy Halter-Balin and Lisa Bode Heard for Leonard Cohen’s
Hallelujah, the Sanctuary Choir, the Capital Campaign Committee for the
Preserving Our Legacy Litany, and to the children who fill the chancel with wiggles, good ideas, and energy during the Time with Our Children. (I may be related to the two-year-old who whispered-yelled
It’s QUIET time!!! roughly 900 times during the kid’s prayer. Truth).
Also, many of you appreciated the words of Diana Butler Bass in her piece on Blue Advent; that link is here for your reference:
"Forget red and green: Make it a blue holiday instead." Quotes and references are footnoted in the texts of sermons, and audio files are posted at our (new!) website:
firstchurchlb.org.
There are many moods that Advent addresses: hope, joy, apprehension, anticipation. It’s a funny season, in many ways: it’s a season of waiting, but it’s full of activity. It’s a season of giving, but we also receive. It’s a happy time that can be nuanced with tears and fears. Wherever you are on your spiritual journey this year, there is an event for you at First Church: a protest, a class, a dinner, a concert, a Blue Christmas service for those who are mourning this year, and Sunday mornings full of joyful music and inspiring words.
Come, let us experience the season together!
The Rev. Elena Larssen