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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2013-11-28, Page 24PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013.By Pastor Ernest Dow Living Water Christian Fellowship, Blyth This Sunday (Dec. 1) marks the first Sunday of Advent, the roughly four-week period leading up to Christmas. “Advent” derives from a Latin word meaning arrival or coming; each year Christians recall the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, in human form to heal and deliver, to teach us truth from the Heavenly Father, and become our perfect substitutionary sacrifice on the cross at Easter. Another similar word that derives from the same Latin root is “Adventure”. According to the dictionary, an ‘adventure’ is a “daring enterprise, unexpected incident, hazardous activity”. Yet it’s easy for Advent not to have much “adventure”. As years pass and family traditions and social commitments accumulate, the month of December can become cluttered with reunions and parties and routines that are definitely ‘activity’ but hardly ‘unexpected’. For example, perhaps we always put up our Christmas lights in the same place (and we always wait until it’s - 30°C to put them up, so nearly freeze our fingers off!). We always get together with her side the Sunday before Christmas and his side on Christmas Day. We always go to the office party that weekend and always eat (or drink) too much. We always find ourselves in a panic to get the gifts wrapped on Christmas Eve, and always rush through the opening of gifts because we’ve got to be on the road by 10 a.m. Does the sight of your calendar when you flip to December make you groan because of all the extra activities leading up to Christmas? Do you arrive at Boxing Day ready to collapse, almost to be laid out in a box yourself, because of the hectic pace of activities this month? Is non- stop busy-ness and getting frazzled really what this season is supposed to be about? Perhaps it’s time to re-examine our usual pre-Christmas routines and ask if there are things that can be dropped for the sake of preserving sanity, and reserve some time to genuinely connect with friends, loved ones and God, rather than continually be run off our feet (not to mention crushed in the shopping malls). What could we do differently this year to change what’s become a “rut” into a fresh advent-ure? That first Coming (Advent) of Christ was anything but usual: it was a very unique, one-of-a-kind event. Over seven centuries earlier, the prophet Isaiah predicted to King Ahaz, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) Virgins conceiving and giving birth is certainly not an everyday event! It was so far-fetched that even righteous Joseph figured that young Mary, who had been pledged to him in betrothal for marriage, must have been sleeping around in order to become pregnant – until an angel appeared to him in a dream and assured him that God was responsible. (Matthew 1:19f) It was not usual for babies to be born in a stable and laid in a manger. Any of us would want our own newborns to have better treatment than that! Yet God used an emperor to declare a census so that Joseph, a citizen of Galilee far to the north in Israel, would have to relocate to overcrowded Bethlehem so King David’s descendant would be born there in fulfilment of Micah’s prophecy (Micah 5:2). A baby in a manger would be an easy (and appropriate!) sign for shepherds to find, after they’d been clued-in by angels to this one-of-a-kind Messiah. (Luke 2:12) And to be ‘born in a barn’ was strangely fitting for the humility of One who laid aside heavenly glory, humbling Himself to become obedient to the Father’s will that we might be saved – even if that meant going so far as to die on a cross. (Philippians 2:8) And it was certainly an “unexpected incident” for Magi from the east (probably Persia or southern Arabia) to show up in Jerusalem at the court of murderous, paranoid King Herod, inquiring exactly where the new “king of the Jews” was to be born. (Matthew 2:1f) All Jerusalem was “disturbed” along with Herod, who no doubt feared yet another duplicitous plot against his regency. And what sort of rare astronomical convergence must it have been that prompted their long and dangerous journey? One unique enough for the Magi to unequivocally identify it as “His star”. It was a most exceptional concert of events that brought the Wise Men, allowed them to find the child Jesus who’d been born essentially right under Herod’s nose, then allowed both the Magi and Jesus’ family to escape the chilling fury of Herod who was used to killing in cold blood to preserve his reign. But what’s the most unusual, unexpected aspect of Advent? Stranger than a virgin birth? Weirder than a baby laying in a manger? More peculiar than “wise men” doing such a dumb thing as asking a killer-king where his rival’s been born? The most unusual thing about Christmas is God’s motivation for the whole thing in the first place. It is unfathomable that a perfectly just, good, holy, almighty deity would sacrifice what was most precious – an eternal, infinitely-intense love relationship bonding Father and Son – for the sake of mere mortal sinners like you and me! The Apostle Paul described just how “rare” and unthinkable this was: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS. OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Brussels: St. Ambrose Saturday 6:00 p.m. 17 Flora Street Wingham: Sacred Heart Sunday 9:00 a.m. 220 Carling Terrace Listowel: St. Joseph Sunday 11:00 a.m. 1025 Wallace Avenue N. Youre Invited to come worship with us Sunday, December 1 Brussels Business & Cultural Centre at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday School for children 4 to 11 years of age at 9:30 a.m. Childcare provided for infants and preschoolers during the sermon. Coffee & cookies after the morning service For additional details please contact Pastor Andrew Versteeg 519.887.8621 Steve Klumpenhower 519.887.8651 Rick Packer 519.527.0173 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 1 Morning Service ~ 10:00 am Evening Service ~ 7:30 pm led by ‘Men of Note” Hwy. 4, Blyth www.blythcrc.ca 519-523-4743 Minister: Pastor Gary Van Leeuwen You’re Invited To Join Us In Worship BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH BRUSSELS Sandra Cable, Pastor Church Office 519-887-6259 E-mail - beunitedchurch@gmail.com SUNDAY SERVICE 11:00 am Sunday School Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship United Church 250 Princess St., Brussels 519-887-6388 www.bmfchurch.com Pastor Jim Whitehead Guests Welcome Jesus Is Lord! Brussels Mennonite Fellowship Worship Service 10:00 am Sunday School 11:15 am Worship Service & Sunday School at 11 a.m. CORNER OF DINSLEY & MILL STREETS MINISTER Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M. Div. All Welcome MUSIC DIRECTOR Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed.OFFICE: 519-523-4224 December 1 First Sunday in Advent: “Now Is The Time” December 8 ~ Second Sunday in Advent Gary Clark preaching: “Christmas Scrooged my Holidays” Communion Worship Service & Sunday School at 10 a.m. PASTOR Sandra Cable, DLM MUSIC DIRECTOR Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed. MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS Rev. Elwin Garland SUNDAY, DECEMBER 1 Nursery care available 519-887-9017 Worship & Sunday School - 10 am Coffee & Snacks - 11 am We invite you to join our church family in: Fridays 11:30 am - 1:00 pm ~ Soup & More 2 - a free community meal held in Melville’s basement, and made possible by the Brussels churches working together. Special CHRISTMAS BLEND! HOPE PEACE FAITH 2X FRIENDSHIP at Huron Chapel 10:30 am Sundays huronchapel.com getlivingwater.org Living Water Christian Fellowship 10:30 a.m. ~ Worship & Sunday School Tuesday - Wingham Bible Study 7:30 pm Thursday - Youth Group at CRC 7:30 pm Women At The Well - 1st & 3rd Wednesdays 7:30 pm at 308 Blyth Rd. (former Church of God) Pastor: Ernest Dow ~ 519-523-4848 Dec. 1: Rom. 13:11-14 Evangelical Missionary Church 1st Sunday in Advent “Time to Get Up! Get Dressed, Already!” Dec. 15, 7:30 pm: Community Christmas Service at Blyth CRC From the Minister’s StudyA Christmas season with some Advent-ure Continued on page 30