PRP 49 | Creating Your Advent Tradition - A Better Christmas Series

Advent is more than counting down the days to Christmas—it’s an ancient rhythm of hope, peace, joy, and love that has shaped Christians for centuries. In this episode, Pastor Lindsey invites you to rediscover the beauty and meaning of Advent, and how engaging a simple traditions can help you slow down and center your heart on Jesus. You’ll also hear how to start your own Advent practice at home, and why joining the tradition of God’s family through the ages can bring life and meaning to your Christmas season.

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Transcript

Narrator 00:00:09  You're listening to the new reality podcast From Reality Church. Each episode is a conversation about what it means to be real people pursuing a better reality in Jesus.

Lindsey 00:00:24  Everyone, it's Pastor Lindsay here. I'm glad you could join us on this episode, which will be a little bit different than what we are used to. Normally we have conversations with our other pastors, but this episode is meant to help guide you in establishing your own advent tradition. We are about to begin one of my favorite seasons of the year, and that is Advent and Christmas. And advent simply means the arrival. It's the few weeks before Christmas when we slow down, prepare our hearts, and remember that Jesus, the light of the world, has come and will come again and in the middle of the busyness, advent actually helps us pause long enough to anticipate the hope and peace and joy and love of Jesus. As a church, we have actually created an advent guide for you to help establish an advent tradition, and we hope that you would step into this if this is not something that you normally do.

Lindsey 00:01:27  Evan is actually a season of joyful waiting. It's looking toward Christmas with expectation, not just for presents or parties, but for the presence of Jesus. And what makes advent so beautiful is that it's actually not new. For centuries, followers of Jesus all around the world have marked these weeks before Christmas with prayer and candles and reflection. Very simple and very easy to engage in. And by doing this, it's one of the ways we join the larger story of God's family. As we or you practice an advent tradition, we're actually following in the footsteps of Jesus followers through the centuries, as well as joining with Jesus followers around the world, in every nation right now who are actually doing the same thing. And what we do is we do the simple practice of lighting candles each week, normally on a Sunday night, reading a chosen passage of scripture, discussing together and then praying together just as generations before us have done. And this helps us actually to remind that remind us that faith isn't just individual and Christmas isn't just meant for us individually.

Lindsey 00:02:35  We belong to something much bigger than ourselves, and it's more meaningful when we participate in community as we practice and anticipate the coming of Jesus. I remember when I was a young girl and I've shared about this before, but my family tradition on Sundays, for whatever reason, was to every single Sunday after church, we would come home and we would have a pot roast. Normally alchemy, because that's what we ate and my mom would prepare this ahead of time before we would leave for church and put it in the oven. There'd be this big elk pot roast with potatoes and onions and and carrots, and I always so looked forward to coming home from church. It was like the best part. I mean, church was pretty great too, but it was pretty great to come home and walking in the door and that first smell of that roast. And I just love that we did that. Now we did that so often that for some reason, in my little brain, I thought, that's the meal you eat on Sundays, the Lord's Day.

Lindsey 00:03:42  And I thought, that's that's what Christians do. That's what followers of Jesus do. I remember one time when I was about five years old, I, my mom, sent me to the neighbor's house, our best friends, to go get something or to borrow something. So I ran over there and I walked right into their house, as I normally do on a in any other day of the week. But I walked in on their house after Sunday church And there they were eating big plate fulls of spaghetti. I was shocked. I just could not believe it. I got what I needed to get and I had to report this to my mother. Immediately I ran back and I said, you'll never believe what's happening at our friend's house. And she said, what? And I was like, they are eating spaghetti. And she looked at me, not quite sure why I was telling her this, and it all came out that I didn't think you could eat spaghetti. I didn't think you could eat anything but pot roast on a Sunday.

Lindsey 00:04:39  That was the rule. And it obviously is not the rule. But in my mind, this tradition had become so meaningful. It became kind of it immersed me in our routine of Sunday, of gathering with God's people, worshiping together, going home, eating the pot roast. And I love that. I always think about the power of traditions. Oftentimes we think that traditions can kind of be dead or hold us back from our relationship with God, but doing regular practices and building traditions in our life, individually or as families. Actually is such a significant way that God wired us. We are wired for traditions as simple as they are, and healthy traditions do anchor us. They give shape to our worship and they give meaning to our memories. Year after year of celebrating Advent and Christmas, I want to encourage you to consider starting an advent tradition, if you haven't already. They remind us that we're part of this living story, a story that God's been writing since the beginning of time, actually. So how do you begin? Well, it's actually pretty simple what you need and encourage you to get as you're preparing for your own advent.

Lindsey 00:05:51  Tradition is just four candles. Nothing fancy. You can. I know some of us. Advent is about opening a calendar with chocolate, but that's actually not traditionally how Christians have, celebrated advent or marked advent. They've done it with candles, so you can cry. You could grab a traditional advent wreath or an advent candle holder if you want to go on Amazon and order one of those, but it's actually not necessary. You can gather any four candles they don't even have to match any for will do. And then each Sunday leading up to Christmas. What you do is you start by lighting one candle, and then the next week you light one more candle than the week before. So by Christmas, when you arrive the Sunday before Christmas, all four will be glowing. And it's a picture that we were living in darkness. But as we look towards Jesus and His coming, it's a picture that the light grows brighter and brighter until the light of the world comes. You can do this by yourself or with your spouse.

Lindsey 00:06:54  If you have a spouse, you can do it with your kids. You can gather a group of friends. This year in my house, my husband and I are actually planning to invite a different group of friends each Sunday night and to do this practice around a meal. Nothing fancy, nothing to impress anyone, just gathering some people to celebrate with us so you could light the candles around dinner. You could maybe do it after church on a Sunday night, or even during lunch. I would prefer at night. So you kind of get the impact of those candles being lit. Or you could do it right before bedtime as a family every Sunday night. And so get your Reality Church Advent guide. And you can get this by coming to one of our campuses, whether in Hempfield or Lancaster City. Or you can go to pursue reality and there will be a link to download the guide there. And when you get that guide, it will just guide you through each week's practice. What you'll do is you'll light the candle, you'll read a little devotional about what's happening that week.

Lindsey 00:07:53  You'll read, do a scripture reading, and you can have a simple discussion. There's a questions there for a simple discussion together. That's why we do it over a meal personally. And then you have a simple prayer together. It could take five minutes, ten minutes, or it could take an entire meal any way. There's no wrong way to do it. And it's really great, especially if you're with friends or with family to share the responsibilities. A different kid could light the candles each week. A different child, if they can, are old enough to read, can take turns doing the scripture reading. And in the guide there's questions for adults, and there's also questions for kids that they can answer and get involved in a meaningful way to really encourage you to do that. One note if you're doing this with kids, as a mother, if I could just remind you as a parent myself, often when we start traditions, we have dreams of a deep and meaningful moment with our kids, and then often it doesn't work out the way that we kind of anticipated or we imagined.

Lindsey 00:08:54  In our mind, we feel like we're not quite doing it right. Or maybe there's no point in doing it at all because it kind of fell apart. Perhaps one son tells you that this is dumb or stupid, or you have kids that start fighting over who gets to light the candles that week, or just somebody has is in a bad mood and doesn't want to participate in refuses Uses. Or one child called another child a name. The whole thing starts evolving and now we're in timeouts or whatever it is. All this while you're trying to have this meaningful moment lead a discussion about the peace of God that week. You know what? It's all good. Just roll with it. I really, as a parent myself, want to remind you that perfection is the enemy of connection. Just say that again. Perfection is the enemy of connection. So if you're building this tradition with kids, especially younger kids or teens or whatever age, put aside your expectation that it will look a certain way and just engage your family the best you can.

Lindsey 00:09:56  Advent can be a beautiful way for children to experience the wonder of Christmas and start anticipating, just like people in the time of Jesus before he was born. Were anticipating and looking towards his arrival, and we anticipate intentionally and meaningful. And if we do it year after year, our kids actually will likely grow into adults that will laugh with you about fighting over advent candles, and they'll also reminisce with you about how special the memories were of doing this practice every year together. So the goal isn't just to add another to do to your December list, it's to make space. Space for a little bit of quiet. Space for connection with one another in God. Space, maybe for some gratitude, and especially space to remember that Jesus is the light of the world and the light still shines in the darkness, no matter how dark the darkness may seem. And even this short ten minute moment can, each week can shift that atmosphere in your home and can build something really meaningful in your life together. As part of advent, we go through four themes.

Lindsey 00:11:04  This is how the church has always done it. Week one we look at hope. Week two we look at peace. Week three we look at joy. And then week four, right before Christmas, we look at love. Notice what God is doing in you through this process. Maybe you'll sense a new hope in a hard place. Maybe peace will surprise you. Maybe the joy will come a little more easily than expected. But this is my invitation. Don't let this advent pass you by. Join the long line of believers centuries of Christ followers who have used these weeks to prepare their hearts for Jesus and to connect with him in a more meaningful way, and to anticipate that not only has he come, but he will come again. So gather some candles. Grab that guide and make this rhythm your own. Because each flame that we light reminds us the light is growing in Jesus is near.

Narrator 00:11:55  Thanks for tuning in to the Pursue Reality podcast. Reality church is a local church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Narrator 00:12:01  To learn more or get connected, visit us at pursue.