Yes, Church, Advent is here! Advent is a time of waiting with hopeful expectation for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Advent can often get lost in the hustle and bustle of the holiday cheer. Therefore, I invite you to take time this season to reflect on what Advent means to you! I encourage you to participate in our Advent offerings to prepare our homes and hearts for the birth of a baby who changed the world. 

“ Advent is a season of endings and beginnings. Christ’s birth ushers us into new ways of living and loving; and yet, the world as we know it spins madly on. In many ways, pregnant Mary was surrounded by endings—large and small, personal and political. But Mary proclaimed hope in a God who was and is making all things new. Christ’s birth offered a beautiful new beginning for shepherds and Magi alike—all the while, King Herod tried to bring Christ’s story to an end. When we ourselves navigate seasons filled with endings and beginnings, we need reminders. We need words that can feel like steady ground, like a path for our feet to find as we step forward into the unknown.”

-The Creative Team of Sanctified Art

JESUS MAFA. Mary and the child Jesus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr

This Advent we will explore together “Words for the Beginning.” These are words we are called to live by as disciples of Jesus Christ. These are the words we find ourselves repeating over and over again to our children, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren. These are words to live by. Words we as adults tend to say to our children but forget they are words for us too. 

I ask you church, what do you think Mary whispered in baby Jesus’ ear the first time she held him in her arms? What words did she whisper that holy night? What words did she whisper over and over again to him as a toddler, a child, a tween, a teenager, a young adult? 

Peterson, Kathleen. Mary and Baby Jesus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. Original source: Kathleen Peterson, https://www.kathleenpetersonart.com.

When I was a kid, my dad came up with “four things,” four truths that he wanted my brother and I to memorize. Those “four things” were four reminders about love, responsibility, our choices, and God’s care for us. Anytime I left the house as a teenager, my dad would simply hold up the number four to remind us: four things! We knew what he meant. We knew it was love. Friends, I think Advent offers that same invitation. Tucked into the end of the year when it can often feel like we’ve run out of time, Advent invites us to begin again. In the depths of winter, and on the heels of an election season in the United States, Advent declares: this is not the end, this is yet another beginning. 

With that hope and encouragement in mind, we have selected simple truths that we believe a mother would want to tell her baby, that God wants to tell the world, and that we need to tell each other. 

—Rev. Sarah Speed, A Sanctified Art LLC 

I have been thinking about the words I live by. The words I hope to impart on my children and the children of our church family. 

On school mornings, as I pull up in the car line to drop the girls off, I shout out "be kind and courageous!" On one particular morning, I must have been rather loud in declaring my parting words!!!

BE KIND AND COURAGEOUS!!!

The parent volunteer who was helping the girls out of the car looked up and smiled saying, “I like that. I needed that. I tell my children to 'be brilliant'! Yes, be kind and courageous! Be brilliant!"

I pray I seek to live by the words I repeat every Sunday that I heard as a child, a youth, a young adult:

“May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet and may everyone you meet see the face of Christ in you!”

(Thank you, Frank!)

My childhood pastor, Frank, holding a baby Kately. I wonder what words to live by Frank is whispering to her...

What words do you live by? Life motto? Words of blessing, reminders, of life lessons? I would love to hear from you!

The words to live by lifted up in our Advent series will reflect on the words for the beginning – 7 blessings, 7 reminders, 7 life lessons: 

You are a blessing!  

Luke 1:26-38 & Isaiah 43:1-7

We can't go alone

Ruth 1 & Ecclesiastes 4:9-12  

Do the good that is yours to do

Luke 3:7-16 & Isaiah 58:9b-12

Hope is worth the risk

Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 1:46-55

Love knows your name

Luke 2:1-20 & Isaiah 9:6 

Don't forget to laugh

Isaiah 9:2-3, Psalm 148, Isaiah 55:12-13 & Psalm 126:1-3

The road isn't straight

Matthew 2:1-12 & Isaiah 43:16-21

This is a patchwork quilt Memama made.

Memama at my installation as pastor here at FPC.

Church family, you have been with me on my journey of grief with my Memama. She is here in body, but no longer can she repeat the words she whispered to me from the beginning. As a dear friend said, this liminal space is complicated, beautiful, and hard. In life and in death, we belong to God. While I can no longer just pick up the phone and hear Memama’s words, I can hear her wisdom and love when I am wrapped up in one of the patchwork quilts she made. I can hear what she said to me in times when I have been lonely, doubtful, sad. I can hear her words of encouragement and hope.

Memama and baby Paisley. I wonder what words to live by Memama is whispering to her...

This Advent our worship art will highlight the artistry of quilting. Quilts wrap us up with stories of hope, love, joy, and peace for the journey! Much like the prayer shawls our church creates to bless people when they need to be reminded of the very first words Mary whispered in Jesus’ ear! 

The symbol of the quilt is powerful: Stories interwoven that are with us through endings and beginnings.

This is a quilt created for me when I left my call at FPC Tuscaloosa. Each square includes a blessing, a reminder, a love offering, and words to live by.

This quilt was given to me by our Presbyterian Women here at FPC!

 “The Advent journey unfolds like a well-worn quilt, each patchwork piece lovingly threaded across time and space. In each thread, we find blessed assurance that with every sacred stitch, God has been moving toward us all along. “

-A Sanctified Art LLC

Recently, I visited a church member's home and throughout her living space were framed quilts. We paused at each quilt square, and she shared the memories and stories of each quilt. I would love to see your quilts! Share a picture! Bring them to church!  

This Advent you will notice new paraments in our sanctuary. The parament draped on the pulpit and the one hung below the organ pipes were lovingly created by church member Debi Selin using pieces of fabric you all brought in from shirts and blankets that held memories for you.

As we worship this Advent and Christmas, I pray that this offering of worship art in the form of new paraments are a gift to you!