Join our Joy this Advent

When you are a seminarian studying to be a priest, you get to practice Morning Prayer with other church nerds. It is probably the hardest thing you have to do. Mainly because you have 300 “experts” in the room judging anything you say or do. One of the opening lines for the service comes from Psalm 122, “I was glad when they said to be, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” The only problem was that folks were so nervous and worried about doing it right, they said the words with a furrowed brows and an anxious voice. Nothing about the seminarian tended to match the phrase that was said. And I almost always laughed. 

Psalm 122 is the first one we say together in the season of Advent. The opening line can be translated as glad or joyful or literally “I rejoiced.” I said the words this summer when I stood next to the Western Wall and on the Temple Mount. And I was filled with joy. I was ecstatic to finally be in that sacred place with good folks from Holy Innocents.

The great challenge of Advent is to be filled with joy, to be joy-ful, to rejoice. Typically we are worried about Christmas shopping lists, parties, events, the dangers of the world, and the hurried, crazy feel of the season. We say we are excited and joyful, but like those anxious seminarians, our faces and voices seldom match the words. We are called to take a moment or twenty and celebrate God in this sacred season. Advent should be a time when we try to connect our hearts and souls with the words of celebration found in the texts. 

To say it differently, join us on the four Sundays of Advent to celebrate God’s presence in the world and rejoice that we are together. Join us as we celebrate
the Rev. John Porter on December 4. Celebrate our long relationship with Temple Sinai when Rabbi Emeritus Phil Kranz preaches on December 11. Enjoy Lesson and Carols with our choir on December 18. There is so much to celebrate as a community returning together to the things we love. So, rejoice! Celebrate! Share the joy! “I rejoiced when they said, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord- to Holy Innocents- together!’”