Reflections on Advent

Last night at Berwyn, the Women's Guild put on a Christmas Musicale; a Lessons and Carols service. Scripture and reflective readings were read. I was told I had 10 minutes for a sermon. That's normally a warm up for me-- or at least, I'd like it to be. This one came in at 11:45.

And the volume goes up to 11 also.



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Buechner on Advent

The house lights go off and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised his baton. In the silence of a midwinter dusk, there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen. You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost nothing. For a second you catch a whiff of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you've never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart…The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.

-Frederick Buechner