Happy Advent Week 1!

Yesterday was the first Sunday of the Advent season.  I enjoyed preaching about Advent as an "in between time" in which we are awaiting the encounter with the God whom we have already met.  The point was the little lesson about the fig tree, in Mark 13:28-29, when Jesus says that when we see the buds on the tender fig tree branch we know it's summer, so also when we see little signs of life all around us, even in the dead of winter, we are assured that the Lord is near.

I learned some interesting factoids about Advent from The Companion to the Book of Common Worship, by Peter Bower.  What a cool resource!
1) 6th Century Roman Christians usually observed Advent as the end of the Christian year, not the beginning, as we usually do today.
2) Blue is a sign of hope, peace, healing and Purple is a sign of preparation and penitence and Pink a sign of rejoicing!  Why can't we have them all?
3) The Aramaic, "Maranatha!" (used by Paul at the end of his first letter to the Church in Corinth, and in Revelation 22), could be translated as either, "The Lord has come!" or "Come, Lord!"  Although I didn't mention this in my sermon yesterday I stumbled upon an entry on Maranatha in Wikipedia, where someone said that it was sometimes used as part of an "anathema" to pray for the Lord's judgment on someone.  I don't place tons of significance on Wiki but that is interesting.  I have yet to verify the story.

So, Advent is one of those mushy, in between times of our church calendar.  Is it the beginning, or is it the end?  We continue to live, existing in between the now and the not yet.  And this is the time when we know that Christ has come and Christ shall come again.