Advent

We celebrate Advent as the beginning of the Church Year. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day. We began on November 29. Advent ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). The word Advent means "the coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season is the anticipation of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his first coming (in the past) and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his second coming (in the future). The Bible readings in Advent are about waiting for Jesus to come – both the first time and the second time. We don’t celebrate Christmas at House of ROC until after December 25. We call this celebration “incarnation.” It is one of our two big parties of the year (the other is our Seder at Easter). We see Advent as a time of expectation, anticipation, preparation, and longing. It is about simplicity, penitence and hope. Normally, the color of Advent is blue. We emphasize darkness during Advent to remind us about waiting for coming of Jesus – the light.

The Grace of God

I think I have really come to more of an appreciation of the saving grace of Christ on the cross. This semester has really impressed on me the value of communion and the centrality of the sacrifice of Christ in all things, and the desperation of human beings in our need for salvation. And that in combination with understanding Christ as the sustainer of creation and the redeemer of creation by the sacrifice of the cross, I am really learning that self-sacrifice for the sake of true love towards fellow human beings is how we get a taste of and how we participate in the kingdom of God.

Perspective

I seem to have a lot on my mind these days so I thought I would start to share them here on a more regular basis. This morning I was reading some bathroom material, which in our house is Popular Mechanics and found the following quote from an article about building your own blimp (I'm telling you, you never know what we are up to at our acreage). Here's the quote:

"Perceiving the world from above is a quieting sensation. Normally, quiet has to do with hearing. The other kind of quieting comes from a change of perspective." Brian Boland, hot-air-blimp inventor

I wonder if Brian Boland will ever "google" himself and come across our blog? Hi Brian. I find this quote interesting on so many levels. Sometimes I find myself so caught up in what is going on around me, that I need the quieting that comes from a change of perspective. There is peace in that... perceiving the world from above.

Another point of interest from the article is that Boland uses beer as weight for his blimp because he says they are just the right weight and "you never know when you'll need a beer."

The Church Is....

In preparing to speak at camp this week, I just typed these words and wanted to share them with you here. I am wondering what you think...

"We live in a time of great change, and that poses serious challenges to the church. Our culture is not undergoing some sort of superficial or trendy transition, but changing at a very foundational uprooting sort of level. We worry about structure and language and programs and outreach, but I believe that is just adopting one troubled system for another. That is still outside in. I believe we have to rediscover what it means to pursue the heart of God for the sake of the Kingdom. We need to re-learn how to lay our lives down as a community for the sake of our neighbors. We have to long for the love of God in our lives until it spills out uncontrollably onto everyone around us, not with words, but with action, good deeds, sacrificial kindness, radical inclusion, and courage to go where others won’t go. When we start here, the structure of the church will take care of itself."

I don't know what it means when something I wrote has got me thinking (can anyone say schizophrenia?) but it has.

Greetings from Nathan

Hello all. Internet relationship has never been something I aspire to do. Nor do I like phones, but I'm wondering what is going on in the ROC community.

I just recently had to quit tree planting because of my bunk knee. I decided it wasn't worth it to have a bad knee when I'm 40. But, praise God, I got a job with another contractor, and still have a sweet job in the bush. And, I get to sleep at home and be with my family. I was a little scared and unsure what to do for a while . . . but almost instantly I had another job offer.

I also go to camp soon. I have a big role this summer, and I certainly would appreciate your prayers for it.

I really miss you guys. I'm excited to come back in the fall.

I'm gonna post this on facebook too . . .