Advent Calendar Messages for 30 Days of Awaiting

By John Zehring

Advent Calendar Messages for 30 Days of Awaiting is like an Advent Calendar in book form.  Each of the thirty days provides a bible or hymn verse, a brief inspiring message about the coming of Jesus' birth, and a prayer which you can adopt as your own prayer for the day.  When you embrace Advent and prepare yourself spiritually in this way, you are most ready to greet Christmas morn with joy, gladness, and celebration.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Zehring
• Release date: Oct 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223407430

John Zehring

John Zehring served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine.  Prior to parish ministry, he served as a vice president and teacher at colleges, universities, and a theological seminary.  He is the author of more than fifty books and is author of recent Judson Press books on church growth and on stewardship.  He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

Day 1:  The meaning of Advent

Day 2:  Consider prophesies that foretold of his birth

Day 3:  The hopes and fears of all the years...

Day 4:  God became one of us

Day 5:  I love Thee, Lord Jesus... 

Day 6:  A Simple Faith

Day 7:  Reflect on John the Baptist's role in preparing the way for Jesus.

Day 8:  Be inspired by Mary, the mother of Jesus

Day 9:  Be inspired by Joseph, the father of Jesus

Day 10:  Do angels really exist?

Day 11:  What Child Is This?

Day 12:  The Things of Christmas

Day 13:  Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to some

Day 14:  Love Came Down at Christmas

Day 15:  In order that the world might be saved through him

Day 16:  When the fullness of time had come...

Day 17:  Gifts of the Magi

Day 18:  Four ways to prepare spiritually for Advent

Day 19:  I wonder as I wander

Day 20:  Gaze upon the Advent Candle of Peace and be renewed

Day 21:  The Social Justice Christmas Carol

Day 22:  Adore Him

Day 23:  Christmas trees, life, and light

Day 24:  Those beloved old Advent Words

Day 25:  One Solitary Life

Day 26:  The Christmas Spirit and the Holy Spirit

Day 27:  Why did God send Jesus into the world?

Day 28:  In the Bleak Midwinter

Day 29:  Silent Night

Day 30:  Joy to the World

About the Author

Books by John Zehring

Introduction

Advent is a time of awaiting the coming of the Christ child.  To experience an Advent Calendar is to embrace and enjoy the expectation of his birth.  The name Advent was adopted from Latin adventus, translated as coming or arrival.  For Christians, it is a sacred time when we prepare our spirits for his arrival in O Little Town of Bethlehem.  From the world also springs the word adventure.  Imagine considering that there are adventures of faith for you.

Advent commences on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve, spoken of as the four Sundays of Advent and represented by the lighting of four Advent candles, based on the themes of...

Hope

Love

Joy

Peace

On those Sundays, the scriptures and pastoral sermons are based upon those four traditional and beloved words of Advent.  Depending upon when Advent starts, it may have four or more weeks of days, so even though it could have only twenty-four, thirty messages are presented here in case more are needed or if you prefer to skip a couple.

Some families practice the tradition of opening an Advent Calendar for each day of Advent.  If that is your experience, wonderful.  But even if it is not, this book serves you as a sort of Advent Calendar with a scripture, a message, and a brief prayer for each day of Advent – to guide your spiritual journey as you await the arrival of the One who was called The Word become flesh (John 1:14). 

Advent Calendar Messages for 30 Days of Awaiting can guide you on your own spiritual quest and is well-suited to a time for family or group sharing.  Here is an idea for how to use this book:  when you arise in the morning and your toes touch the floor, let toes touching the floor remind you that you have something to do, which is to read an Advent Day message.  That is a much better way to start your day than to rush to read the news, check the emails or weather or sports scores.  Begin your day different than most people:  start your day spiritually in your awaiting, expecting, and anticipating the coming birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

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A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS BOOK

All scriptures in this work come from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) or the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE) unless otherwise noted.

I have attempted to use inclusive language wherever possible in the words I have written, although I have not altered the author’s reference to God as he.  I recognize that the Divine has no gender and for many it may be just as appropriate and accurate to acknowledge God as Mother or Father.  Whichever pronoun is used, consider God as a loving parent.

Much of this work is adapted from other books I have written.  My books can be found by searching online for John Zehring books.

It is my hope and prayer that this book guides you to turn Advent into a spiritual adventure!

John Zehring

Day 1:

Reflect on the meaning of Advent and

the anticipation of Christ's coming.

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The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ).  When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.  Jesus said to her, I am he, the one who is speaking to you.  (John 4:25, 26)

This scripture may seem like an unusual choice with which to begin a book about Advent.  Might we have preferred a text about prophets proclaiming the coming of the Prince of Peace?  But look again.  This text, from the story of Jesus at the drinking well with the Samaritan woman, is the first time when he whispered to the world – well, rather to one nameless person – that he was the Messiah, the Christ, the one anointed by God.  Ever so simply, he answered her "I am he."  He is the One whose birth we anticipate with our practice of four weeks of awaiting, focusing our spiritual journey on his coming and what it means to us.  And so, on the first day of the Advent calendar, think about what Jesus of Nazareth being the Christ, the Messiah, means to you.  Allow the Spirit of God to draw you into a spiritual advent... a spiritual adventure!

What is Advent?  Advent designates the period during which Christians prepare for the Christmas season and reflect on the meaning of the coming of Christ.  Churches began to observe this period of preparation as early as the fifth century – soon after the origin of the celebration of Christmas.  The period was one of both penitence and joyous anticipation.  Advent was once six weeks long, but by the Middle Ages, four Sundays had become the standard length of the Advent season.  An Advent wreath with Advent candles is a tradition that helps Christians focus attention on the coming of Christ.  Each candle stands for a theme of advent:  hope, peace, joy, and love.  The order of those themes varies in differing traditions, but those four words of Advent guide our search for God’s spirit in our expectation of Christ’s birth.

The use of Advent candles originated in eastern Germany prior to the Reformation.  The tradition involved three purple candles and one pink candle.  Purple is a color of penitence and royalty.  Some churches use blue, a color of hope, in place of purple.

The pink candle was the third candle to be lit on Gaudate Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent. "Gaudate means Rejoice!" in Latin.  In the earliest years of the church, the only church season was Lent, the seven (now six) weeks prior to Easter.  Lent was a season of fasting and prayer as the church commemorated the crucifixion of Jesus.  The traditional color of banners in the church during this time was a deep purple, signifying royalty, repentance, and suffering.  During Lent the church lit seven candles, one for each week of the solemn season.  However solemn the season, the story of Lent also has a twinge of hope and joy since the death of Christ led to the resurrection.  So, on the third Sunday of Lent, the church was encouraged not to fast, but to feast. 

When the season of Advent was instituted, the church viewed it as a mini-Lent.  In so doing, the church adopted the first four candles of Lent and changed the third candle of Advent to pink in honor of the Lenten tradition.  This is why we have a pink joy candle in our Advent Wreaths.

Take a moment to reflect on the meaning of Advent and the anticipation of Christ's coming.  As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, I am he.  Consider what that means to you.  What does it mean that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah to you.  Christ and Messiah both mean the anointed One, anointed by God to come to draw you into God’s presence.  Allow that to happen now.  Invite your thinking about the meaning of Advent to draw you into a sense that you are in God’s presence.  The Lord is my shepherd, goes Psalm 23, verse 1.  You are the sheep who follows that shepherd.  Close your eyes and allow yourself to visualize the Good Shepherd leaning on his staff, you are in His presence, and you settle down to simply embrace being there, with him, and He with you.

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PRAYER:  Holy God, in this season of awaiting the coming of Jesus’ birth, guide me to be thinking about what he means to me and how I might come to know him better and to love him more.  Amen.

Day 2:

Consider some prophesies

of the Hebrew Scriptures that

foretold of Jesus’ birth

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Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.  (Isaiah 7:14)

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.  (Micah 5:2)

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  (Isaiah 9:6-7)

"A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.  The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord."  (Isaiah 11:1-2)

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You have heard these scriptures during Advent and on Christmas eve, texts from the Hebrew scriptures that prophesized the birth of the Messiah, the Christ.  Who knows if what they expected then is what they got in Jesus?  Jesus was anointed by God... sent by God... which is what the words Messiah and Christ both mean.  This is an interesting derivation of words that mean the same thing:  Messiah = Christ = anointed by God = sent.  Jesus was sent by God to bring to the world the message of the Kingdom of God. 

Dig deep into the Christian scriptures to see that Jesus may not have been exactly the Messiah they were hoping for.  Some hoped for a political Messiah to cast out the hated Roman rule and restore Israel into its rightful place.  That’s not me, Jesus might have said.  He was sent to reveal how God’s kingdom is spiritual, not political or social.  Yet, no matter what they expected, prophets many years before