Every year around this time I find myself asking, “Where did the time go?!” “How is Christmas a month away?!” Perhaps it is because Christmas movies start playing around Halloween, or Black Friday sales start the Tuesday before. Humans can’t help trying to manipulate time to fit their schedules. This is why I am grateful for the wisdom of Advent Time, for it is a reminder that as a Christian my life is not ultimately enslaved to the calendar of this world, but God and his time. The Greeks understood our complex relationship with time, defining it in two distinct ways. One was “chronos” (chronological) time (what time is it), the other was “kairos,” (I had a good time). One is quantitative. The other qualitative. Advent speaks to the latter, reminding us that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4).
This is what we will be remembering starting this coming Sunday, the first Sunday in Advent. My hope is that our community will be able to enter into God’s time as we reflect on various “Encounters with Jesus.” This Sunday we will reflect on John the Baptist’s Voice, and the following Sunday (Lessons & Carols) Joseph’s Dream. As you begin another week, I would encourage you to read through the various birth narratives in the gospels and begin to soak your imagination in what Madeleine L’Engle described this way: “Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.”
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. – Galatians 4:4-7
GivingTuesday is Tomorrow!
For Redeemer West Side, this year’s entire #GivingTuesday proceeds will go toward supporting West Side Kids’ mission to cultivate family discipleship through community outreach, new and renewed events, and fostering meaningful family connections.
Our goal this year is $20,000.
Upcoming Events
- Dec 1 | “Show Up and Show Out”: An exhibition by AHRC NYC’s Fisher Center Artists
- Dec 2 | Following Jesus class
- Dec 3 | RWS Membership Class
- Dec 3 | You’re Gonna Be “Single” Forever. So … seminar
- Dec 6 | Volunteer at Upper West Side His Toy Store for Immigrant Community
- Dec 10 | Lessons & Carols Sunday services
- Dec 13 | Last Day to Donate for the Winter Clothing Drive
- Dec 16 | Serve at A House on Beekman’s Toy Store
- Dec 16 | Serve at Operation Exodus’s His Toy Store Event
