The End of Something
Last night I was laying down with my son Keating and we were both reading.
Keating said, “can you believe I am on page 400 in my book?”
First off, I don’t know if I have ever read a 400 page book…but heres to future goals.
So I asked back, “how much do you have left?”
He replied with a sound of sadness in his voice, “30 pages…but I don’t want it to end.”
I get it. There is something about reading an incredible book, or watching a great film, or TV series, or experiencing an unbelievable meal, or indescribable vacation…you don’t want it to end.
Do you think any of us wanted M*A*S*H or Seinfeld, or the Harry Potter series or the Rocky series to end? Oh wait…the Rocky series has continued…I guess so has the Harry Potter spin offs…but you get the idea.
We are transitioning from the fall into the season of Advent. It is a time when we intentionally prepare our heart and mind to expecting the arrival of our God and King. The first season of Advent led up to the first Christmas 2000 years ago. They certainly did not have cute advent calendars with 25 different chocolates or specialty coffees…they’d been waiting for hundreds of years.
We now sit in a time where we remember the first advent and look forward to Christ’s triumphant return.
But we have been in Ephesians on Sunday mornings. We’ve been journeying through Exodus at our Bible Studies. Though, that season is coming to an end and we are turning the corner towards Advent. We may love where we’ve been, but there is something new that we can lovingly embrace.
The end of something and the beginning of something new.
So, this Sunday we will end our study of Ephesians. Branden Campbell will close out this wonderful and inspiring letter as he unpacks Ephesians 6.
I think the whole series has been great…of course I preached a bunch of it…but if you missed any, I invite you to go back and listen to the previous 5 weeks.
On Sunday, December 1st, we begin the season of Advent. We have an Advent Guide, called Becoming Christmas, that will take you through the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas. It has daily readings and reflections. We have hard copies available at The Chapel and we have a digital version you can access online here.
Each Sunday leading up to Christmas we will read scripture and light a candle in worship representing the different themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. All culminating on Christmas Eve with us lighting the Christ Candle, singing Silent Night, and going out into the world with the light of Jesus.
Our goal over Advent is to become hope, peace, joy, and love. Our goal is to embody the ways of Jesus. Over the 4 weeks in December, we are Becoming Christmas.
So, a familiar chapter and season is closing, and a new one is upon us.
I hope that as you spend time during this transitional week with friends and family, watching football and parades, enjoying carbs and desserts and turkey, and avoiding political conversations, you can be mindful of all the blessings you have, all that God has done in your life, and the responsibility to demonstrate Christ and his ways to a hurting world.
Having moments of thanksgiving, rhythms of gratitude, and blessing others with words of grace and peace, will help us all to be more like Jesus.
When the Hebrew people were in the wilderness at Mt. Sinai, God gave them the 10 commandments and a whole bunch of other ways to live. These ways were not meant to be restrictive or some sort of punishment. They were an invitation to live differently than the rest of the world, to love like God loved, to bring life into every situation, and love our neighbors (which includes everyone, friends, family, enemies, sojourners, and whoever the Chiefs are playing this week). God’s call on their community was to embody the ways of God, so that the whole world would know the love of God. Their way of living was to help others catch a glimpse of God and His incredible love.
Thousands of years later, that is still our calling. To embody the ways of Jesus, to the ends of the earth, for the glory of God and the good of others.
This week, I invite you begin the journey to become more like Jesus. There is no better time, than when you are gathered around a table sharing a meal with others…you know who did that a lot…I’ll give you one guess…
Jesus.
Welcome to the week of Thanksgiving, the season of Advent, and the journey of becoming like Jesus.
I hope you join The Chapel this Sunday and every Sunday in Advent.
Lots of great stuff coming up. Check out details below.
- Sarah and I are out this weekend. I know it is going to be a great time with Branden Campbell preaching and he will close out the journey through Ephesians. Branden is a regular fill in with us and it is always great to have him with us. You will not want to miss Ephesians 6 on Sunday morning at 10am at The Chapel.
- While you are there, grab a copy of our Advent Guide, Becoming Christmas.
- We have a noon prayer hour every Tuesday at noon, though we will not meet this Tuesday, November 26th. We look forward to gathering with you again on Tuesday, December 3rd.
- Bible studies have wrapped up for the year. If you missed any, I hope you’ll check out our Chapel Study Notes podcast where you can get caught up on the entire Exodus study. Check them out on Spotify here, Apple Podcast here, or wherever you stream.
- All of our studies will be back in the new year. We will let you know start date soon.
- We will gather for communion at 9am on Sunday, December 1st. Join us for this time of meeting with Jesus with others. Then stick around for coffee between the two services.
- On Sunday, December 8th we will have a coffee fellowship time after service provided by our friend and worship leader, Daniel Pratt and Panama City Coffee.
- In case you didn’t know the paid parking has paused for the season in Seaside, so when you come to worship, you don’t have to pay.
- If you are out of town, under the weather, or just need to worship from home, you can watch our live-stream on our website, thechapelatseaside.com, on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/TheChapelAtSeaside and our Vimeo page, Vimeo.com/thechapelatseaside.
Let us know if you have any questions and we look forward to seeing you soon. Safe travels, happy hosting, and many blessings.
Blessings,
Andrew.