We've arrived at the beginning of a new church year, but I'm not certain what has happened to the first 11 months of the year. As we approach Advent and Christmas, I wonder what is needed to experience this new church year as truly "new." I recall a strange sensation in the Tokyo airport when my huge suitcase arrived with yellow tape around it because the zipper had given way. Yes, the zipper was old and weak but the greater issue was that I had crammed too much stuff into a fixed area. As I look toward Advent, my essential question is this: Have I carried so much stuff into the season that God's ever creating and renewing Spirit might find me so "crammed" full that He will have trouble fitting in?

Our crammed-full lifestyles leave little room for the sacred moments that we need to reconnect. Reconnect with God, reconnect with each other, and reconnect with our deepest and most critical needs of spiritual wholeness. Christmas culminates with a Lovefeast; the fellowship meal allowing us to experience reconnection with God and each other. And we all know the effect of the Candle Service on our hearts and minds!! The music is foundational as it states our beliefs and moves us spiritually and emotionally into the reason for the season: relationship.

Jesus was born into a family and a community. Room for new birth, of Jesus and of new spirit, might better occur when we disencumber our lives. (Yes, it is a real word, first used by John Milton in one of his books.) With our culture pushing us to encumber - add new stuff into already packed lives - how might Jesus‟ birth and His promise to come again be the foundation for this new season?

I pray that we all find room for the Holy presence of God, for Jesus' coming into our lives, and that we may all receive the promise of His birth.