1st Sunday in Advent

Today was the First Sunday in Advent.  As the First Sunday in Advent, it is also the first sunday of the liturgical year.  As a Protestant, I identify Advent because of the lighting of the Advent candles, and our sermon series turns to Christmas-like themes.  Beyond that, I don't know that I do anything significant. I think I miss out on some of the expectation that should be building.  Some of the wonder.

I rarely focus on how long the world waited for Jesus' arrival.  I miss the wonder of the creation of Fully God, Fully Man.  How does that come to be?  How can the ability to sin live in harmony and equality with perfection? I don't know that I can comprehend it. Yet at the same time, I have the same battle going on in my soul - my flesh demands its way, while the spirit tries to gain control.  Jesus never gave into the flesh.  The spirit does not often have control of my life.  Such paradox.  Such wonder.

So this Advent, I am trying to slow down and enjoy the wait.  I also want to spend some time meditating on Mary.  Mary deserves some recognition.  God selected her to bear His Son, so there must have been some glimmer in her, some spark, that the rest of us do not have.  What could Mary know that I don't?  What do I know that she couldn't?

In my chorale group, we are singing two Magnificat songs.  The Magnificat is the song Mary sings after Gabriel tells her of her pregnancy.  The songs I am singing are quite different but at the same time, mirror the words in Luke 1:46-55 (KJV):

My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior;
For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
For, behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed,
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
And holy is his name,
And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
He hath showed strength with his arm;
He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent away empty.
He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy
As he spake to our father, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.


I want my soul to magnify the Lord and my spirit to rejoice in God my Savior.