In response to the Feast of Booths of the Old Testament, we may want to think through how we might make sure we (like they did) are regularly reminding one another of the new creation.
One option is to follow the Western-church-calendar and to celebrate the season of Advent. To which you might say, “Isn’t advent Christmas? What’s that got to do with the New-Creation, isn’t it to do with Jesus coming as a baby?” Well, actually primarily, Advent-season, (usually celebrated at the end of November and the beginning of December, through to Christmas Day) the main focus is not on the first coming of Christ, but rather on his second coming; it’s after Christmas Day that there’s some time to think about Incarnation.
The problem with where our culture’s at right now however, is that before Christmas, most people have Christmas on the brain, and after Christmas, most people are done with Christmas; sadly the Western church calendar has it the other way round!
At the moment, what I do in my preparation during that traditional Advent-period is Christmas-hymns and Christmas-sermons, but we have the second coming of Christ in some of the calls to worship, as well as in the focus of some of our prayers. But it would be worth us thinking through whether to choose another time of year to look at these new-creation themes, since December does now tend to be so taken up with Christmas as opposed to Advent!
