Advent is always a tricky time of the year for the preacher and worship leader in my opinion. Its not Christmas, yet, according to the church but it is Christmas time for the culture arround us. Just as we have taken rituals and practices of other cultures and baptised them as Christian, so our Western culture has taken one of our rituals/practices, Christmas, and ‘baptised’ it for the cultural purposes of promoting family life and selling stuff!
Here is my sermon for the first of our four Advent Sundays: