My 2020 Advent Reading Plan

 

This year we need Christmas more than ever. Here’s how to prepare to get the most out of the season.

 

2020 Advent Reading Plan

Advent is the 4 week season of preparation that precedes Christmas.  Christmas is an event of joy and feasting, but if we don’t learn why we’re celebrating, our celebrations can become superficial and materialistic.

To help us get the most out of the season, I’ve put together a simple scripture reading plan for Advent 2020.

Reading Plan Details

Readings are Monday-Friday, beginning Monday, 11/30 and ending Thursday, 12/24.

The Bible tells a unified story that leads to Jesus, and so many of the readings come from the Old Testament to help us understand the story of which Jesus is the fulfillment.

Each weekday’s reading is very brief. Of course, feel free to do your readings at any time, but I strongly encourage you to develop the habit of the First 15: spending the first 15 minutes of each day in silence, prayer, and scripture.

 

How to Sign Up for My Reading Plan

The reading plan is digital—I will send you each day’s reading and a brief thought on it every weekday morning at 4:00 AM.

(If you are already receiving my Bible posts—like the ones I wrote on Revelation, e.g., you don’t need to do anything—you’re already signed up.)

Sign up here to receive the Advent reading plan sent to you every morning.

Merry Christmas and Christmas War

Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_by_Emanuel_Leutze,_MMA-NYC,_1851.jpg

Preaching on Christmas Eve is difficult. For me, it’s the most difficult occasion I preach all year. The reason is that I feel as if I’ve already said everything interesting about the Incarnation and used every good illustration and analogy I can come up with in prior years. I’ve honestly been worried about this year’s Christmas sermon for months. (I really liked my Christmas Eve sermon from last year and I knew I couldn’t top it this year.)

At Munger we put on a Christmas Travelers Service the week before Christmas for folks who can’t be at our church on Christmas Eve, and I preach my Christmas sermon at that service as a kind of dress rehearsal. This year’s Travelers service was on Thursday, 12/19; I ended up being disappointed with my sermon, so I threw the whole thing out and started over!

My new Christmas sermon never came together the way I wanted it and I changed it a lot over the course of the day, from service to service, but I can honestly say it wasn’t like any Christmas sermon I’ve ever heard or anything I’d preached before, so that’s something.

Merry Christmas to you all. Love and courage in 2020.

[My Christmas Eve 2019 sermon is called “Christmas War,” and I’ve included the video below, recorded at 7 PM on 12/24/19.]


Christmas War

Christmas means war. Brothers and sisters, here’s how to fight.


Sermon Links

Scripture: Luke 2:13

References: