When we think about getting ready to celebrate Christmas, we may think about all the things that we have to do! There may be decorations to put up, cards to write, presents to make or buy, and food to bake or cook. Some people may really enjoy putting all the effort into the season, and other people may wish that someone else would just take care of all of it. When it comes to the season of Advent as a season of repentant preparation for the annual celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord in the season of Christmas, the Lord God, through His ministers of Word and Sacraments, does everything in initially getting us to be sorry for our sin and to trust Him to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, and then we work with Him in letting Him continue to work in us and to live each day in such contrition and faith. For example, John the Baptizer was to “to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17), and we note John’s active “making ready” and the people’s passively “having been prepared”. Consideration of other related passages this Advent leads us to reflect on the Lord’s having prepared us in creation and redemption and His preparing us for glorification (see further below).

The Lord Jesus, Who came once in the past, comes to us now, and will come a final time in the future, and so Advent is often said to focus on Jesus’s past coming in human flesh in order to die for our sins, His present coming in Word and Sacrament to forgive our sins, and His future coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. The specific themes of our Sunday Divine Services and our Midweek Evening Prayer services do not exactly correspond, however.

The following are the Sundays in Advent 2024, using the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, as we follow Lutheran Service Book’s Three-year Lectionary Series C.

  • First Sunday (12/01): Jesus comes as our humble King (Luke 19:28-40)
  • Second Sunday (12/08): Jesus’s way is prepared by John the Baptizer (Luke 3:1-20)
  • Third Sunday (12/15): Jesus assures John and us Who He is (Luke 7:18-35)
  • Fourth Sunday (12/22): Jesus’s birth announced to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56)

Our 10:45 a.m. Sunday services this Church Year are using LSB’s Divine Service, Setting Four, this year with selected hymns or hymn stanzas sung as Seasonal Offertories. After the 12/22 service, we will place the greens in preparation for the Christmas season, which begins with a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service of Readings and Hymns at 6:00 p.m. on December 24 and continues with a Christmas Day Divine Service at 10:00 a.m. on December 25. (Read more about the 2024 Christmas season here.)

The Lectionary Series does not appoint any Readings for midweek Advent services, so this year we have assembled Psalms, Hymns, Readings, and Collects under the theme “Making-ready a people prepared″ as introduced above.

  • Midweek Advent I (12/04): Prepared in Creation
  • Midweek Advent II (12/11): Prepared in Redemption
  • Midweek Advent III (12/18): Prepared for Glorification

The 7:00 p.m. Wednesday services this Church Year again use LSB’s order of Evening Prayer. The services will be preceded by a Soup/Salad Supper at 6:00 p.m.

The blue color of the paraments (cloths) on the font, lectern, pulpit, and altar, as well as the pastor’s stole, represents hope and anticipation and serves to help distinguish Advent from Lent.

All are welcome at Pilgrim to attend in person, Skype in virtually, or to stream or download video or audio to watch or listen later (see the links at right near the top of the page). Sermon manuscripts and audio, when available, are posted later here.

The banner graphic at the top of this page (and the corresponding graphic in the slider on the home page) were composed by Katy Myers, whom we hereby thank, using images found online here (public domain), here (copyright 1967 by Decision Magazine), and here (uncredited).