Advent rushes to a finish. You know how hectic this next week will be. "Only (you fill in the blank) more days until Christmas," and there is an awful lot to be done. There is the last-minute shopping, rubbing shoulders with all the other last-minute people. Then, toward the end of the week, the planning and procuring for the big Christmas dinner begins. But we’ll probably forget something essential to the menu and be back at the supermarket on Christmas Eve, too.

Here at church there is as much bustle as there is at home. The choir would love to squeeze in some more rehearsing before the big day, and soon this place will be transformed from its Advent purple to its Christmas white, with the mandatory poinsettias, of course. But other than all that, the checklist of Christmas preparations…