Meaning of the Reading & Application for Today
Every holiday in the Armenian Church calendar has a period of fasting and preparation before it. The two greatest holidays of the Armenian Church, Easter and Christmas, likewise have the two longest periods of fasting and preparation.
This Sunday we begin the fifty-day preparation (Heesnag) before the great church holiday of Christmas. These days, the Christmas season has become a season of much anxiety as we frantically rush to complete the fiscal year and purchase gifts for family and friends.
The church’s understanding of Advent is quite different however, focusing not on all that what must provide, but trusting in how God provides for us. This change in focus away from us and toward God is the secret to reducing anxiety and stress. We are promised in today’s Gospel reading that if we do our part of praying, studying the bible, and putting our relationship with God first, God will do his part of blessing us and all our endeavors to be more joyful and fruitful then we could imagine.
This will also help us get the most of the Christmas season. Just like other things in life, the more we put into our spiritual lives the more we get out of it. As much as we empty and open our hearts and minds to God, the more room there is for Jesus to be born into the world yet again, bringing the true Spirit of Christmas alive in our hearts and homes.
Sunday School Bulletin Prepared by Children & Family Ministries
Selected Bible Reading
He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. (Lk 12:22-31)