Happy New Year!
Wait, what?! It’s November 29!
Welcome to the first Sunday of Advent. In the liturgical calendar, “Advent” (or the corresponding “Nativity Fast” in Eastern Christianity) marks the beginning of the year, not the end.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never needed a new year as badly as I do here at the end of 2020. So, I invite you to celebrate a new year, a new beginning, today on the first Sunday of Advent, where we light the “Hope” candle.
Last month, Bonnie and I were introduced to the expression, “It’s the hope that kills you.” There are times in 2020 when that has felt true, where things seemed to be getting better, only to get worse again. But that’s not the kind of Hope to which Advent points us.
Advent recalls Jesus entering into our hopelessness to establish his Kingdom, and it foreshadows his promise to return to fulfill that Kingdom. In calling us to be part of that Kingdom, he does not just ask us merely to have hope, but to be hope.
On this Sunday of Hope, standing at the beginning of a new year, of course we hope for an end to the pandemic, for reconciliation between people torn apart by disagreements, for things to go right. But whatever the new year brings, we are messengers and servants of the true Hope, who entered into our darkness and brought light, and who has promised to return to banish darkness forever.
God’s people are called to walk with Hope in the most hopeless of times, and to open up a myriad of pinholes in the darkness for Hope to shine through, sharing the light just as it was shared with us. In a world that is tired and broken, the beginning of Advent is an invitation for us to share the good news of fresh beginnings and promises of a world made right.
So, happy New Year!
Evan
No comments:
Post a Comment