This is the first week of Advent, the first week in the church year, the season starting over again - so happy new year!
We, here in Canada, are living with short, dark winter days, when the sun sets around here before 5 pm.
For many , Advent is a season of candles, of small lights in the darkness.
Advent is a beginning, but it also feels more like the end of the year. For many, it's a time of great expectation, and runaway consumerism, and, for those who are involved in leading ministries in a local church, a lot of work to do!
Entering into this season of Advent is like the beginning of a race: you are ready, eager, except you are not ready. There is too much going on. And yet, Advent comes, the new church year comes again: every year, starting 4 Sundays before Christmas Day, reminding us that this season is not about what we bring to it. No, it is about God coming to us, about God being born here on earth, in Jesus.
Advent always begins with hope:
- not wishful thinking
- not crossing our fingers type of hope
but hope that is rooted and grounded in the firm promises of God.
- Hope that is real.
- Hope that is for us as individuals and as the people of God.
- Hope that is for the whole world, for all people.
As the days grow darker, it seems to echo the world we live in. We wake to darkness, we leave our homes in darkness, by dinnertime, the darkness has fallen again. Darkness is all around us. We see it as we watch the news. The light from our TVs and monitors glares hopelessness through the endless cycle of doom and gloom news, of children being torn from their homes, women being oppressed and abused, injustices, and nations at war. You don’t have to look far to see despair and hopelessness that can so easily take root in our hearts.
The invitation at the beginning of Advent is to lament the brokenness of the world around us. Scripture tells us that all of creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22). Labour groans are deep. The hope of a woman in labour, as she feels each painful contraction, is that there is life on the other side.
Paul is reminding us that as followers of Christ we grieve, we groan with creation, but through those groans, when we enter into lament, we are lead to our one, unshakable hope (Psalm 102:27). The prophet Isaiah declares, that even in the midst of darkness “The Lord will reach out his hand a second time and reclaim the surviving remnant” (Isaiah 11:11).
Our hope is that our Savior came once into darkness and he will come again into our darkness.
We may feel weak, or weary, or vulnerable, but against all odds, God has and is breaking in.
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