Sunday 28
November, First Sunday of Advent
Psalm 25.1-9│Jeremiah 33.14-16│1 Thessalonians3.9-13│Luke 21.25-36
The in-between
‘It
is Advent,’ Fleming Rutledge writes, ‘the deepest place in the church year.’
Advent is the space in which the church exists. Or rather, we exist between two
advents: Jesus Christ has come once before, and Jesus Christ will come again.
As
we read the passages for today, we’re invited to reflect on our own situations.
The Gospel is a crisis text: it speaks of the second advent of Christ as a time
of great distress, when ‘people will faint from fear and foreboding’. With an
ongoing global pandemic, political unrest around the globe, environmental
disasters, this text sounds uncomfortably familiar. Taken together, the
readings offer a collection of stabilizing practices for destabilizing times: observe
the signs around you, be on guard, pray for strength, let go of the weight of
sin and the worries of this life, increase in love for one another and for all.
Which of these stands out to you? Are there walls that you would like to break
down? Where do you find hope?
Keeping
Advent is a way of ‘being in the in-between’. Each one of us has areas of life
where we feel in-between, where we haven’t reached the place of stability we
long for: whether that’s in our relationships, family, employment, purpose,
health, finances. Perhaps one of the practices above can provide support.
Especially in crisis, we wait, watch, and practice paying attention to the
small stirrings of the Kingdom of God, confident that God will strengthen our hearts
with holiness.
So
we pray in the in-between, Almighty God, as your kingdom dawns, turn us from
the darkness of sin to the light of holiness, that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Annie Bolger
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