First Sunday of Advent - Jeremiah 33:14-16

Although clergy like myself enjoy describing the meaning of the season of Advent each year, to most of us Advent is simply the season right before Christmas.  For children especially it is the time of building anticipation for Christmas morning.  It is that period of time when they write letters to Santa, tell parents what they are wishing for this Christmas, and allow their hopes to build for that one magnificent present that will bring untold joy and happiness.

 That child’s understanding of Advent seems more than adequate to me this year.  The season of Advent is indeed a time of hope and anticipation. It is indeed a time when we eagerly await a present that will bring joy and happiness.  And what we anticipate at Advent is the return of what the world first knew at Christmas- the coming of Christ into the world.

 On this first week of Advent, we are focusing on hope.  A hope that God’s justice and righteousness, God’s joy and peace, will be fully known here and now. In the world we live in, one so marked by injustice, by war, and by poverty, holding to these hopes is an audacious act.  Yet we are able to hold on to this audacious hope because our hope is not in the world, it is not in ourselves, it is in our God. In the words of our sermon text this week from Jeremiah, “The LORD is our righteousness.”  God has promised to bring about Her kingdom and during Advent we kindle our hope around this promise and we remember how God has been faithful to Her promises in the past.

 Rev. Andrew Greenhaw