First sunday of Advent - HOPE

I write this at 8:30 Sunday morning and soon I will be in the car driving to church.  We will live stream at 10 AM and have a short "in person" service at 11:15.  We celebrate Advent and today is about HOPE - waiting for the light.

As I showered this morning I thought about what I would say as a communion meditation.  It is clear to me that our hope is based on our memory.  The Psalmists often write about God's deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt.  As we struggle in the present, we remember God's protection in the past and trust that it is here today.  In the same way, when we come to the Lord's Table we remember that "on the night that he was betrayed" Jesus shared himself with the disciples with the bread and the cup and in essence said - "I am with you" - as you remember me in these symbols.  That's probably what I am going to say.

As I remember back two years ago, as Chuck was declining and eventually dying I had a very clear sense that God was with me.  I remember sitting on the couch and looking at the Christmas tree and just knowing.  Just knowing that God was with me.  Emmanuel - God is WITH us.

So we begin Advent 2020 - in the dark days of a pandemic that continues to surge.  Our political scene continues to be chaotic and my grief is still present.  And so is God.  That is my faith, my trust, my hope.

Here are some readings on HOPE

 

 

Because when all is said and done,
the last word is Immanuel — God With Us.
— Isaiah 8:10, The Message

 

Hope and Fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Invite one to stay. Invite one to stay.
— Maya Angelou from Sacred Threshold by Paula D’Arcy

 

Hope, like every virtue, is a choice that becomes a practice that becomes spiritual muscle memory. It’s a renewable resource for moving through life as it is, not as we wish it to be.
— Krista Tippett from Becoming Wise 

 

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail. I try to increase the power God has given me to see the best in everything and every one, and make that Best a part of my life.

— Helen Keller from Optimism