First Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2018

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Today, in Mercy, we begin our journey through Advent.  We will be accompanied by the great prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures.  We will walk with the saints and sinners of the Gospel. We will be comforted by God’s promises.

We will be in the company of all the Church here on earth and in heaven, as we wait once again for the astounding miracle of Christ’s birth.

Every year we make the journey – some of us for scores of times, some of us just beginning.  And every year, we open and stretch our hearts to hope that God will once again transform the world with Grace.

Jeremiah, in today’s first reading, shared such a hope:

The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and Judah.
In those days, in that time,
I will raise up for David a just shoot ;
he shall do what is right and just in the land.
In those days Judah shall be safe
and Jerusalem shall dwell secure;
this is what they shall call her:
“The LORD our justice.”

Change but a few “geographies” in the passage, and we are speaking of our own time. May we who have been blessed with the promise of Christ once again claim it during this Advent.  May we engage the grace being offered so that our world – and our own hearts – grow in justice, security and peace.

Music:: Comfort Ye My People from Handel’s Messiah – The English Concert, directed by Trevor Pinnock. Soloist: Kurt Streit