Advent begins this Sunday, a new season of the church year that marks the weeks of preparation before we experience the incarnation of Christ on Christmas Eve. (Check out our Advent theme video for what we’re up to this year.) Each Sunday of Advent has a different theme, and the first Sunday is that of Hope. Consider the words of poet Jericho Brown:
Hope is the opposite of desperation—it’s not as comfortable as certainty, and it’s much more certain than longing. It is always accompanied by the imagination, the will to see what our physical environment seems to deep impossible. Only the creative mind can make use of hope. Only a creative people can wield it.
We enter Advent on the wings of hope, imagining—and thus beginning to create together—a new reality. God’s hope for justice and love “on earth as in heaven” has us envisioning a world where every person is safe, healthy and loved, no matter where they live, what they look like, or how much money they make. These are the “tidings of comfort and joy” that lead us to yearn for the coming Christ, Emmanuel, “God with us”. Confident in this soon-to-be reality (at least in cosmic terms), we are not made hopeless by the near-term challenges we face, but we do what is needed to prepare our homes, hearts, lives and worship for the love of God to be born among us, soon and very soon. Let us wield hope for such times as this, and watch for ways to prepare together as the church. Happy Advent!