From the Pastor

O come, divine Messiah; The world in silence waits the day when hope shall sing its triumph and sadness flee away. Dear Savior, haste! Come, come to earth, dispel the night and show your face, and bid us hail the dawn of grace.

The words are from an old French hymn that ushers in the season just beginning, and expresses what I believe to be a message of profound hope and joy. Advent is divided between our waiting for the coming of the Lord at the end of time, and a remembrance of the fact that he is already here. All in all, we acknowledge our continual need for the Lord in our personal lives and in the life of the world. We need peace. We need security. We need assurance of a world yet to be. And all our needs are met in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the One who was, who is, and who is to come.

The weeks ahead give us a great chance to both contemplate the place that God already has in our lives, and the continued need for an increase of his presence. God is always around us. He is already in our midst, but we fail to see him clearly. We all suffer from a type of blindness that is typically human, where we place ourselves before God and block our view of him. We want to be in charge, and we want to make the choices that we wish. As clarity of faith comes upon us through the experiences of our daily living, God becomes a bit more real. The passage of time can be a great teacher, if we allow it to be, and we can grow deeper in our awareness of ourselves, the world, … and our God.

The candles of the advent wreath will mark the passage of time during this holy season, and with just four weeks, our work is cut out for us. We can look to the candlelight added each week as a beacon that calls us forward in hope and trust. We can see the light as a reminder of the excited anticipation we can feel when we know that God is coming. This is not a season of fear, but of peace … peace in the knowledge of our God’s love and blessing in the past, and forever.

Happy Advent. May the time given us be used well in preparing for the coming of the Messiah, finding silence when we can, and sight in the dark.