Isaiah 40:1-5
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her penalty is paid ...
A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
The theme for the first Sunday in Advent is always HOPE. Did you notice how often the word “shall” appeared in this reading? Every valley SHALL be lifted up, the uneven ground SHALL become level, the glory of the Lord SHALL be revealed, all people SHALL see it together. There is no uncertainty in what Isaiah is saying here, it’s “go ahead and hold on to your hopes because this WILL happen.” And that hope is still ours today.
How could we possibly move into waiting for the promises of Christmas without a goodly helping of hope? And if ever there has been a year — in modern times at least — that needed hope, this one would be it.
We’ve had a year of horrible, hate-filled politics. The lives of whole classes of God’s people have been repeatedly devalued and degraded, families torn apart, economies casually destroyed — and all that was before “the ‘rona” hit us and looks to be destroying the social bonds that once held us as one people, together.
What is it you hope for? What is it you long for this Advent season in this horrible year? What part of the promises given us by the prophets and by the One who walked among us do you most wish to see come to its completion? What do you hope for among the gifts of Christmas? This is the season of hope. Can you still find that hope within you?
I think we’ve made it this far because deep within each human soul — often without us knowing it — is a small flickering flame of hope. Sometimes that flame burns brightly and sometimes it’s dim and faint — but it’s still there and is still burns. The flame is our hope that the promises are real — the hope that no matter how many times we fail ourselves and each other that promise remains real. A promise that there is goodness, there is decency. That we can and will one day live together in the peace of God’s love.
This is the promise as each Christmas rolls around again — that God’s love, in human form, is born again and again and again into this needy world. We spend these four weeks of Advent each year being reminded that we are not abandoned, not alone — that the love of God that came to us in Jesus is real and is for us and will not ever be taken from us.
This is what Advent season is about — a time to turn our focus from the problems around us and to center instead on that hope inside us all. It’s a time to be reminded that the promise is strong and unbreakable. Even in the form of a helpless newly-born child, it cannot be destroyed or taken from us.
So look within yourself and let that flame of hope bring light, within and without. Let that promise shine around you, let it shine for your brothers and sisters and radiate hope into a dark and struggling world, for then, as Isaiah assures us in today's reading, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.”
This is an important part of the promise – not just that the promise is real but that we will see it together. In this time of non-stop quarreling and division that word, together, may be the most beautiful part of the promise.
“Come, O long expected Jesus, born to set your people free,” Come, and fill us once again with hope.
How could we possibly move into waiting for the promises of Christmas without a goodly helping of hope? And if ever there has been a year — in modern times at least — that needed hope, this one would be it.
We’ve had a year of horrible, hate-filled politics. The lives of whole classes of God’s people have been repeatedly devalued and degraded, families torn apart, economies casually destroyed — and all that was before “the ‘rona” hit us and looks to be destroying the social bonds that once held us as one people, together.
What is it you hope for? What is it you long for this Advent season in this horrible year? What part of the promises given us by the prophets and by the One who walked among us do you most wish to see come to its completion? What do you hope for among the gifts of Christmas? This is the season of hope. Can you still find that hope within you?
I think we’ve made it this far because deep within each human soul — often without us knowing it — is a small flickering flame of hope. Sometimes that flame burns brightly and sometimes it’s dim and faint — but it’s still there and is still burns. The flame is our hope that the promises are real — the hope that no matter how many times we fail ourselves and each other that promise remains real. A promise that there is goodness, there is decency. That we can and will one day live together in the peace of God’s love.
This is the promise as each Christmas rolls around again — that God’s love, in human form, is born again and again and again into this needy world. We spend these four weeks of Advent each year being reminded that we are not abandoned, not alone — that the love of God that came to us in Jesus is real and is for us and will not ever be taken from us.
This is what Advent season is about — a time to turn our focus from the problems around us and to center instead on that hope inside us all. It’s a time to be reminded that the promise is strong and unbreakable. Even in the form of a helpless newly-born child, it cannot be destroyed or taken from us.
So look within yourself and let that flame of hope bring light, within and without. Let that promise shine around you, let it shine for your brothers and sisters and radiate hope into a dark and struggling world, for then, as Isaiah assures us in today's reading, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.”
This is an important part of the promise – not just that the promise is real but that we will see it together. In this time of non-stop quarreling and division that word, together, may be the most beautiful part of the promise.
“Come, O long expected Jesus, born to set your people free,” Come, and fill us once again with hope.
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