The First Sunday of Advent

On Sunday, we enter the season of Advent, or the Church’s four-week-long season of preparation for our celebration of the birth of Jesus.  We’ll begin the season exploring a passage from the prophet Jeremiah who, in the face of devastation, imagines an alternative reality: the restoration of Israel, the practice of justice and righteousness, and the flourishing of life in the land that God has promised.  Not because of any strength or wisdom or intelligence that Jeremiah possesses, but because, even if he doesn’t know when or how God will act, Jeremiah trusts in the goodness and the faithfulness of God.

Advent is about learning how to live with hope when there seems to be a great chasm or gap between what is and what we wish could be.  It’s about living each and every day trusting that God will finish what God has started – even if we can’t see when or how.  The good news of Christmas, the good news for which we watch, and wait, and prepare, is that Jesus, Mary’s son, is the righteousness of God in the flesh.  He is our healing and salvation.