Looking Ahead to December 2, 2007 -- 1st Sunday of Advent

The Scripture readings for this week all come from the book of Isaiah:

• Isaiah 2:1-5
• Isaiah 35:1-10
• Isaiah 11:1-10

The hymns for this week are:

• Advent Hope (insert)
• #2 Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
• #9 People Look East
• #481 Sent Forth by God’s Blessing

The theme for this week is Christmas is waiting and hope.

Early thoughts/teasers: What are we waiting for? Is our waiting marked by hope? Anxiety? Fear?

Waiting seems to fill a large portion of our lives. We wait for Dr appointments, we wait for our children, we wait for holidays. We wait and wait and wait.

But in Advent we talk about a different type of waiting. In Advent we wait for the world to be changed. Just read those Isaiah passages, they are certainly talking about a changed world.

So what are the changes we look for? Peace instead of war/violence. Justice, a just society (to use Trudeau's term), where all have what they need. And certainly here in Northwestern Ontario we are waiting for good economic news.

But how do we wait? When we desperately want, nay need, the world to change how do we wait? IS it passive, letting things come to us? Is it actively trying to make a difference? Is it a waiting with overtones of "it will never come" or is it expectant "any day now"?

Advent calls us to wait with hope instead of despair. Faith calls us to trust in the promise expressed best by Julian of Norwich 600 years ago: "All will be well, all will be well, all manner of things be well". We wait for the changing of the world in ways big and small. We wait for peace, for justice, for good news, for the announcement of liberation and salvation for all people.

The challenge is to be hope-filled and non-anxious while we wait.
--Gord