I pray that you have had a safe and blessed Thanksgiving. This first Sunday after Thanksgiving is the beginning of Advent; the first Sunday of a new liturgical year. The liturgical color for this season is royal blue.
Most folks refer to Advent as a time of preparation; but Advent is really a season of waiting. Each year, the liturgical calendar takes us on a journey that begins with reliving that first Advent. Hope, peace, joy and love respectively assigned to Advent’s four Sundays, guide our journey of waiting for Christ being born anew within us.
When we spiritually travel the Advent journey, even knowing the end of the story each advent has its own uniqueness. None of us anticipated that our 2020 Advent journey would be during a pandemic. So even when we wait, we admit there are some things that are not under our control. Most of us like to believe that we are in control. We imagine that we are masters of our destinies. And that is true to a point. However, there are some things that can’t be hurried, things for which we just have to wait. Things such as recuperation from surgery, the grief process, or living safely through a pandemic.
Shakespeare said, “How poor are they that have no patience. What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” John R. Claypool has wisely said, “Let’s face it, there are two kinds of reality in this world of ours. There are the things you have to work for, and there are the things you have to wait for.” Claypool is right. But we don’t want to wait.
We begin this journey with good news: “Advent is about waiting in hope.” That’s my sermon title for this Sunday after Thanksgiving, the First Sunday of Advent. Join us for worship at 11:30 AM this Sunday by Zoom or Facebook Live Stream as we begin reliving a season of preparation based on this week’s scripture, Isaiah 64:1-5 and Mark 13:33-37
About Author
