While We Wait: The First Sunday of Advent

Post date: Nov 29, 2019 7:1:9 PM

Grace and peace to you!

I hope your Thanksgiving was a day where you paused to be grateful for the many ways God shows up in your life. And now that the cooking, eating, and communing with friends and family is over, it’s time — no, not to shop — but to wait.

Wait — as this Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent. It is the moment in the liturgical year when we look forward in anticipation to Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love coming into our world with the birth of the Christ child. Every year we celebrate Advent, I’m always in awe that, as one commentator said, “God’s will for justice, righteousness, and peace is made flesh in the weakest of human creatures, a little baby.” And that God chose to show us how much God loves us through messy, painful childbirth; by putting on flesh and becoming one of us. The unbelievable miracle — the surprise — is that God trusted us enough to take care of God’s self in the form of this helpless baby. That to me is the very definition of amazing love.

But, we can’t rush to the baby yet. First, we must wait.

Wait for hope to be born.

I look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday at 10:30 AM as we begin the journey of waiting and then finally following the star to a dusty, smelly stable. Dan Pannebaker will be our worship leader; Deborah Shields will be our featured soloist with the song, “Morning Star;” and the Joyful Noise Adult Choir will sing the Offertory, “I Come with Joy.” I will be preaching from Isaiah 2.1-5 and Matthew 24.33-44 and my sermon title is Faithful Waiting. Also, we will gather around God’s table of hope and grace and celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. After worship, we will have our First Sunday brunch with a free will offering taken to support the ministries of the church.  

I pray that as we begin our Advent together you will experience this very familiar story  in a different way. I pray this journey will change you, surprise you, and as it does, may you carry into the world the hope, peace, joy, and love — Oh, always the love! — that Christ brings.

In gratitude for the joy of being your Pastor and the holy call of loving you,

Pastor Trish