Advent 1 — HOPE

Dear God,

As we begin our Advent pilgrimage,

grant us the courage to hope.

Hope for your presence,

Hope for your peace,

Hope for your promise.

Amen.

 Now let’s be honest!  For many people, Christmas is a busy, hurried lostness; it is confusion, bedlam, uproar.  This is a fact.  Now I don’t want to waste one minute fussing about that.  We all know it well enough.  Besides, there is too much good news to proclaim – - the good news that God speaks in spite of the uproar, above the noise.  This is what Christmas is about- – a light shines in the darkness.  God breaks into our confusion, our lostness and makes Himself known to us through Jesus Christ.

 This busyness, this bustle at Christmas is nothing new.  It has been with us always.  Remember the ingredients of the first Christmas in Bethlehem:  a crowded inn, a stable, barnyard smells, a census, political intrigue, soldiers, a busy city, self-centeredness, pushing, haste, confusion, and then after Jesus was born, the murder of little babies.

 Don’t you see?  The great message of Christmas is that our confusion, our  lostness cannot drown out the voice of God.  Bedlam cannot defeat Bethlehem!  The light shines in darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.  God comes and meets us right where we are.  His word becomes flesh.  He breaks into our lives, into our uproar, into our lostness, into our busyness and makes Himself known as the Light of the World, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace.  He comes to us as Comforter, Savior, Messiah.  He brings to us a fresh start, a clean slate, a new covenant. 

 Prayer:  O, God, our Redeemer, break into our bedlam and bring Bethlehem.  We pray in the name of the Christ Child.  Amen