The First Sunday of Advent

Before I start my actual post, I want to take a second and be brutally honest and extremely vulnerable. I love Christmas and Advent more than words can express; however, there is never a time when I am more sad or miss being a pastor than this season. Everything I loved about being a pastor is wrapped up in the Advent season: good (easy to prepare) messages, great music, tons of fellowship and lots of food and celebration. I miss being a Methodist. I miss being a Pastor. I miss the two congregations I had the honor and privilege of serving... I am very sad today and it seems very alone. 

Sad rant over.

Isaiah 9:3-6 You have enlarged the nation
       and increased their joy;
       they rejoice before you
       as people rejoice at the harvest,
       as men rejoice
       when dividing the plunder.
 4 For as in the day of Midian's defeat,
       you have shattered
       the yoke that burdens them,
       the bar across their shoulders,
       the rod of their oppressor.
 5 Every warrior's boot used in battle
       and every garment rolled in blood
       will be destined for burning,
       will be fuel for the fire.
 6 For to us a child is born,
       to us a son is given,
       and the government will be on his shoulders.
       And he will be called
       Wonderful Counselor, ^[b] Mighty God,
       Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Today is indeed the first Sunday of Advent. The Sunday of Hope. God's promises never fail and are always present to the believer. Advent is all about our hope rooted in the promise that was fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The incarnate Christ is still where all of our hope is and shall ever more remain. 

Isaiah trusted in a promise he never saw fulfilled. The promise turns back hope of new life and freedom and Isaiah new that. We have seen God's promise of a savior but this season gives us a special time to reflect on how he came the first time and the promise that he will return again.

Isaiah was proclaiming God's promises; are you?

Are we truly prepared for the greatness of this promise? God still comes to us all the time. We have the Holy Spirit to come to us. To light the Advent candle is to say in the face of all that suggest to the contrary that God is still alive! God is still the Lord of this world and because of that All will be well. Furthermore we believe those promises to be true in a world that would beg us to believe they are not. 

Today's candle was hope. Hope is precisely that, a vision of a life that guides itself by God's promise, irrespective of whether the situation looks optimistic or pessimistic at any given time. 

Advent is about joyful anticipation of the coming of the Lord. It is the joyful anticipation of the realization of a promise and the actuation of that same promise. It is hope fulfilled! We can count on the promise and hope of God. How great is that?! Advent gives us a special opportunity to reflect on God's promises and his fulfillment of his promises.