Join us this Sunday as we begin our Advent journey.

Do you know what the word ‘Advent’ means? It’s an old word, and it means “coming,” or “arrival.” Advent is the season when we look around at our world and see how badly we need God to arrive on the scene. We remember that God came to live among us once, and throughout this season we long for God to arrive again and make all things new. 

Here in the northern hemisphere, Advent begins in the dark. The days are short; it is getting colder outside; trees are bare and the earth is settling down into the quiet of winter. We remember the time, long ago, when God’s people were in the dark: there were no more prophets speaking God’s words to them, and they were ruled over by a cruel empire that worshiped its own emperor as a god. They sat in the dark, where it was hard to see how God’s promises to them would ever come true.

During this season, we notice the ways that we are still in the dark. We know that Jesus has come to us once to save; we do not know when he will come back to us and make everything right. We live in an in-between time, waiting and hoping and calling out to God: O come, Emmanuel, God who is with us, and be with us again. Even so, come Lord Jesus.