Monday, the first week of Advent, 2009

Today's Readings:
AM Psalm 5, 6; PM Psalm 10, 11
Amos 3:1-11; 2 Pet. 1:12-21; Matt. 21:12-22

Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea”, it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’ Matthew 21:21-22

As we enter into Advent this year, I ask you to prayerfully consider a couple important, deep, new beginning and possibly life changing questions. How is it that you will wait and anticipate the Nativity of our Lord and Savior to enter into your life and into the world in which we live? How is it that you anticipate the Nativity of our Lord and Savior to enter into the future life of this church? Remembering the words of Bishop von Rosenberg, as you enter into this Advent season, don’t sing “Auld Lang Syne” and don’t make resolutions. But listen to our Lord. Are you ready to listen to whatever answer that God gives to you as you consider these two questions? A word of warning…be careful what you prayerfully request! Keep in mind that there is a power in this world greater than you, God the Father, creator, sustainer and redeemer of this world. Remember that God does answer prayer. But be careful! The desire and wish that you pray to be filled may be filled with exactly what you need.

Remember in the first Advent, the Israelites prayed for a King, a messiah, one who would turn evil on its head and over-throw the evil rulers of the world. They prayed for an end to their persecution and for a new beginning in their relationship with God. Inevitably their hope for a “new beginning” had to be preceded by an ending. Change had to occur. So in our hope for a new beginning, what will transform, what will change, what will evolve as our life together is formed by our answers to these probing questions that I have asked, How is it that you will wait and anticipate the Nativity of our Lord and Savior to enter into your life and into the world in which we live? How is it that you anticipate the Nativity of our Lord and Savior to enter into the future life of this church? The answer to that prayer of the Israelites was Jesus of Nazareth and the world has never been the same since. As we live into our “new beginning”, what will come to an end, what will transform, change and evolve as we live into the answer to our prayer for a closer, stronger, more faithful and more honest relationship with God, through Jesus Christ

In the words of the great Advent hymn written by Charles Coffin and found in the Lutheran hymnal, “The Advent of our God shall be our theme for prayer; Come, let us meet him on the road and place for him prepare.” AMEN!

Sunday, the first week of Advent, 2009

Today's readings:
AM Psalm 146, 147; PM Psalm 111, 112, 113
Amos 1:1-5,13-2:8; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Luke 21:5-19

By your endurance you will gain your souls. Luke 21:19

As we enter into Advent, we enter a new beginning where we are to listen to our God as we wait with anticipation the coming of our Lord, our Messiah, Jesus the Christ. Fortunately for us, we get this new beginning to try these things again, because heaven knows we have failed miserably at listening to our Lord. In the world in which we live, we have become so wrapped up in the hustle and bustle that we have lost sight of what the word “wait” means. And“coming of our Lord”? We know exactly what He will look like and how He will act and who He will accept! In the world in which we live, in the culture in which we as citizens of the United States of America live, move and have our being, in the consumerism of the secular Christmas season, we do much to create and facilitate the coming of the Lord in our image. We forget that we were created to live, move, have our being and love in God’s image.

Thank God, that Advent brings to us a new beginning so that we can try once again to live into the reality that we are here to serve God, instead of being served by God. Thank God, that Advent brings us a new beginning to try once again to live into the reality that we are here to anticipate the Nativity of our Lord and Savior into our lives and into the world in which we live. Thank God, that Advent brings us an new beginning to try once again to live into the reality that we as Christians have a hope-filled future if we live into the hope that “when we see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory, we can stand up and raise our heads because our redemption, our salvation, is drawing near.”

We need a new beginning because in the end, we can't do it. God, through his love and mercy offers to us a new beginning, another chance, or shall I say, forgiveness for where we have fallen short. It is in the hope of a new begining and the joy of Advent that we can find the endurance of our faith, through ups and downs, through trials and triumphs, so that we will gain, or at least rediscover, our souls.