photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unspalsh
Happy New Year!
Many of us are ready for a new year considering what 2020 has been like! Well, here it is! November 29 is the first Sunday of Advent -- which makes it New Year's Day for the Christian Calendar.
Each of the weeks of Advent traditionally represents a special attitude of faith -- hope, peace, joy, and love. This year it seems particularly appropriate that the first week of Advent is hope!
Romans 1-5
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
As 2020 comes to an end, we are ready for this COVID-time to pass us by. We are ready to move beyond our fears and isolation. We are ready, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, to "obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isaiah 35:10b)
The Sighing Will Flee Away
Expectant, as one who hopes
Who hopes against hope
Who hopes for fullness when hungry
visions when blind
music when deaf
strength when fearful
wholeness when broken
friendship when a stranger
laughter when sighing
So when the long-expected comes
The sighing will flee away
Have a blessed Advent, a time of hope, of true hope!
This year three of the leaders of Colchester Christian congregations joined together to celebrate and meditate on each aspect of Advent. Each episode will be broadcast on LCATV at 5:pm each Sunday afternoon in Advent, starting November 29th. We hope you enjoy the first episode -- Hope!
You can also view online by following this link: https://lcatv.org/ecumenical-advent-series-0001.
Peace be with you,
Pastor Russ