Tag: Advent 1

(November 29, 2020) “Almost Christmas: Hope”

from Isaiah 9:1-7

Perhaps more than ever we are desperate for Christmas to mean something more than gifts under the tree and time spent with family. What if, in this season of Advent, we didn’t just go through the motions of preparing for Christmas…what if we didn’t celebrate an “Almost Christmas,” but instead gave ourselves fully to the expectation…to the anticipation of what Christ’s coming means for this world?

In our first week of Advent we are invited to wrestle with the question, “What are you hopeful FOR…and more importantly, who or what are you placing your hope IN?” Is your hope rooted in something eternal, or is your hope misplaced, leaving you desperate? Shackled? In the dark? Isaiah reminds us that into that darkness of our misplaced hope, light shines.

w/ Vern Collins

(December 1, 2019) “Looking for Light: The World Jesus is Born Into”

1st Sunday of Advent

from Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 and John 3:19-20

Advent is meant to be a season of hope. Hope that God has not left us alone. Hope that things can change. Hope that this is not all there is…

Throughout Scripture the work of God, the presence of God, the coming of Christ are all associated with Light. We mark the season of Advent with the lighting of candles to remind us of this Light that has come and is coming…but can we truly appreciate this Light unless we are willing to understand the darkness into which it has dawned?

w/ Vern Collins