So yesterday was the first Sunday in Advent. Maybe though the weather, power cuts, coughs and colds which have kept sleep at arms length mean Advent had a bumpy start. Maybe leading others through Advent when it feels the furthest thing from your own heart right now is a weight you don’t know how to put down and ask others to walk with you. Maybe questions over Christmas plans A, B and C for church services, ones own family Christmas plans all feel rather futile as we wait to see what decisions get made and how much notice is given. Energy spent now on things that may not get to happen. Weariness that you were hoping would be bolstered by the supposed festive joyful start of Advent feels only further dented.
This morning as I read the introduction in the Advent Reader I am using for this year Chris Wright reminds us that ‘advent’ means ‘a coming’ and we celebrate not just the coming of Christ as a baby but as the Holy One who came, is coming daily in our lives and will come. So if you trying to get it right this year and already it feels like the first candle of ‘hope’ has gone out let us hold firm to the truth that God has already come, is coming to us daily and is to come.
As I shared last week in Philippians 2 Jesus has been here since the beginning. Christmas is simply Him stepping into the middle of His coming and being. Don’t let the weight of external expectations diminish for you the truth of the One who holds all time and all coming and being in His hands.
Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV)
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
Praying you can sit with these truths this Advent and let them bring you hope and grace. In Jesus name we ask.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 