First Sunday in Advent (2022)
It's that time of the year again. When the end is near, we still have the craze of the holidays yet before us. The rush, the insanity, the frenzied cacophony. The world dives in ... but the Christian church pauses. This is a holy time. This is a time of reflection and preparation. Today, the First Sunday of Advent. The Sunday of Hope. I think today is the Sunday when the church would look back into history to see the predictions, what was written in the Jewish books that foretell His coming? In the midst of their agony and difficult lives under the authority of the Romans, they had hope. We, today, are caught up in anger and hatred, with war and struggle we are surrounded by. Were the ancient Jewish people caught up in similar? They were in poverty. There was sickness and oppression. It was not a good life, and it would put our struggles today to shame. But ... they had hope. They believed someone was going to come and bring redemption to them. Do we have hope? not like them. In ...