Sitting in Darkness
Advent 1: Hope, Year C
Becky Robbins-Penniman
We understand Jeremiah’s words of promise and hope. We want THEM to be true: God will send someone to ensure we live in safety. We easily can lift our voices with the psalmist’s and ask God to thwart the treacherous and be compassionate to us. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians are just lovely. Who doesn’t like to be praised and told we’re a source of joy?
But this reading from Luke? What are we supposed to do with that? Where’s the Merry Christmas and goodwill to all people in that? Ho Ho Ho. It’s threatening and awful and not what we want to hear from Jesus. As we recoil from the dire images Jesus is painting, keep in mind that just two days after describing them, he will be tortured and executed by the religious and political elite of the day. At his death, Scripture reports that planets and heavenly bodies shook, and people fainted from fear and foreboding; the disciples fled and hid. So, as Advent begins, we are being asked to consider seriously the very nature of the god we say is coming.
Read the full sermon HERE.
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