Advent Hope

By Rev. Kerry Smith

The first Sunday of Advent is about hope.

Writer and spiritual director Kathy Escobar says “hope requires risk and sacrifice. Working against our reflexes to run, hide, self-protect, and self-medicate, hope requires believing in what is unseen. It means we will hurt. It means we will be afraid. It will mean taking steps on an unfamiliar path.”

It is unfamiliar and uncomfortable to wait and watch.

The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming” or “arrival.” Advent originated in the fifth-century and began as a six-week period of preparation for Christmas. This “Winter Lent,” was a penitential time with fasting three days a week!

What would it look like in your life to spend the next few weeks watching, waiting, and not rushing to the joy of Christmas? How can you sit with the waiting and the watching?

May we spend the next few weeks preparing for the birth of Christ.

May this be a time to rediscover how we can live our lives in awareness of God’s presence and in response to God’s love.