Rector’s Reflection - December

Advent Hope

 “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”

I chose these lyrics from the hymn “O Holy Night” for our St. Mary’s Christmas card this year as a reminder that whatever our circumstances, however weary we may feel, we are animated by a thrill of hope and we can rejoice because God is always doing a new thing. Dawn breaks every morning, whether we can see it or not. Sometimes dawn is obscured by clouds. Sometimes we are preoccupied with other things and forget to look for it. Sometimes we simply rise too late to see it.

Our calling, particularly in Advent, is to be awake, to be alert for the signs of the coming day – the day of the Lord’s favor, according to the prophet Isaiah. The prophets point to God’s reign as shalom, health and wholeness throughout creation, the reconciliation of all things in God. Our hope is that the new creation is being born even now, in the words and actions of those who work for peace and health and wholeness and reconciliation.

That hope motivates us to be those people. Our current reality isn’t God’s dream, but because we have an inkling what that dream is, we want to dream it, too. There are voices in this world, powerful voices, that tell us our dreams are just dreams, that we need to wake up and see what’s real. When we proclaim the good news, we are telling them that we do see what they tell us is real, and we see beyond current reality. Our hope tells us the deepest reality, the one that is dawning and becoming, is God’s reign of love.

We need not wait until Christmas to be thrilled by hope. The new morning is always dawning.

Peace,

Pastor Kristine