SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, November 29, 2020

Dear Friends in Christ –

“Advent asks us not to treat this time differently, but to live in time differently altogether.” - Karoline Lewis

Here’s the question as we begin this annual journey together: Is any amount of time long enough?

Is there any behavior that we can change or strengthen that is sufficient to prepare us for God’s intrusion into and disruption of our lives and Jesus' mission to reclaim us?

Then again, aren’t our lives disrupted enough? If it’s the divine purpose to rattle us out of complacency, hasn’t that already been achieved through COVID, political rancor, and climate change? Maybe not. I get so annoyed at myself when I think that Jesus had any other purpose than to love us and reveal to us the right life. Yep, there is a right life, the one described last week that allows us to live – truly live. This has nothing to do with portfolios and little to do with achievement.

It isn’t contingent on our schedules nor dependent on vaccines. We commemorate the most important and significant event in the whole course of human history. God came once and will come again with “the same silence and the same devastating humility into any human heart ready to receive him.”

Friends, may we use this time with holy purpose to look beyond the prose and the poetry. May the first visit of our God be known and God’s constant return welcomed.

Amen –