The season of Advent, which comes from the Latin word adventus meaning "coming" or "visit," begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. Advent is the beginning of the church year for Christians.
During Advent, we prepare for and anticipate the coming of Christ. We remember the longing of Jews for a Messiah and our own longing for and need of forgiveness, salvation and a new beginning. Even as we look back and celebrate the birth of Jesus in a humble stable in Bethlehem, we also look forward anticipating the second coming of Christ as the fulfillment of all that was promised by his first coming.
Light the 1st Advent Candle:
“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Psalm 122:1 NRSV)
We are glad. Whether we drove in or climbed up, whether we logged on or tuned in. We are glad to be here in this community, with this family. It is a place of joyful hope, of radical welcome. It is a place where, together, we can wait in wondrous anticipation of the kingdom to come.
“Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that God may teach us God’s ways and that we may walk in Gods paths’” (Isaiah 2:3 NRSV).
We light this candle as a sign of our hope, our joyous hope that we can be restored – our faith restored, our strength restored, our confidence restored, our joy restored as we watch and wait with all God’s people for the promise to be fulfilled.