My thoughts on Advent Sunday

(image from southbear.com)

Today is Advent Sunday and we will light the first candles in our Advent wreaths at the chapels in the circuit here this week.  We have a special liturgy which we will use over the weeks, which brings us closer and closer to Christmas.

I am taking the service in a nearby chapel this morning, the second time I have been there, and the crowd are lovely, so I am looking forward to seeing them all again.

Not surprisingly, I am going to be talking with them about the theme of "waiting".  

"Waiting" can be such a passive thought - think of the connotations of the word - waiting rooms [waiting for appointments, or trains to come along], playing the waiting game [waiting for someone's decision or an outcome of something] or even those royal ladies-in-waiting [who wait upon someone else's needs].  It is all very passive.

We are called to be active in our wait for Christ's return, though; we can't sit patiently and wait - there is work to be done on earth, a message to be told, and the gospel to be spread, so that when the train comes into the station bearing Christ, that station is absolutely packed out with people waiting to see him and get on the train with him!

I will also be sharing the thought that no one mentions God's waiting in all of this very often.  God has waited generations for all his people to turn to Him, and is still waiting patiently and faithfully for us.  As I said a few weeks ago, my great grandfather was preaching the gospel three generations ago, and the message is the same for me now as I begin my own preaching journey - God loves us, and He wants us to open our Hearts and our Lives to Him.