GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,
Advent is not only a four-week exploration of waiting for a baby although some of you may be doing that kind of waiting. But for most of us Advent is a time to consider God’s coming in every way and time possible: in a meal, by a word, as a light, in the assembly gathered, as a complete surprise, following a long wait, suddenly, or as a child. We also wait for the coming of Christ and stir our holy imaginations for what that might look like.
As we wait, it is also a season of repentance – a time to look again at God and his coming to us. Daniel Berrigan in his poem Advent Credo, from Testimony: The Word Made Flesh, helps us to do just that – to look again and turn toward God.
Advent Credo
It is not true
that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—
This is true:
For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;
It is not true
that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction—
This is true:
I have come that they may have life,
and that abundantly.
It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever—
This is true:
Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.
It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule
the world—
This is true:
To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.
It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted,
who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers—
This is true:
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.
It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history—
This is true:
The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.
So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope.
Let us see visions of love and peace
and justice.
Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage:
Jesus Christ—the life of the world.
Look again in this Advent season of waiting, of repenting to see again how God comes to us.
Come Lord, Jesus.
Pastor Connie Spitzack
