“A Single Light – The Light of Hope”

Here are my thoughts for the 1^st Sunday in Advent (Year A), 1 December 2013.

I am doing something different during Advent. Back in 2005 and re-posted it in 2011 (“The Candles of Advent”) I wrote a liturgy but never got to use it. I had hoped to write another liturgy that was a little more complete for this Advent season but that fell through. It’s not that I don’t have anything against the traditional liturgy that we use but when you use the same stuff every year, it loses its freshness and, sometimes, its meaning.

So, I am including my thoughts about the lighting of the Advent Candles with my thoughts for the lectionary readings for this year’s Advent. I do think that the lectionary readings for this 1^st Sunday of Advent (Isaiah 2: 1 – 5, Romans 13: 11 – 14, and Matthew 24: 36 – 44) speak to the hope that Christmas gives us, hope that reaches all and not just a select few.

We begin with an reading from the Old Testament, Proverbs 23: 18,

“There is surely a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off.”

In this world of darkness we light the single candle of hope.

The Advent Candles (Tune: Away in a Manger)

On the First Sunday of Advent

A candle is burning, a flame warm and bright;

A candle of Hope in December’s dark night.

While angels sing blessings from heav’n’s starry sky

Our hearts we prepare now, for Jesus is nigh.

A second reading about hope, from Jeremiah 29: 10 – 11,

“This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

Prayer – O God of Life and Hope and Promise, help us to remember that in lighting this candle, we begin to take away the darkness of our life. Help us to remember that in this little glimmer of life springs a new hope, a new promise that we are not alone and forgotten in this world. Help us to find ways to make the light of hope even brighter. Help us to see the path that leads to Christ, the true hope of the world. AMEN

It is always interesting reading the passages from the Bible that some say announce the “End Times”. As one interested in cosmology, I know that there will come a time when this world and this universe will end; it is a matter of the fuel supplying the sun running out. And this is far enough away in time to not matter much to me.

But there are those who see the “End Times” as coming in our own lifetime and coming as some cataclysmic event with death and destruction prevalent and only those select few with this viewpoint being the survivors.

I don’t doubt that the world could end in our lifetime in such a way but I don’t see it as the penultimate act of God as they do. And while there are no B-52 bombers loaded with nuclear weapons sitting at the end of the runways of various Air Force Bases ready to take off at a moment’s notice, I still think that we have the capability and the desire to destroy this world.

The passage from Isaiah for the 1^st Sunday in Advent is not about war, death and destruction but rather the opposite, of peace, life and rebuilding. It is about a new life, one in which all the people of this planet live in peace and, perhaps, harmony.

In Matthew, Jesus speaks of being vigilant. Again, those who want the end of the world use this as a notion for being armed and ready. But if we were to work as hard on building the peace as we seem to be preparing for war, wouldn’t the outcome be a little bit better?

What is it that Paul says? We can’t afford to waste a minute in frivolity and indulgence but rather working for Christ.

That’s why there is hope in this world today. Granted, in terms of the lights of the Advent wreath, it is a little bit on the dim side but there is still hope. We know that Christ is coming, not in final victory but to begin working towards that new life, that life that is filled with hope and promise. It is a life of peace, of joy, and of happiness, not war, death, and destruction.

Our challenge is much like the challenge Paul put before the Romans, to work to make it a possibility. We have lit one candle this day but if we all carried that light with us, the world would be ablaze with the hope found in Christ. That is the challenge we have, to take and multiply the light of hope in a world of darkness.