Pastor’s Corner – December 2019

“Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!” — Psalm 90:13

The Christian calendar begins, not with January 1st, but instead with the first Sunday in Advent.  It’s an interesting decision that the early church fathers made in doing this.  Interesting  because the Christian year begins not with resolutions and activity, but with waiting.  Advent is an intentional season of preparation and pause, a time to reflect and prepare for the celebration of the coming of the Lord’s Messiah, Jesus Christ.  There is great wisdom in this decision, particularly for our current times.  We live in a culture of hurry and rush and activity, the last thing we want or like to do is wait for anything.

By starting the year with a season of waiting, we are invited to settle into a different rhythm of life and living, a rhythm that is ultimately about trust.  Trusting in the God who created Time, trusting in the One who has set His plans in motion and will see them through, trusting that there is One who knows and understands more than we do, trusting that He is good and that He is love.

So the Christian calendar begins with a reminder that there is a holiness and a righteousness in waiting.  But there is a hard-ness and challenge in waiting as well.  The Psalmists cry out, with great regularity, “How long, O Lord?”  Even as they wait on the Lord, they express their frustration, their discontent.  And in that we are shown that there is such a thing as a holy discontent.

But as much as we are waiting to celebrate the birth of our Savior, the season of Advent points to an even more significant event, an event most of us usually forget is yet to and actually is going to happen.  The Hebrews waited over 500 years for the Messiah to come the first time.  We’ve been waiting nearly 2,000 years for him to return.  May our lives be lived with the faith that comes from knowing our Savior’s return is imminent, with the hope that comes from knowing that what is broken will soon be made right, and with the love for those who don’t yet know that their Messiah has already come once and will come again.

“He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” — Revelation 22:20

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison


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