At the end of the service in many churches the pastor will give a closing blessing based on Philippians 4:7,  “⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

I like the way it is translated in the more modern version, The Message.

^6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

         This week we focus on the promise of peace, real peace that we anticipate and celebrate in Advent.  God’s plan for restoring his creation is in process in spite of the evil we see trying to defeat us.  We don’t need to fret and worry.  God cares about his creation.  He cares enough to come himself and be with us– past, present and future.  His peace is not like the world gives and so it is hard to understand but as we learn to trust him and hold on to his promises, we have a peace that brings us a sense of wholeness and coming together for good even in the worst of times.  Let’s pray that Christ will displace worry in our hearts today and during this season as we leave our worries with him.  Blessings.

²³ Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,

²⁴ The Lord bless you and keep you;
²⁵ the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
²⁶ the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

²⁷ So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

Numbers 6:23-27

            In many churches at the close of the service, the pastor will use the blessing given to Aaron to bless the Israelites.  Parting blessings are important.  The language we were translating contained the tradition of walking with the guest part way home and then saying, “God go with you.”  The Swahili parting is “kwa heri”, go with blessing.  Peace is identified with God’s blessing.

         What is the blessing you would wish on your loved ones this Advent season?  We toast to people’s health and success.  We might send our children to school praying they pass a test.  We might send a spouse to work praying for wisdom to deal with a thorny challenge the person is facing.  Being at peace with ourselves, our world and our God is a good foundation for facing any challenge we experience today.  May God give you peace as you walk through week 2 of this Advent day!

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

  John 14:27

         Yesterday was the second Sunday in Advent and our theme for reflecting this week is PEACE.   As Jesus was leaving the Upper Room and headed to Gethsemane to pray before his arrest and crucifixion, he told his disciples that he was leaving them with peace.  That sounds to me like more than a pie-in-the-sky eternal reconciliation with God that gives us ways to deal with our anxiety about eternity.  That promise of eternal peace with God so that we do not need to fear death, is a huge promise we embrace.  Advent, though, also points us to a quality of peace that becomes part of our lives as we anticipate the miracle of the incarnation in Bethlehem.  God is not so angry about our “sin” that he cannot come close to us and walk with us.  He incarnated in the Christ child!  The Holy Spirit walks with us at all times, helping us to cope and trust in the midst of trauma and drama, even in places like Bethlehem.  We have present peace.  But we also have historical peace.  The evil one loves to remind me of my past failings and faults.  He loves to say I am unworthy of God’s peace.  He loves to remind me “my past will catch up with me.”  Advent is a time when we celebrate the coming babe that promises forgiveness for our past, promises power to live in the present, and promises an eternity of peace.  Advent reminds us that in the flurry and scurry of the season, we can have a deep internal peace.

         So let’s take a few minutes and create an acrostic for what peace means to you.  P is for _______.  E is for ______.  A is for ______, and E is also for ________.  Blessings as you lay your burdens at the manger.  That babe understands us.   Thank you, Lord.

         Tomorrow’s First Reading comes from the prophet Isaiah, speaking to Israel.  It starts with words made famous by Handle in “The Messiah” that is often played at Christmas. “Comfort, comfort my people.”  The theme for tomorrow is PEACE.  Advent, finding comfort from God through forgiveness for all the things we have done wrong and all the good we have not done, paves the road to peace.  Our iniquity, our wrongs, are pardoned.  That is worth celebrating.

40 Comfort, O comfort my people,
    says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that she has served her term,
    that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.

³ A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.

‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Mark 13:32

         Advent anticipates and prepares for the arrival of Christ as a babe in a manger in Bethlehem, historically as time to prepare for baptism – his arrival in our hearts, and then we look forward to his return to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth and make life right.  Some think that will be an end times scenario but for sure we will all walk through death and meet our creator.  Mark says no one, regardless of what the TV and authors and evangelists tell you, knows just when “that day” will come.

         Can you imagine what life would be like if we knew.  “End time sales” starting months if not years ahead would clog our media.  If we knew what day we were going to die for sure that would make us as nervous as setting our wedding date.  If we knew we were going to die by accident rather than cancer or in our sleep, letters of protest would clog heavenly mailboxes.  Studies could be done to see if all ethnicities died at the same rate or if ???  These are all silly mental rabbit holes we could slide down but the truth is that we don’t know when we will be called upon to meet the Lord.

          Not knowing when “that day” will come gives me hope.  I think it might be like looking at that present under the tree and hoping it is the special thing I wanted.  It seldom is but the not knowing adds anticipation to the future.  The difference is that for those who build relationship with God, do not need to fear being disappointed and do not need to fear death.  Perhaps it would be like opening a gift and receiving a beautifully needlepointed “Well done!”  Nobody knows “that day” but we know God fulfills his promises and if he cares enough to incarnate at Christmas, die at Good Friday, and resurrect on Easter, “that day” need not be feared.  Today may not be “that day” but Lord, help us to live “this day” faithfully serving you.  Blessings.

¹³ But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid,

 Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.

Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,

 and you will name him John.   Luke 1:13

         Week 1 of Advent focuses on hope.  God fulfills prophecy, his promises to people, as seen in the Christmas story.  The Christmas story is bigger than the babe in a manger in Bethlehem that we see in the crèches at this time.  It is an event that impacted many lives, even ours.  The Gospel of Luke tells us that there was an old couple that had lost hope of having children.  They were old.  The husband, Zechariah, a priest took his turn to serve at the temple and offer the sacrifice.  Elizabeth, his wife, was also of priestly lineage but old and barren.  Zechariah encounters an angel but Zechariah has his boundaries, his definitions of what God can and perhaps hasn’t done.  God has not given them a child, case closed.  He is living responsibly with his plight in life.  But sometimes God pushes the envelope and challenges us to see God’s hand working outside our expectations, our boundaries and definitions of how reality works.  The angel told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth were to become parents.

         Sometimes we become hardened in how we think God can and wants to work.  We stop looking for his unseen hand working in the world impacting us.  Advent is a time full of stories about God’s work in the unexpected areas of lives.  Zechariah and Elizabeth have a baby.  Mary becomes pregnant without sex.  Joseph has a dream that changes the direction of his life. Wisemen from the East somehow know about prophecies. A star?

         Advent encourages us to look for God’s hand working in ways beyond our expectations.  We can hope and pray when we are discouraged because there is a God journeying with us and fighting for us.  That is a very hopeful thought.  May we look for his hand working in unseen ways encouraging us to look beyond our normal envelopes of definition today.  God hears prayer.  God gives life even to old people.  God gives hope.

⁵ They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee. ⁶ And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, ⁷ a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am accused by Jews!  Acts 26:5-7

            The apostle Paul is on trial before King Agrippa.   A group of Jews has taken an oath to kill Paul because of his conversion to Christianity and Paul has been transferred in custody to King Agrippa for trial.  Paul claims his Roman citizenship and his right to a fair trial in Rome.  It is interesting in this passage that three times Paul claims he is being accused by the Jews because of the hope he has because of his faith.  He has not broken from Jewish tradition!

         The first week of Advent focuses on the hope that comes from fulfilled prophecy that we can have and which was demonstrated by Paul in the face of opposition.  God keeps his promises. Hope does not need to deny the past but it does look to a hopeful future.  During Advent we see that God promised to send a Messiah and on Christmas he arrives Promised fulfilled!  Granted the promise is not fulfilled as King Herod thought, in a military opponent to his worldly throne, but then God works outside our boxes and seldom answers exactly the way we think he should.  He is God and sees a bigger picture and knows the absolutely best way to fulfill his promises.  That is hope because I know the very best solution is being worked on.  Blessings as you focus on the mystery and hope of this Advent season.

         At this time of the year, we hear the songs about being prepared for Santa Claus and Christmas to come.  I’m sure I can list without scratching my head or my chin, my to-do list before Christmas.  Send out cards or emails updating friends and family of events in my life for the year, buying gifts, putting up the tree and decorations, and mailing presents to those loved ones living away.  Of course I also have a list of must-be-watched movies and I pull out my CDs or make a Spotify list of albums I want to listen to, preferably without ads.  Somewhere in there I try to make cookies or goodies for treats.  I’m tired, just thinking about it.

         Not everyone has the resources to create a fancy celebration but that does not mean they don’t celebrate.  We spent many Christmases in Kenya and some of them were in a famine relief camp.  Many of my precious memories come from those days.  A woman took scraps of material, wrapped them around bottle cap lids, and with scraps of yarn sewed them together in the shape of a tree.  She gifted me, the visitor!  An elder was chosen to kill a cow that was cooked in a barrel and shared by the community.  Some meat was brought to my house.  I was humbled.

         Jesus says in Matthew 24:44, “⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”  No one knows exactly what time Santa Claus will arrive but we hang our stockings.  We do not know what time Jesus will return either.  As we think about Advent and preparing for Christmas we must never forget that God is present with us and can reach out to us in a sunrise, the hug of a child, or a need we are gifted to meet.  Let us pray today that we will be as serious about preparing to meet our God as we are about preparing for our Christmas traditions.  May we also pray that we will come to peace with those we need to forgive.  May we have eyes that see the good in the other.  Blessings.

³ And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings,

          knowing that suffering produces endurance,

         ⁴ and endurance produces character,

          and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not disappoint us,

 because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.  Romans 5:3-5

            Yesterday’s Gospel text introduced Advent, the four weeks before Christmas when we anticipate the coming of Christmas.  For most that means reflections on the manger scene and the iconic Bethlehem story of old.  In the early days of Christianity, Advent was the small Lent, when new Christians prepared for baptism on Christmas after 40 days of fasting and teaching.  Certainly today we know that the coming of the babe in Bethlehem, impacted the history of the world even if we were not baptized at Christmas.  Advent also is a time when we remind ourselves that Christ promised to return, usher in a kingdom of justice and love, and set life right. Whether that speaks to a future chronological date is debated but knowing that this life as we know it comes to an end is a very poignant reality this Christmas as we grieve a loved one who has passed into eternity.

         The first week of Advent focuses on the hope we have because we know God is faithful to his promises and at his time prophecy comes true.  Sunday’s text reminded us that before the celebration of a big event like Christmas, comes the suffering and work of preparation.  The trials we go through now are not random and without purpose.  In the midst of suffering, we can be people of hope. 

         The writer of Romans explains it further.  Sufferings require perseverance and endurance.  As we endure we develop character and the ability to encourage others who are suffering.  Community is evolving.  Those elders or friends that have a depth of wisdom, compassion, and perspective that help us in times of suffering are people with a depth of character.  They encourage us because they have been there, done that, and lived to love us.

         Let’s think about an acrostic that helps us explain the hope we have in Advent.  A might be for Anticipation of a better future.  D could be thanks for those Dedicated to walking with us in troubles.  E might speak to the Endurance we need as we dig deep into our personal resources.  N reminds us that suffering is Now but is not forever.  And T speaks to the Trust in Christ’s character that carries us.  Why, “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”  What words would you choose for an acrostic on the word Advent.  Blessings.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o’er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Adonai, Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent, a time when we celebrate the historical birth of Jesus, the promise of his return, and the birth of Jesus in our hearts.  Historically it was a period of 40 days of fasting before Christmas when new believers would be baptized, hence Christ’s birth in our hearts.  Originally written by monks in 1710, it was translated to English in 1851.  The music works for both Latin and English!  We look forward and prayer for Jesus to ransome us from tyranny, free us from Satan, and cheer us, welcome us into eternity.  As you listen to the music, enjoy reading the words and pray for those caught in the conflict in the Middle East.  Lord, o come, o come.