Rev. Richard Smith
December 5, 2022
Isaiah 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
One of the normative hymns we sing at the beginning of Advent is Charles Wesley’s hymn Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
In that wonderful song, we sing the words, dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.
Our world longs for a message that love can overcome hate, that goodness can defeat evil, that the future is more than a dismal and dark uncertainty, that each of us has reason for being.
Whatever one’s religion; whatever one’s philosophy of life; whatever one’s religious sensibility or lack thereof; there is within the human spirit a desire for these things to be true for our world and for our lives.
We Christians during this holy season categorically (but humbly and sensitively) recommit to the belief that in Jesus of Nazareth we find the answers we need and want for such promises to be fulfilled.
Isn’t his witness and his message exactly what our hurting, seeking world needs? Isn’t his self-giving love what so many of us want and need? Isn’t his extraordinary compassion a model for each and every one of us? Isn’t his unwavering desire to right the wrongs of injustice the call we long for in our world? Isn’t his belief that all human beings have worth as children of God exactly what we all need to remember?
The key is that each of us use these Advent days as a time to study him anew; to know his life more deeply; to review our lives in comparison to his; and, thus, to gradually grow as vessels of his witness in our world!
