From the Rector

Advent, a Time of Hope and Expectation

Have you ever heard a child cry out in the middle of night, "Mommy, I can't sleep"? The loving parent will always quickly respond. She rushes into the room and holds the child uttering the soothing words, "What's wrong? Are you all right? It's okay; Mommy is here. What's wrong?"

The child might answer, "I saw something. There is a person in my room," or the child says, "I felt bugs." The mother then turns on the light beside the bed and scrutinizes the room. She might open the closet door and gently declare, "Look! There is no one here. There is nothing in your room." The mother's strong and skillful exercise of protective love calms the child. The child hears and feels the voice of the mother

The fearful child awakes because the child feels that his/her world is in a state of darkness and chaos. The child does not have a sense of order because he/she is overwhelmed by darkness and the sounds and shadows that emanate in and through the darkness. The child, needing a sense of order and predictability, cries for the presence and caressing of the protective parent

Emile Durkheim, a founding master of the social science of sociology, described all societies as threatened by a fundamental terror. It is anomie. It is a fear of the individual and the society of being in a state of order lessness. It is similar to the parent and the child where the parent takes on and represents the need people have for an underlying order in their life and the universe. Like the child, humanity has a burning desire to know that everything is in order, and everything is all right!

In Advent, the liturgy turns to the color of royal blue because it is a symbol of royalty. It is during Advent that we celebrate the entrance of Christ the King into our life and the universe. Consequently, the Advent season is marked by a spirit of expectation and hope. Part of the Advent spirit of hope is calling us and the world to accountability before God. We long for God to come and set us and the world right, i.e. we long for a sense of peace in a disordered universe. In Advent, we call on God in worship and prayer to restore all things to his order and vindicate the righteous. We call for God to come to us in the darkness.

The big issue Advent preaching themes:
1) What is the rapture all about?
2) The God of Hope and the End of the World
3) The soul's everlasting journey
4) What is heaven like?

Father Bill +