Advent: a Time of Watching, Waiting... and Listening

Each Advent, there are words that we expect to hear.  We often spend time “watching” or “waiting”, or even-“expecting” to see God.  We may “wonder” about the ways God breaks into our world as we wander through these four weeks that lead up to Christmas.  This year, we’re going to spend time with another word that we may not be as accustomed to-“listening”.  This Advent, we will listen for the signs of the coming of the Lord through the words of the prophet Isaiah.

As we travel through this season of hope, we will hear Isaiah speaking from scripture and we will sing songs that reflect the message that he shares.  If we listen intently, we will hear words of comfort and new direction.  We will hear words of strength and promise.  We will hear a message of salvation from a God whose love is capable of changing everything.

I hope that, together, we will hear a message of salvation in an unlikely place.  I hope that these words: spoken, read, and sung, will point us toward the manger where God’s love is revealed in the child sent to save us.  I hope that these words, as we listen, will point us toward the places in our world where people are in need of comfort, strength, and new direction, and that we will go to those places together to find that God is up to something that we can join in.

Join us each week this Advent as we sit and listen for awhile!

God’s peace,
Pastor Andrew