Its What Comes After Advent That Really Matters...

I serve a church that has in place a Worship Design Team.  This group of people sits with myself and the other pastor of the church about once a month or so, to think out-loud about upcoming worship experiences, offer suggestions and direction, and assist with pulling the whole thing off.  What a gift!

This Advent Season the WDT and the pastors have set off on a course that includes The Announcement (of Jesus' impending arrival), The Journey (by Mary to Elizabeth's home, and by Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem), The Birth...you get the idea.

And thru it all we are reminding ourselves that Advent provides a Hopeful way of looking at our world...and our life together.

The time leading up to That Birth way back when and half a world away from where I sit today, had Mary and Joseph running the gauntlet of census takers, tax collectors, beggars at the city gate, not to mention bedding down in an animal barn...where That Baby arrived.  Not much Hope involved in that scene...obviously, the Hopeful way of looking at our world...and our life together...comes after Advent. 

The Grinch is most likely the character most of us run into during each year's Advent (run-up to Christmas). 

Too little joy...you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

Too little money to purchase the required number and type of presents...you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.

Broken family ties...thanks, Grinch.

Etc.

This year the Grinch has one helluva gauntlet for us to run in our run-up to Christmas:

Ferguson, Missouri.

A chokehold death in New York City.

ISIS.

Guantanamo remaining open for "business."

Global poverty and hunger.

Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Xenophobia...and a whole lot more -isms and -phobias.

Etc.

Like I said earlier, the Hope comes after Advent.  A Hopeful way of looking at our world...and our life together...comes on the way back home after paying respects to That Baby born in a barn.

It comes when we finally realize that That Baby was born into existence for all of us:
Believers and Non-Believers.
Kings and Shepherds.
Do-Gooders and Sinners.
Women and Men.
The Perfect and the Imperfect.
Those who Succeed and Those who Fail.
Those who hold on to a Grudge for dear-life and Those who Freely Forgive.
Those who are Myopic and Those who see the Big Picture.
You, and Me, and Everyone Else.

A Hopeful way of looking at our world...and our life together...comes when it dawns on us that
God loves us universally!
God loves us unconditionally! And,
God loves us constantly!