Christ comes bringing ... hope!
Before Christmas - before the birth of our Messiah - we lived by the law. God had promised that a Messiah was coming - someday. The prophets had visions of the Messiah - and of the change that He would bring. And so people had hope. Not just a passive waiting, but an active hope for the future. They looked forward, they believed, they trusted that God's word was (and still is) true.
So rather than sit and passively wait for the Messiah, people lived in hope, with the certain expectation that God would act, as promised. For each, the act of hoping was different, but all toward the same end - to prepare themselves and each other to be in the presence of the Messiah.
This wasn't just another neighbor - and so the preparations are not just sweeping the floor or changing the linens in the guest room. There is real work to be done in order to be ready to stand in God's presence. God's act of grace in sending His Son saved us - but does not absolve us of our responsibilities. So, we wait and work and hope for the coming again - certain that He will come. That certainty turns our wishing and dreaming into hoping and longing - verbs with purpose and direction.
Let us find our hope in God's promises. Let us prepare for the greatest gift that is promised. Let us be confident that God's grace is all-sufficient to raise us to the Glorious Throne of Heaven.
Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free.
From our fears and sins release us;
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's Strength and Consolation,
Born to set Thy people free.
From our fears and sins release us;
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art--
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Today's Readings
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