Waiting on Hope
Photo by Robert Thiemann on Unsplash .
What are you waiting for? In this broken and fallen world, which is filled with all kinds of despair, are you waiting on hope to come?
Most of us are waiting for something. We are waiting on better days. We are waiting on change. We are waiting for things in life to improve. We are waiting on healing. We are waiting on wars to cease. We are waiting for sickness to end. We are waiting for the unknown to reveal itself. We are waiting on hope.
The Advent season is a time of patient waiting for the coming of Jesus, who is our hope.
The Proper Preface for Advent reminds us of the hope we are waiting on, declaring, “Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great glory to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
The first gospel reading for Advent One, in liturgical Year B, from Mark’s gospel account, speaks of our coming hope, saying, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” (Mark 13:24-27, ESV).
We anticipate this coming hope of Jesus, when God will gather His children to himself and usher in his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
May we anticipate this hope we are waiting for this Advent.
A Collect for the First Sunday in Advent: “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
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Photo by Robert Thiemann on Unsplash
