This Sunday

Happy new (church) year! This Sunday we begin the season of Advent, the beginning of the church year when we anticipate the coming of Christ. Advent is a time for recognizing that our faith looks ahead to a future that is better, and part of that is taking stock of the ways in which God’s dream for the world is not yet fulfilled. Our sermon for this Sunday is about the prophet Jeremiah (focusing on Jeremiah 33:14-16), who has been called “the weeping prophet.” Jeremiah lived in a time when his compatriots were complacent and indulged in a false sense of security. He knew that a time of turmoil was coming, and that Israel’s faults were sowing a harvest that would be reaped in devastation. Nevertheless, Jeremiah also knew that God’s love for Israel was unconditional, and that, someday, there would be a new beginning when the fortunes of Israel would be restored and a “new covenant” in which God’s law would be “written on the heart.”

Jeremiah’s was a faith in the God of the future: the same kind of faith that we are called to embrace as we await the coming of Christ. Hope you will come hear more Sunday!