Together in Our Hope

First Sunday of Advent

Week of November 29, 2020
Scripture: Isaiah 64:1-9

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
(Isaiah 64:8, NRSV)

Devotion

Welcome to Advent! I'm not sure when God's clay has been more collectively fatigued, but here we are; and we are, despite our physical distance, together in our hope – our hope for our world, our hope for our faith, our hope for a meaningful and transformational Advent season.

We are all leading and contributing in uniquely challenging – some might say stunningly challenging – times. When problems seem insurmountable, give yourself grace, and then more grace, because whatever joyful noise (perfectly synchronized or not) we make to the Lord is pleasing in God's ear and is a lifeline for the singers and hearers.

Speaking as a layperson, there have been so many heavy emotions in the last eight months, I have sometimes resisted music because it makes me feel, and I have had all the feelings I could deal with on a daily basis. But music is woven so deeply into the preparation for the birth of Jesus that it cannot, and should not, ever be separated, and this music moves and stirs us – and when have we ever been more ready for a message of hope?

So let voices rise and music soar as the songs and scripture of Advent take us all by the hand and lead us back in time, forward into God's future, and fill us with the eternally renewing hope of Christ.

Prayer

O God, I am in need of you and I am in need of hope. Please open my eyes, ears, and heart to signs of hope and paths of becoming. I trust you; help me trust you more. Amen.

Lindy Thompson
Lyricist and Poet
Christ United Methodist Church
Franklin, TN 

Photo: Pixabay