The First Sunday of Advent

“For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of man.” — the words of Jesus

It used to be a regular occurrence for me as a child that, during the holiday season, our dining room table would become filled with a thousand or more tiny little pieces of whatever puzzle we bought for that year. I would frantically begin to separate out the edges from the rest of the inside pieces. Then, I would gather together those pieces that looked like the sky or water or trees or whatever. I would continually make use of the top of the box to help orient myself throughout the process. This is how one does a puzzle after all—you look at the completed picture in order to make sense of where the individual pieces go.

Something similar is happening on this first Sunday of the Church Year. We are once again called by the Church to consider the “End” in order to orient ourselves in the present—or as the Collect for this Sunday puts it, “now in the time of this mortal life.” On this first Sunday of Advent, we consider not the first appearing of Jesus, but the final manifestation of his glory—at which time all things, including death, will be shown to be subject to his loving rule! And it is the light of this very present hope that we are called to live and move and have our being.

I hope you plan to join us this Sunday as we celebrate the coming of the New Year as we look for the coming of our Lord in glory! Amen.