Advent 1 2015

<...The new liturgical year begins, not with the baby Jesus in a manger but with a whole array of texts rooted in apocalyptic and eschatological sensibilities. We should let this first Sunday of the new year remain strange and unsettling. Let’s keep it odd and disruptive enough to inspire hope. "Business as usual” simply will not do in a society marked by gross income inequality, violence against women, and so many unexamined social policies rooted in white supremacy. We should be glad to see each of those “worlds” end. We need Advent’s unsettling insistence on hope. Unsettling, because hope inspires us to live in anticipation of a new world, even when we can’t see how things could possibly change. Unsettling, because hope urges us to act on behalf of a new world that we can’t yet see. Unsettling, because hope might convince us to set aside old, familiar things, even the most comfortable things, to make room for the new thing that God is constantly bringing about...> Jay Emerson Johnson+