Awaiting the King of Peace

Advent is upon us. That means that Pastor Matthew is wearing a flaxen robe and everything is purple, candles, lights. I love this season. Maybe because it’s a mix of so many things pressed together.
If you get nothing else, please note this: Advent is not Christmas.
They do sit right next to each other, and the latter follows the former. But they are not the same.
Think of it like John the Baptist and Jesus.
John and Jesus are next to each other - cousins, close in age, but very different.

Advent, like dear flaxen John the B., is a season of penitence. John is about getting us ready. John is about us taking actual stock of the severe clutter in our lives. But John is not a professional organizer trying to help us streamline our lives. He is no Marie Kondo.
John is not worried about us being too busy and caring about the wrong things because we are unhappy, but because we cannot see God. And so a highway must be made through the wilderness that is us living here. (Isaiah 40:3) Advent is about getting us ready for God.

Of course, John is not original. He’s merely echoing what Isaiah said before him. And Isaiah is who we are spending time with during Advent.
Isaiah the Prophet, who lived in the mid-8th century BC, during a time of waining prosperity in the environs around Judah; and the start of the geo-political meltdown that was the creatively destructive and violent empire of Assyria.

To a people that had become distracted by what does not matter,
to a people who rested on security that was actually a splintered reed,
to a people whose lives were about to get very, very bad,
the Word of the Lord comes from Isaiah. And he gives them a vision for what must have seemed unimaginable. Peace on Earth. And a King who could make it happen.

Which is who John (and Advent) are getting us ready for. Jesus. The One who comes just around the corner. Who is even now at the door.

Come and get ready to meet him with us on Sunday.