VIDEOS

More Messages from Robert Creech

From Series: "Echoes of Hope"

The season of Advent begins the Christian Year. For four Sundays before Christmas, the Church around the world joins, preparing its heart to celebrate the coming of the Christ Child into the world. Traditionally, each Sunday focuses on some aspect of the Christian faith (hope, love, joy, and peace) or the Christmas story (Prophets, Angels, Shepherds, Mary). The biblical readings direct us to the promised second Advent of Christ, the ministry of John the Baptist that prepared the hearts of ancient Israel for this first Advent, and the joy of Mary at Gabriel's announcement. Candles are lit each week in the Advent Wreath to mark our anticipation. Finally, on Christmas Eve, we will end our worship with the lighting of the Christ Candle in the center of the wreath, and with light from that one, we will receive and share the light of Christ with one another. This first Sunday of Advent, we turn our attention to hope, our confidence in God's fulfillment of his promises to redeem the world. As the prophets' words were fulfilled in the appearance of Jesus, Jesus' words promising his return to set the world at rights will one day become a reality. The new creation--the new heavens and the new earth--will become our eternal dwelling with God. We will be reminded of that promise and consider how Christ would have us live in the meanwhile, in the interim between his first and second coming. May God work in our lives during this season and protect us from its secular opposite--Black Friday, Black Monday, and weeks of consumerism, celebrating nothing but our emptiness