Sunday, December 2nd, the First Sunday of Advent kicked off the new church year. We heard how God worked in Ruth to give her expectations of new life even when the world and surrounding culture would have led her, a foreign widow with no wealth and status, to expect nothing (Ruth 1:1-18). Ruth dares to see, hear, and trust the new life God has in store for her and Naomi.
We worship a remarkable God who creates something from nothing and brings life from death, and yet it is so easy to let our expectations be shaped by the world around us, or the voice in our head that tells us we aren’t good enough, so that we think nothing beyond the status quo is possible and that there is no news that is good.
Yet this remarkable God invites us to expect the extraordinary – sight when we are blind, freedom when we are captive, new life when we are certain nothing can save us. God invites us to expect these things because God is bringing these things to bear in the world right now. God is breathing new life into a weary world, loving us into a new reality, offering us peace, forgiveness, reconciliation, and life everlasting.
Jesus offers life and love again and again to those with eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to trust God’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth, of new life for you and for the whole world.
The good news is that God is constantly forming and reforming us, giving us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to trust this new life. God is giving us new expectations – expectations of new life in the midst of death and chaos, light breaking forth even in the season when nights are the longest, love driving out fear.
God is bringing new life to you and to the world.
See it in the acts of kindness and generosity happening all around, hear it in the songs bursting forth from people caught up in joy and love, trust that it is indeed stronger than fear, and more abundant that hate.
Know that NOTHING can separate you from this love and new life.
Blessings on your week,
Pastor Drew