Why do you say, Jacob,
and declare, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
my God ignores my predicament”?

Isaiah 40:27

In our weariness, it is easy to despair. I admit I have personally experienced a level of weariness this year beyond what I have ever felt before. It’s not just about being busy or tired. It’s a weariness that gets deep into our souls the way an icy wind gets deep into our bones…

…This year is different. This year is 2020. In January it was pumped up as a year of clear vision, and perhaps it has lived up to that promise in ways we would have preferred to avoid. 2020 has indeed opened our eyes and given us clearer vision. It has exposed our deepest fears and vulnerabilities. It has intensified the countless battle lines that divide us from our neighbors. And it has brought out both the best and the worst in everyone as we face one trauma after another and struggle to live into the unknown with hope.

Perhaps more than ever, we are a weary people living in a weary world.

That is why I am inviting us to Advent early this year…

… Every day is election day!

• Every day we make a choice between God’s Kingdom and the powers of this world.

• Every day we choose between faithful obedience and sin.

• Every day we choose whom we will serve… God or ourselves.

When we choose God…

• we make a choice against individualism and the assertion of our personal rights and opinions

• we make a choice to put others above ourselves and to serve by humbling ourselves and washing the feet of our friends and our enemies alike.

• we make a choice to be part of God's family, and to live among our brothers and sisters who don’t always look like us, think like us, act like us, or even vote like us.

• we make a choice to love our neighbors as ourselves… even the ones we don’t like…

Let's just be honest, it's been a tough year.

We're finally rounding the corner toward the holiday season and we're looking for hope.

• We hope next year will be better

• We hope the pandemic will end

• We hope political tensions will die down

• We hope we can be reconciled with those who have hurt us and those we have hurt.

• We hope that the final sun of 2020 will not set on our anger and pain.

This year has been a year filled with death…

…Let us not allow those who have died to become a faceless mass. Let us faithfully carry on their legacies in our lives as we seek to live into who God made us to be…