The First Sunday of Advent is a time to reflect upon Hope. Hope is an attitude of positive outcomes in life. This is our expectation as we Journey with Jesus and Jesus growing influence within us in our lives. This is not the message of the world currently. As Christians, we are hopeful revolutionaries. We bring Light to the darkness. It is our mission as we live Christ in the world! Unlike worldly revolutionaries, we work Peacefully and Joyfully with an attitude of love.
This vision demands that we are empathetical in our outlook and not succumb to the negative energy of our current culture. We need to be actively engaged with hope in our society. One habit to engage is to look at news reports and podcasts as well as similar things in print and see the needs of the world. Once done, we respond as Christians in the responding to the need. Our parish through David Hamilton’s “Water Walk for PWRDF” will raise money to assist in putting water wells in Africa and in the North for First Nations.
The last habit of Empathy and one that is a sign of hope in the darkness is being the catalyst or inspiration for a revolution. The early Quaker Christians stood up against the prevailing culture of their day and following God’s call for revolutionary love established prisons to be places for reconciliation and healing over violence and punishment, also they stood against slavery and stood for equal rights for all. These were revolutionary ideas for their time and still are today. Anglicans have been inspired by this in our own time. The work of overcoming our wrong treatment of First Nations in Residential Schools has found energy in the Wrongs to Rights movement. The Anglican church is a leader n dismantling racism education within Christian settings and getting the church involved in Climate Action and the work for gender and identity equity is a new frontier of our time.
We must as we enter this new Christian Year being pro-active, brave and ‘hopeful’ as we celebrate the coming of Jesus as Light to the World. We must continue to be Lights in the Darkness. Writer Thomas Homer-Dixon, from Victoria, BC.(Royal Rhodes University) calls us to use the Power within us to renew our world which is in peril. He calls us in his recent book to Command Hope by working together for positive change. This is a distinctively Christian message which is actively calling out to us in this new Christian Year. May God Bless our Journey into the new year.
