Weekly Reflections on Advent: Week 1 - “Hope” by Kurt Walker (MDiv ‘10)

November 23, 2020

The first week of Advent: HOPE

By Rev. Kurt Walker (MDiv ‘10)

All-seeing God, the psalmist tells us that truly your eye is “on those who hope in your steadfast love,” but we witness your children interminably waiting in squalor.
 
Expansive God, Solomon tells us that “Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off,” yet we bear witness to those cut off from the hope of a better future for themselves and their children.
 
Ever-flowing God of abundant blessings, the Apostle Paul reminded us that your hope does not disappoint us, because your love has been poured into our hearts, yet we witness the broken hearts of those whose hope is fading.
 
God of Light, we come before you this Advent, waiting… waiting… waiting for your hope to come to us.  We wait beneath the single bulb hanging from the ceiling in a darkened room in Nogales, Mexico.
 
God of Abiding Love, we come before you this Advent, waiting… waiting… waiting for your children to be released from their cages, to be reunited with their parents.
 
God of Liberty, we come before you this Advent, waiting… waiting… waiting for the day when men, women, and children who are compelled to flee from their homelands out of fear, might be granted  the freedom to walk into a hopeful future, free from the shackles of violence and persecution.
 
We come to you this first Sunday in Advent in search of Hope for those who are left hopeless at our southern border. And we ask, “When, O God, when?” We ask “How long, O Lord, how long?”
 
As we begin this season in which we mark the Way in which you chose to come to us through the birth of your Son, the Hope of the world, Jesus the Christ, we remember the hope of Mary who recognized your ability to bring your will to us here on earth as it already is with you by looking with favour on the lowliness of your servants. We remember that in your birth among us, you have the strength to scatter the proud, to raise up the meek, to bring down the powerful from their thrones, and lift up the lowly; you have the means to nourish the hungry with good things, and send the rich away empty.
 
This hope is the Advent hope of those who wait on the Mexican side of our southern border.  This is our Advent hope in you, with you, and through you.
 
Amen.
 
For an introduction to this weekly series, see the story on our News feed.