But, as a Christian – I mean a real Christian - who has actually had an experience of the living Christ, you and I have a vital or at least muted sense of the magic of this 4 week season of Advent – don’t we? It reaches into our souls and reminds us to dream – to hope – to believe again!
I find myself encouraged by this first Sunday’s message of hope especially In our reading from Isaiah:
All nations shall stream toward it;
many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths.”
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!
These affirmations from the ancient past stir my soul – my hope! May capacity to dream great dreams. O Lord, could it be that this will actually happen?
This sense that most of us harbor that peace isn’t a dream but an actual promise – a real hope – an actual historical reality – sooner than later? O God – could this hope actually come about?
O Lord, let it be so!!!!
I found myself resonating to the very core of my soul with the Psalm response: “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”
I had images of all of us moving towards magnificent mountains where God was waiting for us! Some of us were walking slowly with walking sticks but all of us had the look of hope transfigured on our faces – this is the look of Advent – for carry the magnificent weight of this promise – that all will one day be very very very well and all of us will live happily ever after!
And- in light of this - it was easy for me to hear Paul’s encouragements to:
“Throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; Ah . . . to put on the wonder of Jesus Christ – the One who broke the back of all soul-numbing hopelessness and gave to us all HOPE! Beyond all imagining!.
Yes, hope is like a healing ointment applied to our souls that seems to heal us to dream once again. To shuck-off the heavy soul-weariness of hopelessness and receive the delightful weightlessness of renewed hope in our ultimate redemption.
To believe again in miracles that defy what we have come believe is reality. To dream again without boundaries – without limitations! That’s what this season of Advent brings to us all . . . if we’re open for it!
To dream again – to wonder at the wonderment of a Being who came and comes and will come again TO US! TO You – TO me! To redeem us from our brokenness and to restore us to our rightful inheritance!
May we dream anew!
