Advent is Coming Soon

Advent is coming… soon and very soon!

I have been struck this year by the wide range of possibilities to help all of us prepare.

Augsburg Fortress offered a deck of cards with daily activities for all. Families Celebrate is portable, meant for use with children under 12, and continues through the feast of Epiphany.

The brothers of the Society of St. John the Evangelist started a daily email reflection for Advent several years ago. They recently partnered with Virginia Seminary, who carry on this ministry through Building Faith. The growing and deepening interconnections may be seen here.

Some local congregations are beginning to explore The Way of Love with Advent-specific resources.

The Advent journey leads us toward home with God within us, among us, and around us. I encourage you to find some incarnate way along that desert road, seeking home in God, and a home for all God’s people.

Jesus and his family were at times both homeless and refugees seeking safety (asylum) in Egypt from Herod’s violence. Jesus as an itinerant preacher and teacher and healer ‘has no place to lay his head’ (Matthew 8:20). Some things have not changed – news of the world around us is filled with stories of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and the homeless, all yearning for home.

This Advent, how will you prepare a home in your heart and in your neighborhood?