For Advent this year, I'll be following our Advent Theme: The Inn: Housing the Holy. Each week will have a different theme. This week, we begin with "Making Room (Hope)"
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.” ~ Jeremiah 33:14-16
For our Advent at Grace this year, we are doing a series called "Housing the Holy" and the visual image that will be the thread through each week is a barn door.
Why a barn door you ask?
To remind us that the holy was housed on that first Christmas in the unlikeliest of places - a manger. Sure, it wasn't a barn that looks like the barns we have today, but hey, you work with what you have, right?
That barn door serves during this first week of Advent as a reminder to make room and also of hope: making room for a safe place to give birth; hope for the coming of a promised Messiah.
Making room for the hope for the promise made in Jeremiah - that the Messiah will execute justice and righteousness.
They go hand in hand, justice and righteousness. Righteousness for the prophets was the process of lifting others up - the process of seeking justice for those who don't have it. In this nearly two-year time of pandemic, economic injustice has been highlighted more than ever.
Where is the hope - the promise of righteousness and justice - for those who have suffered often catastrophic financial loss?
And are we being called to open that door to make room for hope to bloom?
Generous and gracious God, open the doors of our hearts to make room for your Spirit of hope to bloom in our lives. Amen
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