By the end of November we will be in Advent. Advent Sunday falls on the 30th of November this year and once we are there we can no longer deny it – Christmas is approaching – and fast!

In Advent this year as we journey through the Sundays of the season I thought we’d follow the traditional Advent pattern but a bit more intentionally, with the four Sunday’s of this penitential season of preparation with its historic focus on waiting, for the ‘now and the not yet’.

Traditionally the four Sunday’s of Advent can be described as being focused on: HOPE – PEACE – JOY – LOVE.

Hope, peace, joy, love. Words that are always important, but words that feel especially weighty this year, after a year when it might be convincingly argued that those words have been missing from much of our shared public life and discourse.

With that in mind we’ll be thinking about HOPE unending, PEACE unstoppable, JOY unbound and LOVE untamed.

The promise we find in the ‘preparation’ and ‘waiting’of Advent is the promise that God will make all things new, that God’s good promises are for our future. But also that we can work towards - and get a glimpse of God’s good things in this season too.

Who would have thought that four little words could be so counter-cultural.

HOPE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE, go on then, don’t mind if I do.

Blessings

Tim