Anticipating the Love of God
Dearest Holy Spirit community, thank you to all who have prayed for my family over the last week and for all your kind words and offers of care. If you are now hearing for the first time, we lost Sarah’s parents last week in a car accident. There is nothing like a church community to tangibly bring to life the promise of God’s desire to comfort and care for us in times of loss and sadness. We will miss Debra and Owen, and we are grateful for all they did to parent and grandparent.
The season of Advent is at its core a season about anticipating new life over and against what has come before. In a very broad sense, God came into the world to save us from isolation and death. We find the beginning of that fulfilment in the birth of Jesus at Christmas and it is our experience of that fulfillment that we anticipate. What does this mean? It means that God came among us (Emmanuel literally means “God with us”) so that we would never be alone or lost. God came for moments like this to let us know that when all feels lost and we feel rudderless, that we are held firmly and safely in the arms of one who will not let go.
Having preached at more funerals than I can count, it is always my hope to share the Good News of God’s love and salvation as clearly as possible. I always ask God to help me not sound trite or placating in such a proclamation. Answering pain and loss with promise is at the heart of God’s desire for us, but it is not intuitive in our suffering. Sarah and I will miss Debra and Owen and there is so much that I wish was different about where we now sit, but my hope and prayer is that we can hold fast to the one thing I would never want to change, that our God saves and the grace we cannot achieve but instead can only receive is enough.
We are grateful for your prayers and kindness. You are light posts of God’s love and we are grateful to serve this parish and school.
We love you and God loves you.