A Light Has Dawned | Advent 2022
Take a moment and think of a few words to describe the world since 2020. The words that come to mind probably don’t include hope, peace, joy and love. The words you might think of are: partisan politics, division, hate, COVID, sickness, death and loneliness. In a word, darkness.
Episcopal priest and author Fleming Rutledge writes, “Advent begins in the dark.”
It’s true. Advent, the four-week season of the church calendar leading up to Christmas, begins with the “people living in darkness” (Matt. 4:16). At the time of Jesus’ arrival, the people of Israel were under Roman rule. Their land was under Roman occupation. Darkness was dominating.
All these years later, darkness is still everywhere. Advent is a time to “take a fearless inventory of the darkness,” according to Rutledge. This doesn’t take much work today. Every day we are bombarded with news of political division, racism, gun violence and the like.
But Advent is also a season to remember “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” During Advent, we cling to the truth of John 1:5 – “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Jesus’ first arrival fills us with hope as we remember that the world will be completely rid of darkness when He returns again to fully establish His Kingdom of Light.
Join us at Delaware City Vineyard for a four-week Advent sermon series that will remind us that despite the darkness all around us, we can wait with expectancy. An expectancy that Jesus will one day return to usher in the fullness of hope, joy, peace and love. And even while we wait in darkness, we can expect to see powerful flashes of the light of Christ enter our world…if we have eyes to see.
Episcopal priest and author Fleming Rutledge writes, “Advent begins in the dark.”
It’s true. Advent, the four-week season of the church calendar leading up to Christmas, begins with the “people living in darkness” (Matt. 4:16). At the time of Jesus’ arrival, the people of Israel were under Roman rule. Their land was under Roman occupation. Darkness was dominating.
All these years later, darkness is still everywhere. Advent is a time to “take a fearless inventory of the darkness,” according to Rutledge. This doesn’t take much work today. Every day we are bombarded with news of political division, racism, gun violence and the like.
But Advent is also a season to remember “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” During Advent, we cling to the truth of John 1:5 – “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Jesus’ first arrival fills us with hope as we remember that the world will be completely rid of darkness when He returns again to fully establish His Kingdom of Light.
Join us at Delaware City Vineyard for a four-week Advent sermon series that will remind us that despite the darkness all around us, we can wait with expectancy. An expectancy that Jesus will one day return to usher in the fullness of hope, joy, peace and love. And even while we wait in darkness, we can expect to see powerful flashes of the light of Christ enter our world…if we have eyes to see.
What is Advent?
Advent is the four-week season of the Church Calendar leading up to Christmas. Advent means "arrival" and is tied to the arrival of Christ in human flesh and His second coming. It is a season of meditating on the coming of Jesus as a baby in a manger 2,000 years ago and also a season of leaning into waiting on His second coming.