Hope

For the past couple months I have been striving to blog once a week. I spend a good deal of time on the internet and I figured I could dedicate some of that time to something I thoroughly enjoy doing: writing. So often one can get consumed with scrolling through social media and retweeting/posting/sharing everything they seem to agree with. I have noticed a disconnect between how often people post online and how present they are in the lives of people they are with. This is often evident in a family get together during the holidays. After the festivities are over you can look around and see family members gathered around TVs, I Pads, and other devices. I am no exception. Social media is an addicting past-time. So starting on Sunday, December 3rd, 2017, the beginning of Advent, I will fast from social media. I have begun this process already--I have started fasting from social media when I am at home. My goal is to become more present with those around me and less dependent on the internet. I will chronicle my thoughts in a weekly post. Some posts may be about my social-media-free time or it may just be a reflection on the Advent season. My goal is to become more present in my community and to allow those actions to permeate into the rest of my life after this season.

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Hope.

The first candle of Advent is for Hope. It is so fitting that we would end "Ordinary Time" in the Christian Liturgical calendar with a reminder of Christ's call for us from Matthew 25. Now as we begin this new stage of the calendar we are reminded of the Hope that is to come. Of the hope for the coming kingdom. In today's day and age with all the trials, tribulations, and catastrophes, it's always nice to be reminded of the hope we can have in Christ.

This coming Sunday's Gospel reading comes from Mark 13:24-37 which can at first glance seem to be a heavy passage. One can read this and become fearful of what is to come. I, however, would like to point out that sometimes it's the big picture that we should look at not the minute details. The big picture in this passage is that we should be ready; awake and ready. We know that Christ will return to make everything right again and we are called to be ready. That is the hope we are given in the Advent season. There is a hope that it is true that Christ will renew all things and with that hope we can be ready.

So how can we be ready? How can we be awake? What is it that we must do?

Work to help renew the world. Yes, Christ will come to rebuild and renew the whole universe, but until then He has charged us to work towards the Kingdom. We were reminded of this charge just this past Sunday on Christ the King Sunday. We are moving towards this week of Hope with the knowledge of how we can be awake. How we can be ready. Renewing the world is more than just helping people, it also has to do with the actual world. YHWH commanded us to care for the world we are put in. The world is not going to be destroyed, but it is going to be renewed. We were made from the earth and so we must care for it. In the words of N.T. Wright, "Jesus is coming so plant a tree." But in all honestly, that's exactly what we must do. Care for ourselves, others, and the world and together we can help usher in the Kingdom as we hope for the day when all will be restored. 

Grace & Peace.

Resources:

https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/environment/jesus-is-coming-plant-a-tree 

biblegateway.com