The Advent Wreath and the lighting of Advent Candles are among the oldest and most powerful symbols of this time of year.  Each of the four candles of Advent carries a special meaning: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.  

As part of our Advent preparations for Christmas, I will be exploring each of these themes in my Messenger articles over the next four weeks.  Each one is only a word but none of them are as simple as they seem.  Devotional attention to Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love can truly deepen your faith during this holy time of year.

This Sunday, December 3, is the first Sunday of Advent and we will be lighting the candle of Hope.  That is always an appropriate place to begin.  Our lives should begin and end with hope.  

The emphasis on hope is something that sets Western Christianity apart from some Eastern Religions which downplay hope in favor of evolving to live exclusively in the present moment.  Detachment from desires—including hope—is seen as the path to spiritual fulfillment.  

Christians, however, place a strong emphasis on hope.  For us, it is a declaration that the future matters and we are going to be about the work of investing in this world in order to make it a better place.  In that sense, hope is a statement of attachment to this world rather than detachment.  Hope is a commitment to the betterment of one’s self, others, and the world around us.  

Contrary to the secular use of the word “hope,” we do not hope in the way you might “wish upon a star.”  Religiously, hope is not a helpless word uttered when all seems lost as in: “Boy, I sure hope things get better.”  

Instead, hope is joined, inseparably, to trust.  Because of Jesus Christ, our hope is already fulfilled.  We hope, we trust, and we KNOW that our future is secure because of Christ’s birth and his resurrection.  No obstacle in life can compare to the magnitude of God’s coming and God’s victory over death.  

This is one reason why the late Christian writer Henri Nouwen once wrote: “I have found it very important in my life to let go of my wishes and start hoping.”

May your Advent season be filled with Hope—a confident assurance that Christmas will come and with it another affirmation of God’s all-encompassing love, justice, and compassion to which we all belong.

See you in church,

–Rev. Dominic