2020 has been a year that we all might just want to forget. It has been a year of arguments, war, social inequities, racism, political unrest, violence, and disease. It has been a year of the unknown and making up answers as we go. And it has also been a year of new things, new opportunities to be the disciples we are called to be and hope. Together, people of God have sought hope during apparent darkness. 

In the church year, Advent is the beginning of a new year. So, “Happy New Year!” We in the church have a chance to say goodbye to 2020 a little bit early. Advent is the time of new beginnings. Our new year begins on November 29!

Our Advent season is one where we can move on from the shortfalls of last year and embrace new challenges. Our human sins are great. In the prayer of confession that we often use in our communion liturgy, these familiar words ring in our hearts: “we have not done God’s will, we have broken God’s law, we have not loved our neighbors, we have not heard the cry of the needy.” 

The image of Jesus, born in a manger stall, reminds us of Jesus’s humanity. It reminds us how much Jesus was fully human, yet fully divine. Jesus knew our struggles. And through Jesus, with the new year, we have the chance to begin again. We have a chance to recommit ourselves to the selfless loving, truth telling, justice making Jesus.  

Jesus as the light of the world is still here with us, waiting for us to follow him. He is waiting for us to love one another as he has loved us, and he wants us to join our lights to his to transform the world towards God’s purposes. Advent 2020 is God’s invitation for Christian disciples to move with the leading of the Holy Spirit, leaving the darkness of sin behind and moving into the light of God’s love.  

Join us for an Advent journey of Seeking Jesus! 

Our Advent theme this year is from a resource for worship that has been written by the General Commission of Religion and Race. It is written for this season. From the GCORR: 

We challenge worshipers to become co-creators with God of a world where racial and other injustices and causes of strife are confronted and addressed, where learning and truth-telling are taken seriously, and where children learn that spiritual formation and discipleship—our walking with Christ—should stir in all of us a deep yearning to right wrongs, work for social and spiritual change, and seek right relationships with all people.