Advent

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Is this the apocalypse

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“Happy Advent! It is so good to be starting a new church year. I have heard many say over the past few months that they can’t wait for this year to be over. So I say, why wait for the solar year? Let’s go ahead. It’s a new church year, so let’s go ahead and say that this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year is over. That does not mean that the pandemic is over, of course, but it does seem that things will start looking up at some point this year. So let’s just go ahead and start in on that.”

Click “Read More” to read or listen to Bingham’s entire sermon for the first Sunday of Advent.

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God is with us

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On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we always hear of The Annunciation, that story of the angel coming to prepare the new parents for the coming of their child. When we use the phrase, The Annunciation, we usually refer to Mary’s Annunciation when the angel came to her. That is Luke’s story, but this year we are given Matthew’s story, which is a lesser known annunciation of the angel coming to Joseph.

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Bringing God's Light in the Midst of Darkness

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This is a season all about light: getting ready for light, celebrating light. The remarkable thing is that at this same time the world is getting darker and darker as we approach the winter solstice and we tilt back towards the sun. And in the midst of that we are pushing back against the darkness with more and more light with each passing day. This is more than just the literal lights that we are lighting, it is what we were meant to do by people who follow Christ, the one who is the light. We are to bring light, to bring our light into the midst of the darkness.

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Repentance: Preparing Our Hearts for Jesus

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It’s Advent, that wonderful, delightful time to prepare for Christmas. And there are all kinds of ways we do that: we might light candles on an Advent wreath, put up a tree, decorate the home, hang some boughs, put up some lights outside to light up the world, baking, shopping for presents, shipping gifts, sending Christmas cards. But who among you reflects on the fact that you are a “brood of vipers?” I don’t see a single hand going up. It’s not the usual Advent preparation we think about, but it is the one that John the Baptist calls us to today. We usually think about repentance as part of our Lenten preparations for Easter, but it is a part of these Advent preparations. It is a minor note, but it is here: “You brood of vipers. Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

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