Pastor’s Message November 22, 2021

It is almost the end of the year! Reign of Christ / Christ the King Sunday marks the completion of the liturgical calendar, and we return once again to our favourite season: Advent! The season of Advent is not marked by excessive shopping and hustle - although that is often our experience. Advent, like Lent, is a time of preparation for what is coming: namely the Word of God in flesh, Emmanuel, Jesus the Christ! We look forward to the celebration of Christmas and the birth of our Saviour, also mindful of Christ’s second coming. Advent is a season in which time seems to make no sense: we journey to the past, joining ancient Israel in anticipation of the Messiah, we journey to the future in anticipation of Jesus’ return, and we long for God to come into our lives here and now. Yet I find peace with the “now and not yet” nature of the season: God holds our past, our future, and our present.

That has been Advent’s story. When the congregation was just a vision: God held you. In the early days, worshipping in the gymnasium, breaking ground in Scenic Acres; God held you. In times of growth, in times of transition, in times of conflict; God held you. These past many months, making sanctuary in our living rooms and dinner tables morphed into the Lord’s Tables, God held you. And now, in this Advent moment, as some return to in-person worship and some continue online, as we look forward to what God has in store for our congregation: God holds you. Thanks be to God!

In Christ,

Pastor Aaron