Advent 2010 is officially here! We kicked-off our celebration of Advent at MCC this past Sunday by Rediscovering the gift of hope.We live in an extremely cynical world, a world that tries to squeeze the hope out of us, and the world Jesus was born into was no different.
The Jewish people had been waiting for God to send a Messiah, and he had not yet come. I imagine some of their questions then would sound a lot like those many of us are asking right now.
Does God keep his promises?
Can tomorrow be better than today?
Will suffering and injustice ever cease?
Where was God when ____________________?
Matthew, one of the writers of the Christmas story, insists that God has not abandoned or forgotten us. Matthew insists that just because God hasn’t moved at our speed, it doesn’t mean that he’s not moving. Notice Matthew 1v17-18 [TNIV]:
Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah. This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about…
After all that time, God had made good on his promise.
It seems to me that Advent presents us with choices:
We can choose the well-worn path of cynicism and despair,
or
we can choose hope.
We can choose to give up and give in to cynicism and despair, or we can choose to trust that God is at work, for our good, even when we can’t see the results right away.
Which path will you choose this Christmas?
Josh Scott 