Grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come as we find ourselves, again, in the blessed season of Advent, making ready to celebrate the Christ-child who comes to us in human form and anticipating the Christ-King who will come again to rule and reconcile the world in and to himself ….
Today, we start a brand new lectionary cycle: at Year A which focuses on the stories of Abraham through to Moses in the Old Testament and the gospel of Matthew.
These are our origin stories: stories of how we came to be a pilgrim people bound to God by the best ways of living, and of God’s faithfulness along all of the ups and downs, the wanderings and the arrivings, and the joys and the struggles of the ongoing journey of which we are part in this particular time and place.
Matthew consistently points us to a God who keeps every promise as Jesus fulfils the prophecies of the Old Testament and shows his followers how to live out the heart of God’s law. You may find it interesting to keep a note of how many times the words “fulfilment” or “prophet” appear as we journey together.
At Pilgrim on this first Sunday in Advent, we focus on the prophets. I love how the Godly Play stories describe them as “people who come so close to God, and God comes so close to them, that they know what is most important” rather than as mere characters of the past.
As we journey with the people who came close to God and the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled throughout Scripture in this next year, I pray that you will know God coming close to you too that we might walk together in the light of the Lord (Isaiah 2:5).
Yours in Christ
Yvonne