1st Sunday in Advent (November 28): Making all things new

​Theme for 1st Week:  We begin with the Revelation text from which the overall theme come from.  We then focus on the Advent call to repentance, reflecting on passages that are intended to wake us up and see our need for ongoing repentance, changing our minds and our behavior.
 
Prepare to Listen.  As you light the 1st purple candle hear the Lord saying to you: See, I am making all things new.
 
Prayerfully Read Revelation 21:1-6a [1]
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
  ‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
  He will dwell with them;
  they will be his peoples,
  and God himself will be with them;
  4he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
  Death will be no more;
  mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
  for the first things have passed away.’
  5And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’  Also he said, ‘Write   this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’  6Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
When I began this reflection a few months ago, my native country was in violent chaos.  A mob of angry rioters had run amok, looting and then burning shops (stores), churches, factories.  Today, as Advent begins, I’m making the difficult decision to cancel my planned trip to visit family and friends in South Africa because of a new and more dangerous variant of Covid-19.  These verses from the end of the Bible continue to give me hope.  But there is something we must do to experience hope.  Twice the Lord commands us with the word see.  See, in this passage, isn’t like seeing a beautiful sunset or ugly violence.  It goes deeper.  Into the heart.  We see in the sense that we know, deep down this is real and true; we see as God sees and this changes, makes us new.
 
First, “See, the home of God is among mortals.”  God isn’t out there waiting for us to call on him.  God’s home, that place where God is most available, is here with us now.  See as in knowing deep within God is here.  Second, “See, I am making all things new.”  Jesus’ first Advent made possible the all-things-new process. 
 
It’s hard today to see God when we live under an all-things-old order—chaos, violence, death, a global pandemic, conspiracy theories and lies, a growing divide between the haves and the have-nots.  Whether big or small, the all-things-old is in our face.  It takes trust and courage to see as God sees. To hope (believe) that the sea, a biblical symbol for the old evil order, will be no more.  Because of Jesus, God’s home is with us; all things new is now possible.
 
Prayerfully Reflect
What caught your attention in the reading?  Let that be your reflection today.
 
Respond to Jesus
Lord God, you dwell with us in the midst of chaos, pandemics, violence, divisiveness.  You are making all things new.  Train the eyes of my heart to truly see your presence and work of newness.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Obey the command to See what God wants us to see.

[1] All Scripture for the Advent readings are from the New Revised Standard Version.