What do you long for?
This is the question keeping me up as the tabs in my browser keep adding up. Some of the tabs are filled with sermon research for this coming weekend’s beginning to the season of advent. This weekend we will talk about the Hope we have as we invite the community to imagine the hope we have in the “not yet” part of the Kingdom of God.
However the other tabs in my browser seem to be filled with banner ads for Black Friday Door Buster sales. They are telling me the things that I need and the things (thanks to my search history) that I long for… But are those things going to bring contentment? Are they going to bring wholeness? Are the really the things that I long for? Sure my Keurig is on it’s last leg, but will that change my world? Nope
I am not asking this in a snaky way, but with a time to keep things into perspective. I married into the Black Friday tradition. More than finding the best deals it is time with family teaming up together, so that we may then bless others. In fact many of the purchases made will find a home with others who we will never know their names.
So this brings me back to the question: What do you long for?
What are your hopes and dreams past making it through another season that goes by too quickly? Brokenness fills our TVs and social media feeds and when we don’t have the words to express sorrow we turn to destructive acts that seem to bring more raw hurt.
What do you long for?
This weekend we are going to be reading from the prophet Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 33: 14– 16 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”
There is a hope and a longing for the righteousness of God in each one of us who has said, ‘”this just isn’t right.” There is a hope for something more, something better, for those of us who have donated food, or hot chocolate to a food bank or given a gift for a family who would otherwise not have Christmas. These are echoes of your hearts longing for the Kingdom of God. You may not express these tugs in such “churchy” language but you may be the answer to someone’s prayer, you may be bringing about.
One of the commentaries I read said this:
Although we do not bring about God’s intended alternative future through sheer force of will, in our waiting we do try to place ourselves in a posture so that we might become partners with God in the advent of a new reality.
–Jennifer Ryan Ayers
This week you may be partnering with God by reconciling relationships at the tables, standing in the cold outside of a store in the early morning hours, or praying for those around the world who are encountering brokenness. Partnering with God through the Holy Spirit we posture and position ourselves in all different ways to be the body of Christ. My partnership will look different than yours and our neighbor’s, but we have to keep focused on the important question to live into the mission and goals we have been called to carry out.
What do you long for?
What is the hope you are working to bring into reality?