November 9, 2008

Greetings all. It was good to see those of you who attended class today. For those who could not, you were greatly missed.

We completed our series today on Faith and Politics. Most breathed a great sigh of relief. Over the next few weeks, we will be entering a time of focusing on the Advent Season, and the Christmas story as revealed in the Gospels. We will also be looking at the Advent Season through the eyes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and a collection of his Christmas Sermons.

As you go into this week, I hope that you will carry with you the expectation and anticipation associated with the coming Advent Season. Bonhoeffer writes that "Celebrating Advent means learning how to wait. Waiting is an art which our impatient age has forgotten. We want to pluck the fruit before it has had time to ripen. Greedy eyes are soon disappointed when what they saw as luscious fruit is sour to the taste. In disappointment and disgust they throw it away. The fruit, full of promise rots on the ground. It is rejected without thanks by disappointed hands. The blessedness of waiting is lost on those who cannot wait, and the fulfillment of promise is never theirs. They want quick answers to the deepest questions of life and miss the value of those times of anxious waiting."

We are as a nation in a time of anxious waiting. We look forward to the coming year as a time where everyone, regardless of whether we voted for one candidate or another, anticipates a better time. We look forward to restoration and the fulfillment of promises made. The question is, are we willing to both be patient for the fruit to ripen and to do the hard labor of picking that choice fruit when it is ready? We should all be a little more attentive to the times and to our role in society today as people of faith. Judgment is not our vocation; rather, we are to love and to wait patiently for the coming Savior. We are to pick the fruit from the highest branches and help those who cannot reach it. In short, we have great responsibilities as people of faith who live in great abundance in a community of faith.

God bless you all this week.

Bryan