December 4, 2015 | I Advent, Friday

Ps 16, 17 & 22; Amos 5:1-17, Jude 1-16, Matt. 22:1-14

Waiting for the light

Waiting is one of the themes of the Advent season. We are waiting for the Light of Christ to come into the world. It seems to me that all of life includes some form of waiting, although wise persons remind us to live in the present while we do this. We wait for a birth, even our own. We wait for growing up and birthdays; for vacations to begin; for school to start or end, for "the" school, or job, or spouse, or friend or calling; for our children or grandchildren to find their own paths; for biopsy and test results and diagnoses; for better or worse health and eventually death-and even for the church renovation to be finished by Christmas.

Human life seems to be linear, but one thing so affirming to me about the liturgical calendar year is that it is a big circle. We know and trust from experience this cycle of beginnings and endings and the hope that lies ahead. There is "one more circle round the sun," as the song writer Peter Mayer sings. We trust that the moon waxes and wanes, that day follows night, that more dark is present in the winter and more light in the spring and that changes accompany this.

Advent teaches me to trust and wait with hope. There will always be darkness but there will always be light in some form. So we wait for the Light when it seems very dark. Our hopes may not be met in the ways we wish, but there will always be some tender mercies of compassion and love and kindness to shine some light on our way.

Ellen Kympton

Advent at St. Stephen's

Earlier meditations