Blessed Advent!

Welcome to Advent!

I'm following the Eucharistic readings assigned by the Episcopal Church, and today we begin with the promise of salvation - of healing and wholeness.  Isaiah 2:1-5 predicts a time when we will all worship God together, when we will lay down our weapons and turn to tending the earth.  Matthew 8:5-13 tells of the centurion who believed that Jesus could heal, which led to Jesus pronouncing the future when "many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven."  Unfortunately, Matthew feels compelled to tell us that many Israelites will be "thrown into the outer darkness."  This inclusion is less a universal promise than a supplanting.

OK, so both these texts have problems.  But the promise is real too.  We are all invited to the table, to the mountain, to the house of God.  Not all of us will hear that invitation, not all of us will respond.  And it's not clear to me just what the entrance requirements are.  Must I acknowledge the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the only face of God?  Must I worship as the ancient Judeans did?  Must I believe in exactly the way the first generations of Christians did (knowing that in fact there was great diversity from the beginning)?  No, I'm not clear about a lot of things.

But I am clear about this: I am invited to walk with the Divine One, the Holy One known to Israel.  I am invited to lay down my weapons and turn to my erstwhile enemies with an open heart.  I am invited to end the divisions and hatreds that keep me from knowing God in our midst.  And you're invited too.

Welcome to Advent.  Welcome to the season of longing and expectation.  You are invited to watch, to listen, to prepare the way.  Each of us can do this, and no one can do it for another.  Welcome.