Today is the first Sunday of Advent in the church calendar. If you read from the Lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer, you join with Christians who have read the same scriptures on this day for hundreds of years and read from Amos, Luke and 1 Thessalonians.
Amos 1:1-5,13-2:8 We read of the pending Judgement of Israel and Judah.
"For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord..." (2:4)
"For three sins of Israel, even for four I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals." (2:6)
Luke 21:5-19- We read about the signs of the end of the age.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11- We are told to be watchful and alert
Be watchful. Be alert. That is what Advent is about. Once, a people watched for the coming of their Messiah. We celebrate Christmas now because he came, though many of them were blind to it. And now, in the season of Advent we remember his first coming and wait in eager expectation for his return, that day when the Bridegroom returns to this world for his Bride. Stay awake!
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of
darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of
this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit
us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come
again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the
dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, 345)
