The First Sunday in Advent

Take your wrong-doing out of my sight.

Cease to do evil.

Learn to do good,

search for justice,

help the oppressed,

be just to the orphan,

plead for the widow.

‘Come now, let us talk this over, says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.’

[Isaiah]

The blessing of Advent is always this: a recalling of the pilgrim People of God back to first things, to repentance, and justice, and to the promise of the Kingdom to come. There are no guarantees that any of our efforts will succeed, nor any promise that we will feel blessed in the doing of them. There is only the command that we are to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, and fulfill all other obligations of our royal priesthood. Such is the sterner content of the Good News, and of this new life into which we have been summoned by God: priestly service in the world, the sacrifice of life for the sake of the Kingdom