How is Advent progressing for you? What is occupying your heart and mind these days? Are you growing weary of the same Christmas music on every radio station in every store? Are you overwhelmed by shopping and preparations yet to do? Or are you filling up with the overwhelming mercy of God that Advent announces? Perhaps our little foray this Friday can serve as a bit of commercial in the ongoing activity of the season to encourage or correct as needed.
This Sunday we will be looking at Zechariah’s tongue-loosed, exultation commonly called the Benedictus. As the old priest’s sentence of silence is broken we hear him proclaim clearly the mission of the Redeemer in these terms: to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God (Luke 1:77,78). Knowledge of salvation. Forgiveness of sins. This is the heart of Advent. These are our most fundamental needs. Here human desperation meets Divine deliverance. Our folly meets His fullness. Unavoidable rejection meets an undeserved Redeemer. Praise God for tender mercy wrapped in the form of a vulnerable babe sent to deliver! As the days progress, may the truths Advent calls to mind form the prism through which we view the world.
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