Let us pray: God of holy peace, may our Advent prayers for your coming be linked with Advent lives that follow your leading. Amen.

    Hope pushed away from the table, having finished her toast and jam, grabbed her steaming cup of English Breakfast tea and moved to the living room with her half-read newspaper. It had been a lazy Saturday morning, the kind she loved until she had a chance to look at the clock and wonder where so much of the day had gone already.

    The article she was reading was yet another one on the same topic that seemed to pervade everything she saw, heard or read these days. The Nature of Things on Wednesday evening had started out with a global weather forecast for the next decade. The news was not good. This article didn’t help. It suggested that many of the experts were too optimistic in their assessment of global warming. Many researchers were doing their work, only to discover that their predictions of the cumulative effect of higher temperatures were too narrow to fit their observations. If anything, climate change was having a greater effect and was happening faster than anyone could have imagined.

    It all left Hope feeling very discouraged, with a sentiment that belied the proclamation her parents had made when they named her thirty-seven years ago. In other words, Hope was not very hopeful these days.

    It wasn’t as if her life was being affected directly in a negative way. She had a good job. She actually liked the fact that the winters were warmer than they had been when she was growing up, even though she felt guilty about feeling that way. If she could ever stay away from the predictions and just live her life on a day to day basis it would all be fine. She lived simply - only driving her car when absolutely necessary. On the whole she felt her carbon footprint was pretty small. But life was more than just what you do for yourself, she thought, and the possibilities that lay ahead for planet earth, left her in a depressing kind of funk. She was frustrated that politicians were more interested in re-election, and the donations needed from profitable businesses that would fuel that re-election, than any long-term program that could ensure a healthy future for the world’s citizens. She scoffed at so-called aspirational goals for greenhouse gas reduction. She knew that the short term quest for more money would long outweigh any long term expectation that we should actually have a healthy planet on which to live.

    Hope was a person of faith. She attended her church on a regular basis. She would be there again tomorrow. She would hear once again the promise of good news, and while on a heart and faith level she believed it, on a head level the message just did not jive. She had a hard time reconciling her concerns for the earth with her belief that God would provide, that the good news of God’s presence was also a message of good news for the future of the earth.

    And so, as Hope finished the article, she set the paper down and just took time to sit and reflect. What could she do? She did believe that God could make all things new. She also believed the scientists whose predictions about the future were scaring her. How could those two understandings come together without causing too much existential angst? How could the advent time of waiting, and the promised birth of Jesus, have anything to say about the future of the earth? I guess that’s what advent is about, she mused, reflecting back on past experiences at this time of year. She had heard the encouragement to enter into advent reflection, to slow down and go deep within, to imagine what it was she was waiting for. And as she did, she realised that her advent wish this year, was guidance on what she could do, in her own small way, about the crisis being faced by planet earth.

    Her resolve was sealed. Hope was not done waiting, but advent wasn’t over yet either. She was going to listen carefully to the message of advent this year - with this special focus. She knew that with her mind and heart focussed in this way, there would be insights, She believed enough about connections to know that seemingly unrelated things could offer spirit-filled  insights if we could only let go and let God. She also knew that this would not be something that would only happen through reflection. Her faith was one which was always lived out. She knew God would give her some things to do as this time of waiting progressed. She also knew that action would result in more reflection, only to result in more and different action after that. The journey of faith is like that. Action, reflection, action in a never ending circle of faith. Her Saturday morning ritual complete, Hope got up and got busy, still waiting, but with excited expectation and just a bit of relief. Thank you, God, she prayed. Amen.