New Sermon Series: Prayers of Advent

Welcome to the season of Advent!

According to church tradition, this is a season in which we are invited to practice waiting, hoping and longing, specifically for the coming of Christ. While it is tempting to rush ahead into the joys of celebrating Christmas, I find that setting aside some time in these weeks before December 25th to "lean into" our longings and our hopes actually increases the joy we experience as we celebrate Christ's incarnation on Christmas. To that end, over the next few weeks in our gathered worship, we will be looking at two songs/prayers from two specific women in scripture: Hannah (the mother of Samuel) and Mary (mother of Christ). These two passages (from 1 Samuel 2 & Luke 1, respectively) are beautiful examples of expressing longing, hopes and worship to the Lord, and I pray they will help us experience a holy longing and hope as a community this Advent.