I’ve always liked the wit who came up with this charmer: “If you are being run out of town, get in front of everybody and make it look like a parade.”

Our selected texts are full of Biblical characters, e.g., prophets, John the Baptist, the adult Jesus, Job, people healed of deafness, blindness, all in a movement toward something better. A parade, to emphasize the drama of it all, toward an End Point of God’s eternal reign. And, unlike most parades, all have a rough time getting through it all, and two, John the Baptist and Jesus die!

This kind of parade is not exactly what we will see locally as we head toward Christmas in Middle Tennessee! But, the thing to watch for in our ADVENT parade is the wide diversity of characters. Much like a modern Christmas parade there will be many different participants from bands to floats, from horses to tractors, from a band that looks alike in uniform but play very different instruments! But all headed in the same direction!

Advent is like that. All of us are to a great extent quite different. But, each one is called to join the Kingdom of God journey toward wholeness, toward salvation. Like children excitedly thinking about holiday school break and those presents under a tree, all ages should be excited to be in the Advent parade. And excited to invite others in all their differences to come along for the journey toward the meaning of Christmas. Isaiah sums up that meaning very well when he writes, “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” Isaiah 35:10.

Blessings as we worship on this coming 3rd Sunday of Advent!

Pastor Barry