In The Flesh: Joy (Advent 3 + Community Sunday)

In a world filled with bad news and painful reminders that all is not what it could be, it is easy to feel that God is far away. And yet, the season of Advent reminds us that it is in exactly such times and circumstances that God draws closest to us. As we journey through hope, peace, love and joy to Christmas day, we recall the ways in which Emmanuel (“God-with-us”) not only enables us to navigate the realities of our lives and the world with these advent gifts, but with the particular compassion born from a God who loves enough to join us in the flesh.