Advent 2: Where Righteousness is at Home

The goal of restoration must be to create a place where righteousness is at home.

Artwork: “Love and Faithfulness Meet” Relief Sculpture St. Michael’s Church Golden Grove, Wales

It’s been a hard week for me personally. Since a week ago Tuesday, I’ve gotten a root canal to address an abscessed tooth, had my book proposal rejected by the publisher that was my first choice, and Friday, my beloved dog died. So naturally, I’m going to talk about hope. As I’ve noted before, hope doesn’t exist because the circumstances indicate space for hopefulness. Rather, we speak hope into being from despair, when the situations of our lives and world look the most bleak. Just as courage isn’t the absence of fear, hope isn’t the absence of despair. Rather it’s what we hold onto--it’s what we speak into existence for each other--when things look like the opposite is more likely. 

In 2 Peter chapter 3 we find an imagining of what the day of the Lord will look like. Full of apocalyptic imagery such as elements melting with fire and the skies burning and dissolving, it comes to a rather poi…