Come, let us walk in the light!

Dear St. Augustine's 'ohana,
Advent begins with a deep longing as we read Isaiah’s dream of swords becoming ploughshares and spears becoming pruning hooks. This is an improbable vision by the world’s standards, but it is a hope we hold at a soul level. Isaiah invites us to imagine a world where tools of harm become tools of nourishment. In this hopeful vision, the ways of war and division are transformed into ways of connection with the 'āina and love for all.

Bringing his message home, Isaiah says, “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” These words soothe and calm us, providing Advent hope. They invite us to remember that we don't have to wait for the light. We can choose it, trust it, and walk in it now. We can live as though this hopeful vision is already breaking into the world through us.

The season of Advent ushers in the new church year. We enter a time of quiet and reflection, keeping both clock time and soul time as we wait with anticipation. As Paul says, something new is already stirring. It's time to put aside the weight we’ve been carrying and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” the garment of a new humanity. Many of us carry a profound weight today while recognizing the injustice of weight heaped inequitably upon those who can least afford to carry it.

This week, Jesus offers a teaching that sounds like warning but is actually invitation to champion justice by paying attention to what's happening in the world right now and acting on it in daily life. He urges us to live each moment as though God has arrived in our midst. Advent calls us to the kind of wakefulness that helps us see that God is already here, flowing through our ordinary daily actions of kindness, inclusion, compassion, and love.

On this first Sunday in Advent, I wonder: What are the swords in our lives that God is inviting us to lay down? What are the ploughshares we are being asked to take up? Where are we being invited to move from fear to trust, from guardedness to generosity, from sleepwalking through life to living awake?

Observing a holy Advent season entails more than just counting down to Christmas. It is the beginning of the turning, the process of new life emerging through Christ's coming birth. This is a season of inner reflection during which we are invited to embrace our kuleana. In the turning, we see that the light we long for is already rising within us, reshaping our minds, and guiding our steps. We begin our Advent journey with the same words Isaiah offered thousands of years ago: Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

With gratitude and blessings,
Vicar Jennifer
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