Advent 1

Here it is the first Sunday in Advent. Seattle wears its normal Advent garb: rain, rain, rain. But the first candle is lit and we pray for Immanuel to be God-with-us once again.

At the end of worship at Phinney Ridge today we sang this verse:

Can it be that from our endings,
new beginnings you create?
Life from death, and from our rendings,
realms of wholeness generate?
Take our fears, then, Lord and turn them
into hopes for life anew:
With this light, and with our witness,
through us let the world see you.
-Dean W. Nelson

This is a nice Bach day as well. It started, as I have on this Sunday for 40+ years, with listening to Bach's Cantata 140: Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying. Now this afternoon I'm going with friends to hear all six of the cello suites. Joshua Roman, the young former principal cellist with the Seattle Symphony is doing them. He'll play three, then we get a break for dinner, then come back for the other three. It's a little too much Bach for Larry, so he'll come and join us for dinner.

Happy Advent!