This is no traditional Advent reading. It is decidedly about hope. Yet the readings focus on times when many find little or no hope.The sources of hopelessness can be personal or cultural, or both. Depending on how we as individuals are "wired", either can result in significant depressions or even a felt devastation. So I inquire about what it means to 'hope in' something... not to 'hope that'... or to 'hope for'..., but to hope in? There is a section on Advent and why we observe it, then a Personal Introduction not to me so much as to my thought, as I am a retired Lutheran clergyman and unknown. Daily comments follow with summaries of the Bible texts before my own commentaries on the day's theme. The Sunday sermons are for the home-bound and for those who do not attend a congregation. The Sundays are lighter reading as the Day of the Resurrection takes precedence in any liturgical season.Sometimes one senses disparity between the divine faith that we hold near and dear and our human ability to retain that faith when we are losing at life. It is not that we no longer believe in the story. It is only that we become no longer capable of believing that the story any longer applies to us. For you who have known such times, these words are written.
