Joseph Peters-Mathews

So where does this leave us? What are we to do until the end of this age and the arrival of an entirely different world? Advent offers us a time to live in the tension between fear and hope. Between fear and hope. It may be a week from now that all ends; it may be another 2000 years. And we continue to harm one another, the planet, the creation.
In the meantime,…… we have been told what to do – love our neighbor, love ourselves, love God. Do not be weighted down by the justifiable fear.

Whether grieving or celebrating right now, we follow a savior whose kingdom is not of this world because all the kingdoms of this world are so incurably sinful and corrupt. As we listen for Jesus’ voice, we hear that as a truth to which he’s come to testify. Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death and to those in the tombs bestowing eternal life. Yet God’s reign is not fully manifest.

As we celebrate St. Hilda again, we wonder how we can attune our lives and hearts to her example. While it’s fun to use so-called “Celtic” worship on this day, what would truly living like a community she oversaw look like? How might we corporately and individually live in strict obedience to Hilda’s rule of justice, devotion, chastity, peace, and charity as we follow Jesus, giving up everything that holds us back? What systems are we part of that are inherently unjust and perpetuate injustice? Where does our devotion to God shine through? How can it grow?

As we celebrate all the saints and pray for all the souls, we may not necessarily consider ourselves exemplars of faith…When cry out in lament, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” — about the Conference of Parties or systemic racism in policing or housing or so-called “critical race theory” or, or, or, we have the examples of the saints those who believed and saw the glory of God.