Root And Branch Church

Preacher: Virginia White - At the same time as the physical world around us descends into longer nights, colder days, and the stillness of winter, the advent season invites us into a spirit of warm and eager anticipation of the birth of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Messiah into the world. But what does it mean for us to anticipate an event that has already happened in the past? How can we hold onto certain hope that something good is promised to us and will be given to us when the world around us seems so broken, so (literally) cold, so cruel?  Advent asks us to hold the pains and disappointments of reality as we know it in tension with unshakeable expectation that no matter how difficult things may seem now, there is an ever present promise of a new and world-altering good yet to come. And even that this world re-making good thing that lies ahead of us in the future, has already been done before and so can be done again.  Advent, then, is like this topsy-turvy time warp land where by remembering the