What comes to mind when you hear the phrase the God of the Bible? What's the demeanor of the God who lives in your head? How does he feel about this world? Maybe more personally, how does he feel about you? Don't polish it up. Don't pretty it up when you think, "What does God think about me? How does God feel about me? Does God think about me? Does God feel anything for me?" If you could see his face and survive, what would his face tell you about how he feels about you? What expression is on his face at the mention of your name? Mad, disappointed, frustrated, pity. What emoji would God use when he hears your name; headshake, eye roll, laughter, frown. What adjectives immediately come to your mind when you hear the word God; maybe some of these: holy, distant, righteous, weak, annular, just, powerful, cheery, sinister, impotent, gracious, loving, kind. Question, how about joyous? Is that on the list? Does he laugh? Does his head, if he has a head, throw back when he laughs hard? Does he delight? Does God delight? Does God ever look upon the world? Does God ever look upon the oceans with some measure of, that was a good day. I delight in that. When he sees his cosmic masterpieces, and we've named only a few of them, but when he sees his cosmic masterpieces, is he bored by them now? Has he gotten tired of them? Is your God joyous? Is my God joyous?

Jesus incarnated the way of shalom. He taught us about it. He showed us what it does and how it drastically differs from the ways of this world. See, in the way of shalom, in the way of peace, people love their enemies. They confront violence with love. In the way of shalom, the strong care for the weak. The forgotten are included. The marginalized are valued. The poor are fed. Power is used for good. Reconciliation and restoration replace division and discord. Forgiveness instead of payback. Hope instead of despair. Humility in place of pride, gentleness instead of anger. On and on and on we could go. The Sermon on the Mount is the way of shalom.

May this God of hope help us be lanterns of hope, in the world that we live, in the circumstances we are in, with the people we interact with as we go through Advent, that we may be lanterns of hope. That we may be people whose words and lives and attitudes and actions convey to a hurting world that there is hope and his name is Jesus. And this hope is there no matter what we're facing, no matter what is happening in our world or in our nation, no matter how fragile things are, no matter how disoriented the world is, that we might be lanterns of overflowing hope in this hope starved world.