Monday of the first week of Advent

Psalms 1, 2, and 3
Amos 2:6-16
2 Peter 1:1-11
Matthew 21:1-11

It’s always jarring when we read a passage we associate with Holy Week during Advent.  Our gospel passage tells of the entry into Jerusalem—a Palm Sunday text.  What is that doing here?

But even though we wait for the coming of the Christ Child, a lovely and innocent baby, our salvation comes not from the birth of a child, but from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

“Advent is both a beginning and an end, an alpha and an omega of the church’s year of grace.  Too often considered merely a season of preparation for the annual commemoration of Christ’s birth, this rich and many-layered season is actually designed to prepare the  Christian for the glorious possibilities of the parousia,  It is a season of longing expectation—Come, Lord Jesus.” William Storey