Today is of course the first Sunday in Advent. Last Sunday you saw the colour white on my stole, and on all the altar hangings, and covering the chalice. White is intended to signify God’s peace in recognition that in Christ, God has completed his redemptive plan and now we are seeing the fruits of the Holy Spirit enfolding or drawing all things to God the Father, in his Son, Jesus Christ. As you see now, though, everything is draped in purple (or some churches, light blue).

Next Sunday we will begin Advent, in which we’ll once again recall Christ’s birth and anticipate the fruit of his faithfulness in awaiting his return to judge and reconcile us to him. But today, we celebrate the end of the Christian year. We are not simply recognizing another year gone by; in fact, I’d say that it’s essential to stop right here, to think of this day - this Sunday where we celebrate the reign of Christ - as God’s sabbath; that is, the completion or fulfillment

“By your endurance you will gain your souls,” we hear right at the end of our Gospel reading this morning. Endurance in what you might ask? In faith of course. Persisting in a core set of beliefs that utterly transforms the world, handed on to us as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-3: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the