Third Sunday of Advent
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
	We make transitions along life’s journey, and search for meaning. Watch an infant take those first wobbly steps. Inevitably they are toward the arms of a dear one, and the gleeful smile and wordless laughter let us know that the baby understands that the whole world is renewed in an instant. Parents may see that wide‑eyed smile again some years later as they flip car keys in the teenager’s direction, and by God’s grace at in‑between moments of forgiveness and affirmation.
	Sacraments open a window to the blessings of everyday life and help us claim their deep meaning. A voice from a fiery bush warned Moses to take off his shoes because he stood on “holy ground.” Your first steps, your first word, taking your place at the family table, stirring to new love, forgiving and being forgiven: all of this is holy, laden with meaning, full of possibilities. Sacraments are not escape pods from the realities of the everyday; rather they invest us ever more deeply in life and recruit us for the kingdom inaugurated by Jesus. We take baby steps all our life long. In the world of sacrament, they are always directed toward the arms of a loving God, and always on the common holy ground of a community’s life.
—Rev. James Field