First Sunday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Transforming Light
by Amy Bratton
Welcome to the 2025 New Leaf Advent Reader. We have been offering Advent reflections from the New Leaf community since 2018, and we are glad to bring you reflections again this year. Here at New Leaf, the team is so grateful for the community that contributes and the community that participates by receiving and reading these reflections.
The community of writers this year are Canadians who care deeply about the church. They have answered the call to write as a way of engaging with their own faith and the community of faith they see around them. Over the years of the Advent Reader, we have invited 100+ contributors to share a thought about Advent with this community. I’m excited to continue this tradition and give you a small window into the Canadian community of writers. In my role as Director of Publishing at New Leaf, I have had the privilege of engaging with more and more authors over the years, and this is just a small sample of who is out there.
In a busy season, we don’t want to clog your inbox, and the New Leaf team has limits to what we can do each year, so each week during the Advent season, we will be sharing three reflections and one bonus email for subscribers. Subscribers will receive these reflections in their inbox. You can also find the posts on our website and social media (Facebook & Instagram). As you read this year, please engage with us. We welcome you to share your thoughts in a response email. If you enjoy a reflection, please pass the emails and social media posts along to your friends and family. New subscribers can sign up at newleafnetwork.ca/advent
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As we near the end of 2025, I don’t think anyone could deny that it has been a year of changes and challenges for many people. The rate of change and the number of aspects of life that are changing seem to be increasing. As I reflect on the coming season of Advent, I can’t help but notice that Jesus offers a response that subverts my first impulses. In the face of fear, Jesus offers peace. In the face of hurry and urgency, Jesus offers presence and calm. In the face of polarization, Jesus extends his hand of love and unity. In the ever-increasing darkness of the winter season, Jesus offers the promise of The Coming Light.
The lectionary readings today also offer hope in the ever-increasing darkness. The texts come from the prophet Isaiah, who speaks in a time of war, to people living with swords and spears. Paul, writing to the church in Rome, references night and darkness. We hear from Jesus with metaphors of floods, disappearances and thieves. Even today, these realities seem all too familiar. And yet the thread that runs through the readings today is light despite the darkness.
Isaiah offers a vision of the future for a people caught in war. He writes about a time when nations will no longer war against each other. A reality that comes through transformation in response to being in the presence of Yahweh on the mountain of the LORD.
Isaiah’s vision of the future:
“He [Yahweh] will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of Yahweh.”
Physical transformation of swords and spears into tools of peace instead of war is prompted by being in the radiant presence of Yahweh.
From our vantage point in 2025, Christians read this text connecting Jesus as the Messianic presence of Yahweh on earth. And yet, Jesus subverted the expectation of a Messiah who would be an influential leader and would restore national peace and success. Again, from our vantage point, we can see how the leadership that Jesus offered was more than good political or religious leadership by a human leader, no matter how blessed by God. Instead, God came to be among humanity.
While many reading the words of the prophets about the Messiah hoped for a new golden age, the lived community of Christ-followers started to understand that God’s presence is the game-changer. Even the disciples in Acts chapter 1 still expected that political reversal was on the way, but it would take time to understand the reversal that Jesus brought to earth. Notably, that the church together embodies God’s presence in the world.
The reading today from Romans 13 gives a window into the community that was formed in the early church.
“The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
The love and peace invoked by Paul as he writes to the community in Rome is the embodiment of God’s presence in the world. Presence in dark times when Christians were political underdogs. Dark times when it wasn’t a given they would ever see Paul in the flesh again. Maybe we move too quickly past the image of the amour of Light, assuming it as only a metaphor. Maybe it is real armour, previously ready for battle, yet transformed by God’s presence into love and peace. The light of Jesus’ first coming continued to shine through peace-filled community and anticipate a second coming that would subvert the darkness in the end.
The words of hope not only shine light for the first readers of these scripture words, but also shine through the communities of faith in Canada now. Love that undergirds these words also runs through communities gathering across our country for connection and care. Love that is rooted in the love they have experienced from Christ. Not love instead of trials, but love in the midst of darkness and the promise of increasing light.
Come, Lord Jesus. Shine your Light!
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