Emphasis Preaching Journal

Advent is a season of anticipation, but as we near the end of the season of Pentecost our readings anticipate this anticipation. Today we hear both a story of a miraculous birth and Jesus’ prophecies of the end times as a new beginning. As the children’s curriculum Godly Play tells us in its lesson on the church year: “For every beginning there is an ending, and for every ending there is a beginning.” Our endings and beginnings get all tied up together.

1 Samuel 1:4-20