Pineridge Blog

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Purple Sunday!

OK, maybe you haven’t heard of Purple Sunday but that’s what I have been calling the first Sunday of Advent for the last three years.  It is only a matter of time before it goes viral! Don’t worry if you missed worship last week, because you let a little thing like a blizzard stop you from coming to church. It is Purple Sunday and a new beginning!

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year in stores. Cyber Monday was a day our email inboxes were stuffed full of discounts and hot holiday deals online. Both get bigger every year. Woo hoo!

Not to be out done by the great prices in stores, on Purple Sunday everything is free! Seriously. Forgiveness is free.  You can take enough for yourself and for everyone on your naughty list.  Grace is free.  Love is free. Joy is free. Supplies will never run out and carry a lifetime guarantee. No limit. Impossible, you say?  How does God do it, you ask?  Volume, volume, volume! As the angel said to Mary, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

God is forever creating something out of nothing from the very first word, “Let there be light.” The prophet Isaiah says that God can cause even the desert to burst forth with life, “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.” 

Wherever there are deserts in the world and in our lives they are canvases waiting to be turned into God’s masterpiece.  Isaiah offers hope to people who are past hopelessness. His message is that their faith may have run out, but God’s faith in us never fails. 

Another way the Bible declares God creates out of nothing is in a virgin having a child, the Word made flesh. Impossible, you say? How does God do it, you ask? As the angel said to Mary, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”  

Jim