The gospel for Thursday of the first week of Advent is taken from Matthew 7th chapter, 21st verse, and the 24th to the 27th verse. Jesus said to his disciples, not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and buffeted the house, but it did not collapse. It had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand.

The rains fell, the floods came, the winds blew and buffeted the house, and it collapsed and was completely ruined. Jesus is talking about alignment. Aligning your heart with God’s heart, aligning your mind with the truth that God has revealed to us. There’s no way to enter the kingdom of God, a place of fullness and peace, without basing everything that you are making decisions on, basing it in the truth. Truth of who you are, truth of who God is and the dynamic that he longs to establish between us. All of that has got to become real.

Not just an idea, not just a thought, but something you’re experiencing in. When you experience God, you are on a rock foundation because nothing will separate you from him once you found him. Please take a moment to reflect and then I will close with a prayer. The closing prayer. Father, it is clear that we cannot understand you or begin to feel your presence transforming us until we accept you exactly as you are and accept ourselves as we are. We are far from you in some ways and very close in other ways.

But keep us always aware of that connection. You are in us, we are in you. And it’s in this union that we will find life. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.