#AdventWord #Raise

When we raise something, we put it above everything else, make it stronger, better, and more noticeable. What is our focus for all the things that we raise in our own lives: children, questions, concerns, taxes, salaries, walls, fences, money, prayers, and more?

Isaiah proclaims that the mountain of the Lord’s house “shall be raised above the hills.” It will draw all people and nations to God. Advent echoes this prophecy and offers us the ability to focus and redirect all that we raise up in the present to the future hope and promise of Jesus Christ.

Shelagh Casey Brown is the director of Alumni and Church Relations at VTS and is the president of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes board of directors.

The Lantern Tower at Sheffield Cathedral. ‘The wooden structure represents Christ’s Crown of Thorns and the colours symbolise humanity’s struggle and conflict (blue and violet) transformed through the Resurrection and the Holy Spirit (gold and red) into healing and growth (green)’.