I have struggled so hard today to come up with words of comfort. I struggle, because I know that the comfort you desire is not the comfort I have to offer. You hope for such lovely things during Advent: peace and justice and new heavens and a new earth. And the only response I can make is to point to the same old kingdom that our Parent has tried to share with us from the very beginning. The one we find confusing and a bit disappointing. The one that demands from us an unconditional love that feels impossibly out of reach. The one that reveals that eternal life is a banquet hall where murder victims joyfully and eagerly greet their killers with a kiss. Who among us, especially in light of recent events, could possibly be comforted by such truth? But it is the only comfort I have to give.