 What are we waiting for in this advanced season? We light candles each week, and each time we do, it is like a whistling in the dark, a whispering, a watching, and waiting for the one who, well, in Malachi's words, suddenly come to his temple, the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, he is coming. But there's a switch, as the prophet asks, who can endure this day? Who can stand when he appears? Once again it is a reminder that the kind of peace that Immanuel will render will not be one that is easy, not one that will be readily given or received, but one that will mean a giving up of ourselves, a surrendering, a sort of baptism by one of light and heat, flames and fire.