Some Thoughts Early in the Advent Season

Yesterday was the first Sunday in Advent. This season is becoming more important to me for several reasons. In years past, I have been more attuned to Lent and the focus on repentance and the spiritual disciplines. However, the longer that I am in pastoral ministry, the more I come to see the importance and necessity of what Advent has to offer. Both Advent and Lent have difficult words for those of us who identify as "American Christians". And both of these messages are typically missed, by many in the church and by the world at large. In the case of Advent, the "Christmas" noise drowns out the voice of prophets and the miracle of God's presence with us in Jesus Christ. In the case of Lent, many folks aren't even aware that's going on, even within the church - Easter is not nearly as culturally celebrated as Christmas. Anyway, I'm beginning to learn more about Advent as it relates to my own faith simply because, as the preacher, I have to have something to say about it on Sunday morning.


1) Advent goes against the flow of the culture. The season of Advent is about waiting on the promise of God to be fulfilled. As a Christian, I believe that God's promise has been ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. However, the Kingdom that Jesus has inaugurated has not yet been fulfilled. We are living in that extended moment of expectation, between the already and the not yet, still waiting for God to complete the work of reconciliation. Paul lists patience as a fruit of the Spirit and we are told by Isaiah that "those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength". Surely that is a word of challenge for us in a world when "instant" is the expectation. Many of us have simply forgotten how to wait on anything. I especially see this in how children are no longer allowed to simply be bored and wait for something. I remember riding to the beach (4 hours from where I grew up - and 4 hours is FOREVER for a kid) and having three options: (1) listening to and trying to enjoy whatever my dad wanted to listen to on the radio (Elton John or Loggins & Messina, not very exciting to a 10-year-old, or maybe a NASCAR race which was excruciating); (2) sleeping; or (3) looking out the window and daydreaming, which is what I usually did. In short, I was bored. Now it seems that every other van or SUV that I pass has a DVD player. We don't have one in our van, but for any trip over three hours, we plug in the laptop and let the kids watch movies - so I'm not carping on this too much. Sitting, waiting, being bored - these are increasingly becoming intolerable in our culture, especially for kids. And Advent asks us to sit and wait. Expect. Be on the lookout. Be watchful. Wait. Yes, even slow down. Or maybe stop. And how realistic is it for us to stop in this season? Again, it's going against the flow of the culture.

2) Advent asks us to take the Incarnation seriously. Thankfully, the hue and cry about the so-called "War on Christmas" has died down somewhat over the past couple of years, but you still see people getting hyper-focused on the assumed erosion of the "real meaning" of Christmas. I'm not sure what all the fuss is about - the "real" meaning of Christmas has never figured prominently in our culture. I'm guessing that most in our culture would say that the meaning of Christmas is about: spending time with our family, peace on earth, giving and receiving presents, or something along those lines. Those things are wonderful, but that's not the meaning of Christmas. The meaning of Christmas is best expressed in John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." That's Christmas - God put on human flesh and became one of us. And the Christmas story itself is full of danger, discomfort, fear, and, yes, glory, praise, and wonder. Christmas is about how the world received God in the person of Jesus - as an outsider, a threat, unwelcome. This is how the "world" still receives God (using the term "world" is a bit tricky - maybe I'll write about that later). Advent is a time when the church should do some soul-searching about how we receive God ourselves and how we offer our God to the world. Perhaps especially that last bit - how is the Church "putting on Jesus Christ" (to paraphrase Paul)? How does the world experience or understand God through the witness and work of the church?

3) Advent is about a God Who is active in the world. The God we find in Scripture, the God we find in the manger, is a God at work in the world and in our lives. No watchmaker God for us Christians. For me, the most exciting thing about being a Christian is the joy of awakening to what God is doing in the world around me and joining in that work. Advent calls us to that awakening and that work. As Paul says in yesterday's Scripture from Romans 13: "you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep." In Advent, if we allow ourselves to wait and to watch, pull back even a little from maddening rush of what this time of year has become for so many of us, we will be amazed at how God is at work in our world.

4) Finally, another thing I love about Advent is the willingness of so many of us, Christian or not, to embrace joy. I think in many ways, God's peace and joy shine through even the often meager efforts we undertake. And as Christians, we should be at the vanguard of God's peace and joy movement. For too long, the church has been perceived as joyless, heartless, judgmental, and harsh. What better time than Advent to make that negative perception obsolete!

I'm thankful for this time of the year and am looking forward to what God might teach us as we wait and watch. I'm thankful for the opportunities throughout this season of Advent and Christmas to fellowship with my church family, reach out to the needy in our community, spend time with family, and focus on how God is at work in my own life. I'm mostly thankful for God's gift of Jesus Christ to this broken world and to me, a sinner. God be praised!