Advent Series #1: Why Advent Makes Our Faith Public and Not Private
Putting Flesh On the Things We Hold In Our Hearts
Twice each year the church leaves what it calls Ordinary Time, and enters a special season. Lent leads to Easter. Advent leads to Christmas.
The former trains our mind on the internal. The latter on the external. A time of reflection leads to repentance. A time of preparation leads to realization.
Advent isn’t simply about good spirits or feelings of joy. Advent is about the anticipation of the coming of God. Advent isn’t about becoming a better person. Advent is about the world becoming new. In Advent, we prepare ourselves for the reality that God has and will again enter into the world and change it.
What happens when God comes?
- The widow and the fatherless will be comforted
- The hungry will be fed
- The prisoner will be released
- The person on death row will be promised that today he will be with God in paradise
- The foreigner will be treated like a citizen
- The sick will be healed
- The broken will be mended
- The slave will be freed
- The oppressed will be relieved
- The humble will be exalted
- The warrior will have his swords melted down and turned into plows
The history of both the Jewish and Christian religions has never been simply about personal salvation and morality. What it has always been is a craving, a waiting, a longing for God to come. Our oldest ancestors hoped he would show up and deliver us; deliver us from the power of evil both internally and externally.
We pause for these 24 days to join with our forebears to say, come, Desire of nations, come.
When Jesus appeared, he showed us how he would come to us, how he would save us. It was through love. He established his body, the church, inviting all the world to join, promising that after he had acheived salvation throughout all the nations, he would return in like manner.
For this reason, we practice, for four Sundays and twelve days of Christmastide, the anticipation of that reality, hoping that in our anticipation, we become transformed to live that kingdom while we wait for its fullness.
From the first promise that a deliverer would crush the head of this world’s system until today, the people of this world prepare for his Advent.
Eve craved it when she had her first son, saying, I have received a child from the Lord. Moses foretold it when he said another like him would one day arise. Israel cried for it when they were in bondage in Egypt. The psalmist wept for it when he asked, why do the heathen rage? The Hebrews hoped for it when they sang the songs of home in a foreign land. The elders of the nation mourned for it when they cried at the lackluster new temple that was void of God’s presence. The prophets promised it when they foretold a stone that would crush the kingdoms of the world. Isaiah celebrated it when he said, Your God reigns! Malachi reminded the nation that, The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. John the Baptist introduced it when he cried in the wilderness preparing the way of the Lord. Jesus revealed it when he delivered himself over to the god of this world to suffer and die. The Father vindicated it when he raised up Jesus from the dead. Paul comforted the Thessalonians with it when he said the Lord will descend from heaven. And John pled for it when he said, even so Lord Jesus, come quickly.
The church today sings, Oh come, oh come Emmanuel, God with us, not simply in our hearts, but in our cities and our homes and our nations. Come and deliver us. Come and save us. Come and rebuild us. We long to see your face, to touch your hands, to hear your voice.
God is coming. We await his arrival.
We were not told to prepare for death. In fact, we were told the opposite. Prepare for life. Even the dead in Christ shall rise first so that we all may meet him as he reenters our world as King.
Rather than preparing for an afterlife, let’s begin preparing for a wedding. The groom is coming to us. We are the virgins, filling our lamps with oil, waiting, unable to sleep.
Yes, all of life is Advent. All of scripture is Advent. All the book calls him near. All the saints wait and and hope with joy for his arrival.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till he appeared and the soul felt it’s worth.
