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| "Advent Moon Rise" |
In a time long ago,
there used to be a season in the church year called Advent, a word that finds
its meaning in the Latin word for “coming.”
It set aside the first four weeks of the new church year to focus on
waiting and anticipating the birth of Jesus Christ.
I had always loved
that season, but since a Madison Avenue mentality has so completely insinuated
itself into our celebration of Christmas – Advent has fallen on hard times. It frankly never contributed much to the
gross domestic product. Ask anyone to
sing an Advent carol and all you will hear is silence.
Besides with all the
Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals who has time to listen to the stories of
ancient prophets who pined for a long-promised Messiah, but didn’t live to see
that day. If you press the point some
may push back and say that we already know the rest of the story. We already live on the other side of Good
Friday and Easter. So – who are we
supposed to be waiting for anyway?
But there is still
brokenness in this world, and there are twisted hearts that no amount of
holiday cheer can fix. There is a hunger
in our souls that no Christmas party or holiday dinner can fill. The Apostle Paul had it exactly right when he
wrote to the Romans in the first century,
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
It is that kind of
deep groaning that Advent is meant to assuage. I like to think of Advent as a season of
expectant yearning for the divine banquet that has no end, or the final Advent
that is yet to come.
And while we are
waiting there are a lot of things that we could be doing. Just look around at our world. There is
brokenness everywhere. Maybe while the
family is together, the discussion might be centered on what the family could
do to make our world better. There’s
time to perhaps open the Heifer International catalog and look for gift
ideas. There is time to set aside a
Saturday to go outside and glean a field or two with the Society of St. Andrew
and put food on someone’s table this Christmas.
There are lots of things that can be done to help heal this world.
But if nothing else,
take some of this Advent time for yourself. Sit quietly and take the time so that our
hearts can hear what God is telling us. You
may want to use the following to open that dialogue:
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection awaken us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day. Amen.
Opening Prayer, First Sunday of Advent
