“Do We Have To?”
Isaiah 61:1-4
Luke 21:25-36
Today marks the first day of the new liturgical year for the Church, and the beginning of a new season. But unlike the world around us who sees this time as the season of Christmas, we the church see something different. For the church, we are not in the season of Christmas, we are in the season of Advent. Advent points us toward the day of the full and final in-breaking of the new reality of God’s kingdom when Christ comes again. That’s right. Advent is means coming, but the coming we anticipate during this season points us not to the arrival of the Christ-child in the manger, but to the arrival of the Christ-Savior at the end of time.
I
know that this is not what we expect Advent to mean. We are so used to
thinking about Advent as the season of preparation for Christmas that to hear
about Advent as the time of preparation for the second coming may leave many of
us with feelings of awkwardness and confusion.
But that is just what this time is all about. The season of Advent is supposed to come as
an abrupt disruption in our business as usual, status quo faith and life. It is supposed
to be a time when life as we know it with our busy lives, hectic schedules, and
the hustle and bustle of the shopping season, is once again interrupted so that
we may prepare ourselves for the day that is coming towards us, to
the day when God’s time and our time will once again intersect when Christ
comes again at the last day.
Not
quite what we expect is it? Every year I
know Advent is coming and I go to look at the Advent texts, and every year I am
once again challenged by them and startled by their message. Every year, year after year, the Advent texts
continue to force me to stop, take a step back, and reconsider this season that
we are in. The problem is the internal
conflict I have between wanted to move right on to the Christmas story and yet
having to wade through the Advent texts that seem to have nothing to do with
Christmas at all.
I mean
do we really want to hear this text from Luke at this time of year? We just began the holiday season with
Thanksgiving. The Christmas songs are playing all over the radio, trees and
Christmas decorations are beginning to pop up all over the place. Do we really want to dwell on what Jesus says
in Luke about signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars; and distress among
nations? Do we really want to hear about
people who "will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the
world?" Do we really want to
reflect upon the powers of the heavens being shaken? Do we really have to go through this whole
Advent thing? Would it not be better
just to escape from everything around us, and immerse ourselves in the
heart-warming activities, nostalgia, and festivity of Christmas?
Sure
I guess it might be better, maybe even a little safer, but would we be better
for it? Maybe these texts for Advent are
the exact texts we need to hear, otherwise Christmas becomes just one more
holiday in a long list of overcommercialized and securlarized national holidays
that in the end have no real theological significance or bearing on our lives
of faith.
Maybe
these texts for Advent and the season of Advent are exactly what we need as we
make our way toward Christmas, for the road to Christmas is not an easy road to
follow. There are many distractions
along the way. Many opportunities to
lose sight of what Christmas is all about – that its just as much about the
future as it is the past.
In
many respects, Advent is for Christmas what Good Friday is for Easter. Just as you cannot get to the empty tomb
without first going to the cross, neither can you get to Christmas without
first going through Advent. Advent sets
Christmas in context. It gives us new
wisdom and insight through which to understand the inbreaking of God’s Word in
human history both in the past in the first advent, and most importantly in the
future in the second advent.
Advent
reminds us that things are not always as they apperar. Normacly and predictability are fleeting
realities. Advent allows us to see this
time in a new way, with new eyes. It
allows us to see the pregnancy of one more teenage as no ordinary matter. It allows us to see that this pregnancy of
this particular teenage, named Mary, provides the overture to a cosmic
event. It allows us to see that this
baby born in a manger, is not just another baby, but the Savior of the
world.
Think
about this for a moment. Look at the
angel on the bulletin cover. What is the
angel doing? The angel is blowing a
trumpet. In Scripture, when the angels
blow their trumpets they are heralding the passing of this world and the advent
of the kingdom of our Lord. There are
not any trumpets blowing at Jesus' birth, when angels blow their trumpets, they
are blowing to wake us up, to remind us that the kingdom of God is near.
Do we
have to do this Advent thing? Yes, of
course. Advent reminds us that in the
midst of our Christmas activities and preparations, we the faithful community,
are to watch, wait, and prepare ourselves for the coming of the kingdom, the
coming of the day of the Lord, when Christ himself will finally and fully usher
in a new heaven and a new earth where hope, peace, joy, and love will forever
be the way for the nations.
Do
we have to do this Advent thing?
Yes. Advent reminds us that the
one who was born at Bethlehem and the one who is to come, is the one who is
already with us, in every moment. The kingdom that is to come in all its
fullness, is the kingdom that is already among us. This time is not about hiding in fear and
foreboding about what is to come, but to live as people of hope because we know
that the one who came long ago is the one with us now, and the one who will
come again.
Do we
have to do this Advent thing? Yes. Because Jesus urges us to stay present, stay
open to the coming of the Lord. Jesus
urges us to not get weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries
of this life. In other words, not to let
anything distract us or preoccupy us to the point that we get caught up in
anything and everything that will consume our attention and keep us from living
as watchful, hopeful people.
Do we
have to do this Advent thing? Yes. Because Advent reminds us that we are a
people who wait and hope with eager anticipation, because we are a people who
believe that the kingdom of God is near, that God has already broken into human
history in the person of Jesus Christ, that the kingdom of God is all around
us, the future is already present, and that God in Jesus Christ will come
again. Our redemption is drawying
near. Amen.