Advents

Christmas and Advent constitute the busiest season for just about everyone in the church business.  That said, I still agree with Andy Williams – it’s the most wonderful time of the year.  The ways we work to beautify our homes and neighborhoods; the generosity we demonstrate to friends, family members, and strangers in need; the potential for meaningful connection and even reconciliation with our closest loved ones.  Even at its worst, this season embodies our hearts’ longing and hope that the world can be made right – the possibility of life the way it’s meant to be.  Yet even at its best, this season cannot hold a candle to the ultimate peace and restoration God has in store.

During Advent we remember and celebrate God’s greatest gift thus far: the birth of a baby called Immanuel – “God with us”.  This baby embodied God’s promises: to reconcile the human race to himself; to once and for all atone for our careless and selfish actions; to heal our broken hearts and bodies and world.  In a word, to bring heaven to earth.  The baby grew up to be the man, Jesus – “The Lord saves”.  In his presence sick people were made well; insignificant people were given significance; and people on the margins were told unequivocally that God loved them.  Jesus equipped and inspired a group of followers to continue this work.  The disciples grew into a worldwide movement which, empowered by the Holy Spirit, continued to heal the broken, welcome the marginalized, and extend God’s love to everyone.  The church grew because it embodied hope and wholeness – a little taste of the way life is meant to be.  At its best, this is what the church continues to embody.

But we’re imperfect.  And the world is imperfect.  Which can only mean one thing: The work that God began at the first Advent isn’t done.  The God who comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ promises that one day he will make all things new.  One day heaven will come to earth.  This moment is predicted in the Book of Revelation.  Revelation – arguably the least accessible book of the New Testament – is a message to the church.  Both the church at the end of the 1^st century, which struggled under intense persecution and lamented the brokenness of a world torn by plagues, wars, and natural disasters.  And the church today, struggling to maintain a posture of hope and expectation when the best human efforts to provide peace and basic human flourishing have failed.  The message of Revelation is this: The God who governs the universe hasn’t given up on our world.  Even now God is moving human history toward the second Advent and the renewal of all things.  The Jesus who first appeared as a baby will come back to us as a King, claiming his victory over the forces of injustice, abuse, sickness and hunger and despair.  Let your celebration of first Advent anticipate the second by bringing a taste of this victory – hope, love, joy and peace – to the world around you.