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Advent: God’s Timing Not Like Ours
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (December 18, 2006) - Editor's note: In preparation for the Christmas observance, Covenant Communications is sharing devotionals that originally appeared in local Covenant church newsletters and are being published here by permission. The following comes from Philip Stenberg of Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis.
By Philip Stenberg
It will surely happen again. Someone will come to me after worship with a pained expression on their face and say, “Pastor, why can’t we sing some Christmas carols? We’re hearing them everywhere but in church!” I will try to answer the question.
During Advent, time gets all mixed up. There is confusion between secular time and church time. Are we overwhelmed by the countdown of shopping days until Christmas? Are we waiting to celebrate the anniversary of a birth that occurred nearly 2000 years ago? Or are we waiting for the coming again of the one who “has been taken up from you into heaven, who will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven?”
Advent time is difficult for us. The engines of the consumer economy all around us would have us occupy our time and treasure trying to buy ourselves a happy holiday. On Christmas Eve when the stores close, the merchants must gather around their cash registers and sing, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
Nonetheless, the church for centuries - and the biblical texts we read and stand under during Advent - call us to look toward the future, to prepare for our Lord’s second arrival.
Living in the present, most of us much prefer looking to the past than peering into the future. The future is perplexing, if not disconcerting. We would much rather plan the party, celebrating something we know about, open the gifts, enjoy the food, connect with family and friends - with some kind of attention to what God did that silent night, holy night in Bethlehem.
Advent leads us into a blurring of past, present and future. On the last Sunday of the Church Year, of church time, we read from John in his Revelation: “ ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come.”
Advent in church time is about this one “who is to come.” Advent is not a time of waiting for Jesus to be born. The Latin adventus is the equivalent of the Greek parousia, which means “coming” or “presence.” So, the coming of Advent is not some past fondly recalled. Advent is all about the very real in-breaking of a future hope into the present, here and now.
The call of Advent is not, “Get ready for Christmas!” Rather it is the cry, “Prepare to meet your God!” Looking back, there is much to rejoice in as we journey to Bethlehem at Christmas. We do come to Christmas, and then we do celebrate the wonder of this greatest event.
We will marvel at the grace that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” And that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” There is also much for us to ponder and learn from those like us who were so unprepared or unwilling to meet God when he came the first time in Bethlehem.
The gospel of Advent proclaims that we will be met, reformed, and remade by a revolutionary God who will make all things new - including you and me. The texts of Advent announce that the end of time is in God’s hands. God is the Alpha, the beginning. God is also the Omega, the end.
Life is not a merry-go-round - spinning year after year, going nowhere. Life is a journey through time that begins in God and ends in a meeting with God. Like the father in the familiar story, God is running down the road to meet us, ready to embrace us, kiss us, welcome us home.
The Advent question that each of us must ask ourselves is: “Are we ready to meet him?” The work of Advent is repentance - turning away from sin, turning around, turning toward home, turning toward God. The Advent hymns help us get ready in mind and heart to meet him. Please don’t avoid the work of Advent. The Christmas carols will be sung soon enough! Editor's note: This is the first in a daily series of Advent devotionals leading up to Christmas Day.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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