The season of Advent is a challenging time for Christian people. In the span of only four weeks, we are presented with several (huge) themes and messages: the Second Coming of Christ, God's judgment, our own preparations for those events, and the record of God's direct intervention into human life through the miraculous conception of Jesus in the Blessed Virgin Mary. Furthermore, Advent also uniquely fuses our experience of past,
present, and future. This is the time when we look at what God has done in the past, what God is doing and saying to us today, and what God promises about the future through a single lens, making all of that inseparable—a single, living reality that directs our lives. God's stirring prophets (say, Isaiah or John the Baptist) are not encountered simply as figures from history. God's promise of the Second Coming's fulfillment of all things is not heard as a "some day, but not yet" vision for centuries away. Rather, God's deeds of the past and God's telling of the future are now brought fully realized into your present-day life, shaping you as God's own—healed, not haunted; fulfilled, not wanting; hopeful, not fearful.
Given all of this, you can see why I get so very irritated when that richness of Advent is reduced to a wreath or just "getting ready for Christmas." Nonetheless, the realities of daily life and the December calendar press hard on us, and this is another reason why Advent is a challenging time for Christians. Many churchgoers find themselves quite frustrated by Advent's stubborn hold on such themes as the Second Coming when all of life elsewhere bids us to sing carols and make merry. Advent then becomes an obstacle that makes us wait for what we want or, at the worst, a kill-joy grim in its prohibitions. Many times, the tradition of faithfully keeping this season of the liturgical year is looked on as one of those quaint, hoity-toity customs of the Episcopal Church no longer relevant to the "real world." I've heard it asked, "What's the point, especially when everyone is so geared-up for "The Holidays?" And then there are those who remain puzzled and make little effort to understand what Advent has to offer, if only because there's so much else to do.
What does Advent offer? The famous biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann gets at it best;
"A past without gifts,
and a future without hope,
gives us a present filled with anxiety."
Our worship during Advent (the customs. Scripture readings, hymns, etc) is set specifically to show us our past full of gifts and our future full of hope so that we can embrace the present full of purpose. Advent reminds us of the great gifts we have received as God's people over millennia, and of God's gift of a future we can face with an assured hope, through our baptism and life in Christ. All of this from the past, present, and future we hold as one—inseparable realities that become a single, here-and-now way of knowing God's presence to us and embracing the ways of Christian life.
This lens of Advent sees things-as-they-are quite plainly and clearly. Advent life certainly is out of step with everything eke, but given the anxiety and cynicism that characterizes so much of human life today (even—or especially—in "The Holidays"), the way of Advent is surely the answer rather than some quirky oddity or grim kill-joy. Want proof? Just see how many people end up saying something like "Thank God Christmas is over." That is a present filled with anxiety. A faithful Advent leads you along a different way, but brings you to quite a different conclusion.
Faithfully, Shannon +
