Advent


Advent is celebrated as a time of joy, happiness and hope as we await the coming of the King. The word “Advent” means “coming” or “arrival”. The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Christ in his First Advent and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Advent celebrates a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. This is a process in which we now participate and the consummation of which we anticipate. Scripture readings for Advent will reflect this emphasis on the Second Advent, including themes of accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment on sin and the hope of eternal life.

In this double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolized the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today and that He will come again in power. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we “live between the times” and are called to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God's people. So, as the church celebrates God's entrance into history in the Incarnation, and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which “all creation is groaning awaiting redemption”' it also confesses its own responsibility as a people commissioned to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and to “love your neighbor as yourself”.

The main purpose of the Incarnation of Jesus was to provide Hope. We hope in God. He has continually, over the span of 4,000 years, revealed Himself to be a God of newness, of possibility of redemption, the recovery or transformation of possibility from endings that goes beyond what we can think or even imagine. It all begins in the hope that God will come and come again into our world to reveal Himself as a God of newness, of possibility and a God of new things. This time of year, we contemplate that hope embodied, incarnated in a newborn baby, the perfect example of newness, potential and possibility.

Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world. It is that hope, however faint at times, and that God, however distant He sometimes seems, which brings to the world the anticipation of a King who will rule with truth, justice and righteousness over His people and creation. It is that hope that once anticipated, and now anticipates anew, the reign of an Anointed One, a Messiah who will bring peace, justice and righteousness to the world. We long for God to come and set the world right!

Advent is a time of preparation that is marked with prayer. Advent's prayers of humble devotion and commitment, prayers of submission, prayers of deliverance, prayers from those walking in darkness that are awaiting and anticipating a great light. There is profound joy at the expected coming.

We hope that as He first came as an infant, so He will come again as King!

Come, O Come, Emmanuel!