QUARANTINE BLOG # 244

November 29, 2020

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. What is Advent? We recognize that Advent serves as an anticipation of Christ’s birth in the season leading up to Christmas. But that’s only part of the story.

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming.” The season of Advent lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas.

Advent symbolizes the present situation of the church in these “last days”, as God’s people wait for the return of Christ in glory to consummate his eternal kingdom. The church is in a similar situation to Israel at the end of the Old Testament: in exile, waiting and hoping in prayerful expectation for the coming of the Messiah. 

Israel looked back to God’s past gracious actions on their behalf in leading them out of Egypt in the Exodus, and on this basis, they called for God once again to act for them. 

In the same way, the church, during Advent, looks back upon Christ’s coming in celebration while at the same time looking forward in eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when he returns for his people. 

In this light, the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” perfectly represents the church’s cry during the Advent season.

Newness Is on Its Way

Throughout this Advent Season, the meditations which close each day’s blog will be from “Celebrating Abundance,” by Walter Brueggemann.

“As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’”

~ Luke 3:15-16

John the Baptizer bursts upon the Gospel of Luke. That is because it is Advent time. It is not yet time for Jesus. This is still the time for getting ready. Getting ready time is not mainly about busy activity, entertaining, and fatigue. Getting ready time is mainly abrasive . . . asking, thinking, pondering, and redeciding.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (v. 16). Being baptized with God’s Holy Spirit means we may be visited by a spirit of openness, generosity, energy, that “the force” may come over us, carry us to do obedient things we have not yet done, kingdom things we did not think we had in us, neighbor things from which we cringe. The whole tenor of Advent is that God may act in us, through us, beyond us, more than we imagined, because newness is on its way among us.

John is not the newness. He prepares us for the newness. And his word is that if we want to be immersed in the life-giving power of God, then we must do as John says: Share your coat and shoes and goods ... Manage money in neighborly ways ... Quit being the heavy in social transactions.

Who would have thought such concrete acts are the tactic whereby God’s newness will yet come! Advent is not the kind of “preparation” that involves shopping and parties and cards. Those things disguise the true cravings of our weary souls. Advent is preparation for the demands of newness that will break the tired patterns of fear in our lives.

It is no wonder that in the very next verses of Luke 3, King Herod arrested John, imprisoned him, and tried to silence him. For what John says was dangerous for business as usual. Herod and his company preferred to imagine that their established credentials were enough, with Abraham as their father. And anyway, they did not want newness, so they tried to stop the dangerous newness before it ever intruded into their lives.

What we know, that Herod didn’t know and never even suspected, is that John’s Advent invitation cannot be silenced or arrested. It continues to invite. And sometimes we let it come among us and transform us.

Living God, visit us in this season with your Holy Spirit that we may get carried away to do obedient things we have not yet done, kingdom things we did not think we had in us, neighbor things from which we cringe. May you act in us, through us, beyond us, more than we imagine, because newness is on its way among us. Amen.

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