Dear friends in Christ at Peace and Grue,
Advent is a season that messes with our sense of time. While we typically live with a fairly linear view of time, (one event coming after another) Advent puts in front of us passages about the end of history before moving in later weeks to prepare us for the coming of the Christ child and the dawn of a new age.
We live, according to Luke (which is the primary gospel we will focus on this year) between the two great poles of God’s intervention in the world: the coming of Christ in the flesh and his triumph over death. In this context, Luke offers us a perspective that, while it will not remove our waiting, affects its character. Luke is, in fact, down right vague about when Jesus will return, refusing to offer any hint of a timetable. Instead, Luke asserts that just as budding fig leaf unmistakably foretell the advent of summer so also will the signs of the coming kingdom be transparent to the Christian community, shifting the emphasis from when these things will happen, to the proper attitude of the Christian community as theses things are happening.
This in-between time, though fraught with tension, is nevertheless also characterized by hope. During this time, the Christians community should be alert, ready for the coming of the end. They should not be caught up in either the excessive pleasures or worries of the day, but rather remain watchful. The Christians community should be confident, eager for the events Jesus describes as they signal both the beginning and the ending of the story of the Church and therefore of our story which has been secured by Christ. The Christian community is to remain steadfast in its ministry, trusting that Jesus will provide the necessary words and inspiration so that the Christian community may witness to the gospel through word, deed, and prayer in any and all situations. In any and all situations the Christian community is free to struggle, to wait, to work, to witness, indeed to live and die, because we know the end of the story.
From Moses to Martin Luther King, Jr., history is full of examples of those who, because they had been to the mountaintop, had peered into the promised land, and had heard and believed the promise of a better future, found the challenges of the present not only endurable, but hopeful. We, too, amid the very real setbacks, disappointments, or worries of this life, can “stand up and raise our heads” because we have heard and believed Jesus’ promise that our “redemption draws near.”
May you experience God’s blessings this Advent season,
Pastor Dan