TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF ADVENT
There are plenty of Christian words in the lexicon whose meaning I find myself having to explain. Many have been taken over by business. So, Confirmation is something I will do after pencilling in a meeting and then making sure I can attend. Font is what I can spend hours choosing to make sure that my document makes the best first impression on my peers. Luckily, Advent still has a vestige of its original meaning: mostly thanks to the commercial world who have retained it for their myriad chocolate advent calendars.
In fact, even a sense of what it means is contained within that commercial wrapper, because ‘advent’ means ‘coming towards’ and includes a sense of anticipation and excitement, of waiting and watching. Anyone who can remember being very young, or anyone who has cousins or nephews who are very little will know how painful the wait can be; particularly for those whose understanding of time still comes in terms of ‘three sleeps’ … or ‘four episodes of peppa pig’.
In Church, at this time of year we get the incredible readings from the Prophets: ‘the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. On them hath the light shined.’ And this introduces the central theme of advent and one which it is so easy to appreciate and understand as the evening draw in and the mornings take forever to arrive: from darkness to light.
Advent comes at that particularly difficult time of year, just after the clocks have changed and just before we start getting properly excited about Christmas and it offers us two things: hope and the chance to think beyond ourselves. It lifts us up and shines a light into the dark corners of our hearts at the same time.
The advent we are waiting for is an extraordinary and unbelievable event. It is the moment in history when a timeless, changeless God decides to intervene in our mucky, grotty world. It is the thing we all want God to do ‘why wont he just intervene’ and yet refuse to believe he ever does. We argue about the impossibility of suffering and a benevolent God and say that if God really did care and really was omnipotent then he would DO something but we cant hear the hollow laughter in the wings as God whispers to his main actor ‘but I already have done something and they still wont believe me.’
Of course, we are being asked to believe in the most ridiculous miracle anyone could posit. The creator of the universe, the First Cause of the Big Bang, the author of Time itself cares enough about each tiny speck of human matter enough to find a way to enter time, to be created to live a life of cause and effect. I don’t actually have a problem believing stories of shepherds and angels, of a virgin birth, of a miraculous escape from a cruel tyrant. Part of the reason that the empirical veracity of these stories don’t trouble me is because their truth lies in the meaning behind them. And part of the reason they don’t trouble me is because if God really is the creator of the universe, of course God is capable of being born of a virgin.
So, hope and repentance. How does advent package up these two things?
Hope first of all. When terrible things happen to us, or to those we love, one of the reasons we can feel overwhelmed is because hope has been extinguished. Hope is what lets you live from one day to the next without the walls closing in on you. Hope is what gives you a reason to get up in the morning. Hope is what gives you a point to life. Hope gives you a path through the pain and out the other side. Hope is what makes you believe there might a path out the other side.
The idea that God might be interested enough in you and me is what starts to turn the story around. Not that God will swagger in like Clint Eastwood and gun down the baddies, but that a seed of hope can be brought into the darkness by the birth of a baby. We all know how wonderful new life is: how many of you have seen the picture of Mr Elton’s new baby? Babies are cute, they are adorable, the make us smile, they give us hope.
And the creator of the universe creates hope in us through the creation of new life. This is how God wants to save us. Not as part of a wild west action movie but by connecting with our most sentimental side, the side of us that knows what love is and knows how to love. Why would God do it this way? To make sure we are not threatened or bludgeoned into belief, but encouraged and drawn into belief. Belief that there is indeed good in the world, when all around us seems to contradict that. The belief that there might even be a future even when life feels utterly bleak. The belief that joy is an actual thing.
And what about the other side of the story? That Advent shines a light on our darkest places? This is the Church’s belief that advent is also about the coming of Judgement. When Pure Goodness enters our world, we see our own shadows very clearly in the bright light it casts and we are judged by it. We see perfection and we know we cannot measure up. And our response is repentance. Or at least it should be. Suddenly we recognise our own part in the muck and gloom of the world. We see how evil and wickedness are not just things which are ‘out there’ they also reside in our own hearts. And so we take the time to look more closely at ourselves and to acknowledge those things we ought not to have done and to offer them back to God. ‘There is no health in us, Lord and we are sorry.’ Deceit. Self aggrandisement. Cruelty. Arrogance. We know them all. The people in our community with whom we come into contact every day … if you asked them to write you a reference what would they say? Mine would be equally split between those who think I am an angel and those whom I am permanently letting down because I never have enough time for them. What about you? Where have you fallen short of the very best you can be? Is it in the way you spoke to the boy in your houseroom this morning? Or the teacher you lied to? Or the excuses you gave for not spending time with your parents? Or the hurtful things you said to your sister? In exactly the same way you would try and get your house ready for Christmas, or even your houseroom, you should be trying to get your own house in order – the house where your soul resides. Jesus is on his way and you should be taking the time to think seriously about that. There may be some decisions to be made. Some discussions to be had. Some tidying up to be done.
Advent. Anticipation. Excitement. Joy. A time to look forward to what could be. A time to consider ourselves as the people we could become. A time to prepare. A time to wait. Knowing that there is light in our darkness and that the darkness can not overcome it. Redemption. Reconciliation. Hope.
Rev. Dr Tess Kuin Lawton
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