Pastor's Pen - December 2006

Dear Friends in Christ,

This year Sunday, December 3, marks the beginning of the new year of the Church and the start of the Advent season. Advent is a season of expectant waiting. The beginning of the season anticipates the reappearance of the Savior in this world and the latter part of the season anticipates the celebration of Jesus’ first appearance in his birth at Bethlehem.

Waiting can be a very difficult discipline to sustain. We live in a world that is in a rush at least about some things. Everything is expected to be instant and immediate as if there is no time to lose. At least everything that we want or enjoy. With other things waiting becomes apathy. If it hasn’t happened yet then certainly it isn’t going to happen and life simply goes on. Those less appealing things are set aside as if they do not exist, pretending that they will just go away if avoided long enough. Waiting in and of itself seems to speak of inactivity and passivity. These traits are not highly valued in our culture either. As a result of these issues with the idea of waiting, Advent has fallen out of favor with some. The suggestion is that Jesus’ reappearance has been so long delayed that it is thus nothing to be waiting for and that there is no reason to wait to celebrate his first appearance, his birth that first Christmas. Certainly retailers help to promote these attitudes with the encouragement to live for today and the display of Christmas items long before Halloween.

As a result it is particularly important to stress the need for expectant waiting in relationship to both the future and the celebration of the past in this time of Advent. To expectantly wait is to be actively involved in life and ministry in anticipation of Christ’s reappearance at the least day as well as in the coming celebration of his birth. To be expectant is to be alive to the message and its promise. It is to live the life to which we have been called as witnesses of the gospel. It is to be patient for what is to come but at the same time actively involved in ministry now so that the truth of the Savior might be made known to all of the world.

In keeping Advent in the world, God’s people lift up the promises of Christ’s first and last appearances in this world. God’s people thus keep before the world the good news that there is something more than just our hopes and desires at work in this world. Advent points beyond ourselves to a last day when Jesus will appear again to make this world God’s own as well as pointing to the celebration of Jesus’ first appearance when God entered time and history in a way never to be repeated.

As you wait expectantly, use this time for family devotions and prayer. Use this time to work to end oppression and injustice. Use this time to listen to God’s word of hope and promise for all people. Use this time to share the good news of God’s love and grace in the Savior.