#Christmas Expressions of Faith. Answers to Advent Questions
These are "answers" to the Questions About Advent post. Some text is commentary, some text is gleaned from other sources.
No answer is complete or exclusive. Some are more tangential than others.
First Sunday of Advent:
We mark the passing of time by celebrating special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Some days are more special for us than other days. In one sense those special days are the same as every other day because the sun rises and sets in the same way, and everyone else goes about their business in the normal way, but for you such a day is a special day, a day to be celebrated, a day to be thankful and grateful for.
The Church also has special days and special times. We are beginning a unique time today, Advent. During Advent, we are waiting—waiting for the second coming of Jesus to our world again, but, during the weeks before Christmas our waiting changes, changes to waiting for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
We wait because we expect something to happen. During Advent, we are waiting for God. We wait in hope for God even though we cannot see him. Throughout Advent, we are conscious of the fact that God is present with us even when not evident. The purpose of our readings during Advent is just that: be aware of God with us even when it is not obvious.
The message of Advent is, “Wait for God in patient hope.” God has not abandoned us; God is with us, though sometimes our lack of faith prevents us from seeing Him.
Remember Jesus in the womb of Mary for nine months? Mary couldn’t see Jesus, but she knew that the Word had been made flesh. She was waiting in hope for his birth--waiting in patient hope for God.
Today, the first candle of Advent on the Advent Wreath is lit. The Advent Wreath is the principle symbol of Advent; a circle symbolizing the nature of God, His eternity and His endless mercy. The candles represent Jesus, the Light of the world. The evergreens around the base of the wreath symbolize newness, renewal, and eternal life.
As we view the light from the first advent candle, we remember the hope of the coming Christ.
Second Sunday of Advent:
In the time of Isaiah, Judah was a vassal state of Assyria. During Isaiah's lifetime, the Assyrians swept in and totally annihilated the Northern Kingdom of Israel and threatened to do the same to the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
There were those like Isaiah who could envision a different reality—who could hope for a time when Israel would be faithful and allow God to be God. Israel was weary of war and threat, weary of the divisions that had torn her country apart after Solomon, weary of the instability of a world in which power and the oppression that it brings were the controlling factors.
Some like Isaiah knew that God's vision of the world was much different. They knew that the God they served was the same God who had heard the cries of oppressed slaves in Egypt and entered history to relieve their oppression. They knew that because God was such a God, he would not forever tolerate oppression in the world.
And so they hoped. And they dreamed—they dreamed of a time when God would come to the world, bring peace, and an end to war and suffering. When he would establish his reign on earth and restore all creation to what he intended it to be.
Today, as the second candle in our Advent Wreath is lit, we are reminded that God hears the cries of his people. We worship a God who hears his people.
Advent celebrates God’s coming. You see, peace on earth has already come, 2,000 years ago. But it has not fully come yet; it has come only as a glimpse of what can be. The fulfillment of the ancient promises has become new promises and expectation. And so we dream Isaiah's dream again.
When? How long? When will that day come? We don’t know. But we wait for God in patient hope. We live today in the reality of what he has already showed us, what he has promised, and we cry out for his coming. We wait in patient hope because we know that as He has come, so He will come.
Third Sunday of Advent:
Advent is the grace and the time to hope against hope. It is a time to nurture the imagination of a future unlike the present. It is a time to break out of the world that holds us captive. It is a time to put aside the conventional and cautious wisdom of society and stir in our souls the demanding wisdom of justice. Advent is active waiting so that we begin to clear the way for God’s realm – personally in our lives and historically in our world.
As the third candle on our Advent Wreath is lit, let us imagine a new Church.
What expectations do we have for our Church and for ourselves that are as powerful and as drastic as the prophet Isaiah’s of “spears turned into pruning hooks”? What expectations do we have for our Church and for ourselves that that will make tomorrow different because our hope has grown strong? Can we speak our truth and bring Jesus’ hope for the Church forward through our enduring presence, our insistent participation, and our patient prayer in the community of Jesus’ disciples?
This Advent let us also imagine a new world. Today in our society, individualism obliterates any sense of the common good. Consumerism elevates things to be more important than people. We believe that life should be without sacrifice, without commitment.
Is this the world that I accept? Aren’t human beings capable of more? What expectations do we have for our human family on earth?
Finally, our Advent hope must help us imagine a new community. There are dark places in our life to which we need to invite light and God’s reign. Our vow of “conversation” compels us to be in Advent and to welcome the arrival of something different—Jesus’ presence in our lives.
Fourth Sunday of Advent:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,” Mary sings right there in Elizabeth’s living room, “and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Elizabeth and Zechariah are the first to hear her song, but it is not just for them. It is also for Mary and for the Mighty One who has done great things for her. It is for Gabriel, who first gave her the good news, and for all who benefit from it—for the proud and powerful who will be relieved of their swelled heads, for the hungry who will be filled with good things, for the rich who will be sent away empty so that they have room in them for more than money can buy. Her song is for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—for Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel—for every son and daughter of Israel who thought God had forgotten the promise to be with them forever, to love them forever, to give them fresh and endless life.
It was all happening inside Mary, and she was so sure of it that she was singing about it ahead of time—not in the future tense but in the past, as if the promise had already come true. Prophets almost never get their verb tenses straight, because part of their gift is being able to see the world as God sees it—not divided into things that are already over and things that have not happened yet, but as an eternally unfolding mystery that surprises everyone.
This morning, as the fourth candle on our Advent Wreath is lit, we are invited to sing with Mary.
In this divine dance, we are all dancing. God may lead but it is entirely up to us whether we will follow. Just because God sends an angel to invite one girl onto the dance floor is no guarantee she will say yes. Just because God sends a prophet to tell us how life on earth can be more like life in heaven does not mean any of us will quit our day jobs to make it so. God acts. Then it’s our turn. God responds to us. Then it’s our turn again.
The only thing that is absolutely sure in this scenario is that we have a Partner who is with us and for us and who wants us to have life. Mary’s trust in that fact is really all she has. What she does not have is a sonogram, or a husband, or an affidavit from the Holy Spirit that says, “The child really is mine. Now leave the poor girl alone.” All she has is her unreasonable willingness to believe that the God who has chosen her will be part of whatever happens next—and that, apparently, is enough to make her burst into song. She does not wait to see how things will turn out first.
She sings ahead of time, and all the angels with her.
You are cordially invited to a special Christmas Eve blog post tomorrow!
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