Advent - a short time, lots to do!

 

Today in our Church calendar we move into the season

 of advent – The first Sunday in advent is 

traditionally new years’ day in the life of the Church. 

Like any new year, advent is a time of reflection – it’s a time of looking back, but advent is primarily about looking forward, perhaps to the dread of Christmas shopping, if you haven’t already done it, perhaps to the joys of spending time with family, the Christmas parties… perhaps even to new year, Christmas being over, and the chance to start again – to make and try and keep those resolutions once again !

But the looking forward in advent could be much longer term than any of those things, because in advent we look forward to the promised return of Jesus, and on this first Sunday in advent one of the themes of the day is ‘Hope’.

In the current economic climate, many people are facing times of uncertainty, some are just hoping that they’ll keep their jobs, many are hoping for more price cuts in shops or on houses or on cars… 

All of us have hopes of some sort, and even though there are uncertainties all around us, the return of Jesus is not uncertain – he says he will come back, though we don’t know when…

And so we have the hope of the return of Jesus, and the hopes of our everyday lives and dreams. Once again this week in our gospel reading today we have that image of Jesus returning, and the need for us to be ready (Mark 13:24-37) as he comes with great power and glory to gather his people.

Most people, I think, don’t like waiting, whatever form it takes - but when we’re waiting there are a number of things we can do – we can do nothing, sit and stare into space, we can read a book, play a computer game or something, we can take time to think or even do some work, but when we’re waiting for Jesus we can actually do no better than to take the advice of a sticker you can sometimes see on cars, ‘Look Busy, Jesus is coming !’

Advent is the time when we focus on the return of Jesus in the Church calendar – it’s the time when we reflect what we should be doing to be more alert, to make ourselves more ready for his return, but the fact that he’s coming and we don’t know when or where or how, means that we must live our lives alert. Of course, the reality is that we don’t do things just to look good in case Jesus catches us out. We seek to do what is right because we’re invited to live our lives as a response to the love of Jesus for us. In Advent, we have another special chance in the church calendar to reflect on how we do that... 

From the reading from Isaiah (64:1-9), we had some fairly fierce and blunt words, "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!" And with these words, literally begs God to make Advent come to pass, now. 

God's people had waited for years in exile without sensing God's presence. Isaiah asks God to shake up the world, make the mountains quake, and frighten all their enemies (64:1-3). But instead, Isaiah, it seems, gets silence.

Perhaps we’ve all felt like Isaiah at times - wondering where in heaven or on earth God is? Perhaps we’ve prayed and felt nothing, saw nothing, sensed nothing, for a long, long, time? If so, then perhaps that offers our greatest picture of advent – waiting, waiting for an unknown time, but waiting in hope….

Often we want a loud and noisy Advent with jingle bells. We want God to enter boldly into our lives in a bright red suit for all to see and hear. Instead though, God breaks open heaven’s doors and often comes down through the back door of life in the lowest places, the most unlikely places, the places of most need, to those who are most ready to hear him and greet him.

The message of advent is not Jesus bursting powerfully in and answering our every wish or desire. Instead, it is that we have got what we most need, God-with-us, our Saviour. The hidden God is made known to us each and every time we open ourselves up to God’s loving forgiveness. Such an Advent is always worth the wait as we realise that advent is not about waiting for Christmas, but waiting for Jesus.

And waiting with that message in our minds helps us to realise that our waiting can never be done quietly, but must be done by being what God wants us to be – loving, compassionate, kind, merciful, truthful, peaceful, fighting for what is right for ourselves and for others, seeking out justice… and showing these qualities in everything that we do, every moment of every day…

Hope is a theme for the first Sunday in advent, but the themes of light and darkness continue through this season – the light of Christ overcoming any darkness in the world, and he does it through his people being the ‘light bearers’ – literally you and I carrying out the light of Christ as we seek to do his work and share his peace.

I really like the story of hope where a rabbi asks his students, ‘How can we determine the hour of dawn, when the night ends and the day begins ?’ One student suggested that it was, ‘when, from a distance, you can distinguish between a dog and a sheep.’

‘No’ the rabbi answered.

‘Is it when you can distinguish between a fig tree and a grapevine ?’ asked a second student. ‘No’ the rabbi said, and he went on to explain, ‘The night ends and the day begins when you have enough light to look human beings in the face and recognise them as your brothers and sisters... Until then the darkness is still with us.’

As we move through advent, we don’t stop and wait, but eagerly pursue all that is right and good in the world today and, as we do that, we sense God alongside us, guiding us, holding us and strengthening us – loving us as we are told to love others. 

It’s easy for Advent to be overlooked but in these weeks before Christmas we have a rich tapestry of themes which help to shape us - themes such as hope, peace, love and joy and themes such as light and darkness are powerful - in a short time, these are themes we’re invited to consider, these are themes we’re called to think how we’re modelling in our lives...

Advent is an exciting time of reflection and discovery about ourselves, and about how we live out our faith, how we examine that faith and how we share faith with others - it’s a short time in the church calendar at a busy time of year but it’s a time when we’re invited again to really make time for Jesus. May it be a rich experience for us all. AMEN