Hopeful Anticipation (Advent 1)

Jeremiah 33: 12-16

Roger Lynn

December 2, 2018

1st Sunday in Advent

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Today the season of Advent begins. It is a time for watching and waiting and anticipating and preparing. All of our spiritual senses are strained to catch a glimpse of God’s light coming into the world. It is no accident that this season occurs at the darkest time of the year. It is is these days when the darkness threatens to surround us completely that we most need to remind ourselves that it will not always be this way. God is at work, even now, restoring wholeness to the world. God is among us, even now, seeking to heal the brokenness of our lives and our world. 

Advent is a paradoxical season. We watch for that which is already here. We wait for that which is already true. We anticipate that which has already occurred. But in the watching and waiting and anticipating we make room for it to become real in our lives. If it were possible for us to be fully aware of, and fully in sync with, all of God’s activity around us, then we wouldn’t need seasons and rituals and symbols and traditions in the Church. We would just know and understand and appreciate and live in harmony with what God is doing among us. But one of the defining things about what it means to be human is that we forget. We need to be reminded, over and over again, before we can slowly begin to integrate our lives into the larger reality of God. So we catch glimpses of the truth that God has come to be among us and we tell stories of a baby being born. We keep telling the stories and we build up a variety of traditions around those stories. And we continue to do all of this with the hope that we will remember, deep down in the core of our being, that God’s light really has illuminated our darkness and continues to do so even now. And, we also know that this is not how we experience the world much of the time. If God’s light is right here, right now, then why does it still seem so dark? Why are we still fighting wars? Why are we still being cruel to each other? Why are there still so many people starving? So we tell more stories and create more traditions to help us deal honestly with these questions. We develop a season which is dedicated to themes of watching and waiting and anticipating and preparing. Not because God is somehow absent and needs to show up soon. But because until we practice being alert and watchful, we will continue to miss what is already true.

Thus it is that the prophet Jeremiah declares, “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made...” (Jeremiah 33:14) I can’t always see it. There doesn’t always seem to be much evidence to support it. But I remain convinced that God is alive and active and at work among us even in the darkest of days. How do we explain the hatred and the violence and the suffering? Where has God been up to now? What exactly is God waiting for before taking action? The truth is, such questions present a difficult challenge. Frequently there are no easy answers. There are times when it feels as if the darkness and the desolation will win out. But in the face of such challenges, we can either choose to despair, or we can choose to trust that God is, in fact, still at work and we simply have not yet seen it. Because God works in ways which we do not expect, using means which constantly surprise us, it is only when we remain alert and watchful that we become aware of what it is that God is doing. Because God works through us, the light becomes brighter only when we allow it to shine in us.

Advent begins on a note of hope. We declare with confidence that there is more to this life than we can presently comprehend. We once again remind ourselves to be on the lookout for God’s activity among us. We participate in the rituals and the traditions of the season which allow the truth to seep down into the corners of our souls. Candles are lit to illumine the darkness. Greens are hung to keep the images of life and growth before us. We sing songs of hope and anticipation and good news so that the truth might take up residence in our hearts as well as iin our heads. God has already come to be among us and forever continues to come among us. God’s light is already shining in the world and will continue to drive back the darkness. And when we watch for it, it becomes fresh and new and meaningful  for us once again.

We stand in the darkness of our world anticipating the light. We prepare our lives to receive the good news of God’s presence so that this Christmas the spirit of God will be born anew in our hearts. It is already true. It is already happening. Let us watch for it so that we might begin to see it. Let us begin to see it so that we might begin to live it. Let us live it so that we might begin to share it. Amen.