Advent

Waiting with Anticipation

Queues! They’re everywhere this time of year. There is a line of traffic to get into the parking lot to do our Christmas shopping, and a line of people to make our purchases before we leave. Children wait in line to see Santa, and we wait longer than usual to treat ourselves to that special holiday latte. In our 21st century celebration of Christmas, we get a lot of practice in waiting.

In a strange way all of this waiting fits the Christian calendar. The Church sets aside the four weeks before Christmas as a time to prepare for the coming of our long-expected Messiah. This season called Advent is an opportunity to focus on how God came to us in history in the person of Jesus, comes to us in the present, and will come again in the future.

In December 1745, Charles Wesley published a two-verse prayer in Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord that helps us enter into the season of Advent. “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” appears in the United Methodist Hymnal with only minor changes from the original.

Come

As we sing Wesley’s words, we enter into an ancient prayer. For hundreds of years, our ancestors in the faith prayed for the Messiah to come. God had blessed them to be a blessing to all the nations (Genesis 12:1-3), but it was difficult to feel blessed in the pain of defeat, exile, and occupation. They longed for the Messiah to come and reestablish the kingdom.

We understand those feelings of distance from God. While we have experienced times when God feels near, there are others seasons of struggle and doubt. Some of us have spent time wondering if God is still with us. So, we join this prayer today, “Come, thou long-expected Jesus.”

We also know this on a much larger scale. We see the brokenness of our world and its systems. We long for justice for all people regardless of race, colour, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, status, economic condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religious affiliation. We await the day when Jesus will return to usher in the new creation and heal our broken world. We join this prayer for our future also, “Come, thou long-expected Jesus.”

As we keep singing, Charles Wesley continues to lead us in a prayer for liberation. For Wesley, Jesus was born for this purpose.

Come, thou long expected Jesus,

born to set thy people free;

from our fears and sins release us,

let us find our rest in thee.

Israel's strength and consolation,

hope of all the earth thou art;

dear desire of every nation,

joy of every longing heart.

2. Born thy people to deliver,

born a child and yet a King,

born to reign in us forever,

now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal spirit

rule in all our hearts alone;

by thine all sufficient merit,

raise us to thy glorious throne.

Charles Wesley

Advent

Paul writing to the Galatians had some Advent encouragement for those early day followers of Jesus. “So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.” Galatians 6:9 (The Message)

G. Campbell Morgan once said, “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”—

Here are some suggestions to aid your Advent Waiting.

Share: Share with a friend or family member something you are waiting for.

Encourage: Encourage someone you know who is weary of waiting.

Evaluate: Take inventory of your relationship with God.

Continue to faithfully waiting.

Pray: Lord, I remember the years of waiting for a Messiah. I'm often impatient with my life. Please teach me to enjoy You and not just the blessings I see in Your hands. Fill my days with laughter and joy through hardship and uncertainty. Remind me that when I think I'm waiting for an eternity, it really isn't. Life on this earth is infinitesimally smaller than a second in the light of true eternity. Amen

Advent

Remain Faithful in Your Waiting

Advent is about faith and waiting. What are you waiting on God for this year? Remember the years of silence as God's people waited for the Messiah. Take time today, right now, to reflect on the fact that God's timing is quite different from ours.

The story of Jesus' birth gives us assurance and joy because even though the waiting lingered for decades, God broke through at just the right time.

Are you struggling with a lack of faith? That's OK. It doesn't take much faith to get God's attention. Jesus encouraged his frustrated followers this way: "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you" (Matthew 17:20).

Most of us try to grow a forest in one day. Jesus, however, invites you to begin with a tiny seed. Watch it grow and wait for it to become all that you dreamed it would be.

• An entire nation waited centuries before their eternal king appeared.
• Mary wasn't given a full-grown son.
• The Wise Men from the east didn't see the Messiah to appear at their front door.

Are you willing to plant faith and wait upon God? Nothing seems to be appearing on the horizon today, but just wait! God always keeps his promises, even to those who have little faith. Just wait.

O God, grant us a sense of your timing.

In this season of short days and long nights,

of grey and white and cold,

teach us the lessons of beginnings;

that such waitings and endings may be the starting place,

a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born—

something right and just and different,

a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love—

in the fullness of your time.

O God, grant us the sense of your timing.

Advent

"Wait for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait for the LORD".

 Psalm 27:14

"Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him."

 Hebrews 11:6

Waiting and Faith Go Hand-In-Hand

What's the longest you've had to wait for something?

I imagine almost everyone has a memory of Christmas Eve as a child; squeezing your eyes shut, trying with all your might to go to sleep on Christmas Eve. For those of you with orthodox parents, you knew that even opening one present before Christmas morning was akin to high heresy.

And so you counted sheep and waited.

Waiting is still difficult. We expect everything to be at our fingertips the moment we have the desire for it. It's a world we're growing into and it's addicting. We live in a world of easy downloads, instantaneous email, on demand and food prepared in a few minutes. Yet God finds ways of making us wait. Waiting and faith go hand-in-hand.

• We wait for the baby we've dreamed we'd hold in our arms.
• Some are waiting for their prodigal son to come to the end of himself and return home.
• Many of us are waiting for the phone to ring so we can return to a job with a normal salary and benefits.
• Others are waiting for an eye-opening spiritual breakthrough.

Waiting is the embodiment of faith.

In Hebrews 11:13 we are reminded that faith involves trust in God's promise even if the promises of God are fulfilled long after we're gone. The writer says, "These all died in faith without having received the promises, but they saw them from a distance ..." (Emphasis added.)

Accompany us, God,

through the waiting.

Accompany those displaced

waiting to return to the land.

Accompany those in refugee camps

waiting to go home.

Accompany those in conflict zones

waiting for normality.

Accompany those in violent homes

waiting for silence.

Accompany those imprisoned

waiting for justice.

Accompany us God

through the waiting

until your kingdom comes.

Amen

Advent

Christ was born in the first century, yet He belongs to all centuries. He was born a Jew, yet He belongs to all races. He was born in Bethlehem, yet He belongs to all countries.” – George Washington Truett

William Willimon United Methodist Bishop tells a story of some students he had taken on a mission trip to Haiti during their summer break. During one of the final evenings of the trip, the students sat around a camp fire and shared their favourite passages of scripture with one another: John 10:10, “I come that you shall have life in the full” was one; Romans 8:28, “Nothing can separates us from the love of God…” was another. Then a Haitian woman, who had traveled with the group as a translator piped up. She wasn’t sure of the reference for her favourite bible passage, but she knew it was towards the end of Mark’s Gospel, and it was about the sun going black, and the stars falling from the sky, and Jesus saying, “Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers”. The students stared at the woman in stunned silence, until one of them had the courage to ask why that passage was her favourite. The woman answered with disarming simplicity: “Because this world is broken, and it needs to come to an end”.

The group later learnt more of this woman’s story. She had a tragic history of pregnancies ending in miscarriages, and the causes were preventable, but for the lack of medical care in Haiti. She didn’t just believe the world was broken at some theoretical level, she knew it in the core of her being.

Advent is a time for naming what is broken about our world, and holding space in order that we might long for a new one. If Lent is about confession (owning our part in what is broken), then Advent is about lament, which doesn’t seek to attribute blame, but settles for an honest naming of reality before God – the only one who can make things right.

There is a tendency to treat Advent like a warm-up band to the headline act. And of course, to an extent, it is that. However, Advent also has a distinct gift of its own – a gift that, if not received, will mean that the great coming of Christ in Christmas is in danger of being missed or misappropriated.

Lord God,

we praise you for sending light into this world.

We confess that we live as though the light had never defeated darkness.

We confess that we ignore the Saviour you sent to be among us and to live in us.

We’ve kept the birth of your Son confined to the Christmas season

and do not yearn for his coming each moment in our waiting hearts.

Forgive us for not opening our eyes to Jesus.

Prepare us for His return.

Help us rejoice in the light,

so that your grace can illuminate

the darkened places of our hearts.  Amen.

Advxent

“The spirit of Christmas needs to be superseded by the Spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christmas is annual; the Spirit of Christ is eternal. The spirit of Christmas is sentimental; the Spirit of Christ is supernatural. The spirit of Christmas is a human product; the Spirit of Christ is a divine person. That makes all the difference in the world.”

– Stuart Briscoe

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book.

He never held an office.

He never had a family or owned a house.

He didn’t go to college.

He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born.

He did none of these things one usually associates with greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.

He was only 33 when public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.

When he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race, the leader of mankind’s progress.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as much as that One Solitary Life.

Isaiah 53: 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

silently and gently

falling and failing

changing and resting

seeking you, Lord…

we watch

we wait

we dream

we pray…

for the earth to renew

for our hearts to soften

for your grace to cover us

for your justice to pour out

for time and space to listen

for courage to act

on the edge of Advent,

we sit with you…

we pause…

we hurt…

we repent…

we rage…

When will it be?

Will it ever be?

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Advent

A girl of ten years went with a group of family and friends to see the Christmas light displays at various locations throughout the city. At one church, they stopped and got out to look more closely at a beautifully done nativity scene. “Isn’t that beautiful?” said the little girl’s grandmother. “Look at all the animals, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.” “Yes, Grandma,” replied the granddaughter. “It is really nice. But there is only one thing that bothers me. Isn’t baby Jesus ever going to grow up… he’s the same size he was last year.”

Perhaps, more to the point, how much have we grown since the last Christmas.

In one Peanuts comic strip Sally was struggling with her memory verse for Sunday. She was absorbed in her thoughts trying to figure it out when she remembered, “Maybe it was something from the book of Reevaluation.”

She never did find the memory verse, but we should always read the Bible with the intent of reevaluating our attitudes and actions to make sure they are in line with the truth of God’s Word.

William Parks puts it this way “Christmas is not just a day, an event to be observed and speedily forgotten. It is a spirit which should permeate every part of our lives.”

“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” — 2 Peter 3:17-18, NIV

Advent God,

we journey with you,

to Bethlehem’s stable

and a new-born King,

ears attuned

to the song of angels,

eyes alert

for Bethlehem’s star.

Forgive us

if on our journey

if we are distracted

by the tempting offers

of this world.

Keep our hearts aflame

with the hope

of Christmas,

and the promise

of a Saviour. Amen