A Happy and Holy Advent

Hi Church,

This past Sunday we began the Advent season! I know many of you have been reading about this season and are engaging with various resources to foster anticipation and preparation for the feast of Christmas. These next few weeks are such a wonderful opportunity to engage with the Lord together and in our homes.

On Sunday we sang “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.” I was struck by the otherworldly imagery of this hymn: “the host of heaven rank on rank”, “the six-winged seraphs and cherubim with restless eyes,” the Light of light descending from the realms of endless day.” I suspect we don’t regularly consider the realities to which these phrases point.

What might it mean “to see” or know them? “Let All Mortal Flesh” includes the charge to “ponder nothing earthly minded.” This seems to relate to “seeing” these heavenly realities. Our undue focus upon the things of earth obscure our vision of God, His glory and His kingdom. We don’t see Him and them clearly.

It is easy to be distracted during Advent. The consumerism of this cultural season is obvious. While the trappings of the holiday season are often sweet and fun, they can very well hinder us from seeing the reality that Christmas marks – Jesus, the Light of the world, the Word made Flesh, “moving into the neighborhood” (John 1:14, MSG).

This past Sunday Father Nick outlined three ways we might engage in Advent: First, he suggested softening our hearts to Jesus and consider again how he is a compelling and inviting figure. He specifically invited to push through our familiarity and take a fresh look at Christ as gift to the world, to us and to our neighbors.

Second, building on the topic of the Parish Retreat, Nick invited us to live into the unity we share in Jesus. We are a people drawn from different contexts and situations. What does it look like to embody the truth that we are one in Christ, drawn from the tribes and nations of the world? This is something we can concretely and specifically act upon: Invite someone over to share in your Advent practices, grab a coffee with someone in the COTC community, sit and talk with someone new to you at the chili cook-off this Sunday. We are one in Christ, let’s live like it and into it.

Lastly, Nick invited us to acts of service and blessing. Knowing how the story ends, that Jesus is coming again to set things right, we can serve and give in confidence. There are some corporate opportunities to do this (bring diapers this Sunday for Hope Clinic patients!). I’m heartened by the ways some of you are already serving the needy, homeless and trafficked in the name of Jesus this season.

Nick’s teaching on Isaiah reminded me of this wonderful quote: “Christian hope frees us to act hopefully in the world. It enables us to act humbly and patiently, tackling visible injustices in the world around us without needing to be assured that our skill and our effort will somehow rid the world of injustice altogether. Christian hope, after all, does not need to see what it hopes for (Heb. 11.1); and neither does it require us to comprehend the end of history. Rather, it simply requires us to trust that even the most outwardly insignificant actions - the cup of cold water given to the child, the widow’s mite offered at the temple, the act of hospitality shown to the stranger , none of which has any overall strategic socio-political significance so far as we can now see- will nevertheless be made to contribute in some significant way to the construction of God’s kingdom by the action of God’s creative and sovereign grace.” (C. Gay, The Way of the (Modern) World: Or, Why It's Tempting to Live as If God Doesn't Exist)

Such actions don’t require us to see in full, but they help us grasp the realities of which we sing. They help us glimpse the glory and goodness of Jesus as the Light. So, this season, be encouraged to focus on one of the above invitations: a deliberate softening of your heart, the embodiment of the unity we share in Jesus, or the service of others in the sure hope of Jesus’ coming again. As you do, I’ll be praying for you to see him who is the Light.

Waiting with you,

Peter+