Thought for the Week by Rev’d Vicci
Friends
It’s still Advent! A week into December and with the second Sunday in Advent marked this weekend, Christmas preparations, parties and mince pies can make it feel as if Christmas is already here. For non-Church friends, some of whom have put their decorations up almost as soon as they had removed the spiders’ webs and pumpkins of Halloween, our insistence that it is not yet Christmas may seem odd, but it is important.
It's important because living in the “now and not yet” of Advent, helps us to live in the “now and not yet” of God’s kingdom. We know that Christmas will come. We are not those long-ago people who waited for over 400 years for a promised Messiah. The baby has been born, the stable has been utilised, Emmanual is indeed “God with us.” And yet… Although God’s coming on earth in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, ushered in his Kingdom, we are not yet living in that perfect age “where justice rolls down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24) Instead, we hope and pray for that time to come, and in the meanwhile, we try to live justly and righteously in the little patch of time and place that we have been given.
Advent then is for living in. It is not just about waiting or preparing for Christmas, but also for enjoying in and of itself. Preparing for Christmas in ways that honour the days we are living in, and not just that we are rushing around buying turkey and crackers is important. Recognising that whether we fast during Advent, or whether we use it to prepare for a party and then a fresh start to welcome in the New Year, or whether we will do very little beyond wrap a couple of presents and perhaps attend church, still these days of waiting are to savoured, in the same way as our days of waiting for God’s Kingdom are to be savoured. As Isaiah 40:31 tells us, “But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint.” Waiting in this context is not idleness, but an active process of hope, trust, and expectancy, staying close-linked to God through prayer and study, so that we who wait can be assured of his provision.
God bless, Vicci