Dear Faith Family,
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)
Have you noticed how our society trains us to turn our attention from one thing to another almost immediately? Department stores (and online marketing) are the most obvious pedagogues, changing seasonal sales before the season is even over! But there are more subtle instructors. The twins have noticed how media, whether the local nightly news (yes, we are old and watch the news!) or Saturday morning talk shows (don't judge!), or commercial ads, and of course, social algorithms, is a constant shifting from something thoughtful to something mindless, something to celebrate to something to abhor or fear, something distant and disconnected to something internal and immediate.
Wherever we look, we are quickly led to look somewhere else. Whatever we are doing, we are to turn to the next thing immediately. Whatever we feel or think, we are not meant to linger in it, but to pass over it and move on to another feeling or thought. Is it any wonder that we are such a dissonant society? There is simply no space to abide and face the world as it is and could be.
I had a similar conversation with a dad at Friday's football game, but in the context of the church. He said that sometimes the way we "do" church isn't too dissimilar from society's habits. We move through the liturgy, whatever form it might be, shifting from one aspect of truth to another, leaving just as little space for lingering as the transitions on Saturday morning broadcasts, the 10 o'clock news, or Insta-story. We have, like the world around us, abandoned the formative power of waiting.
Merriam-Webster defines wait(ing) as: "to stay in place in expectation of; to remain stationary in readiness or expectation". The key word in waiting is expectation. Waiting is a matter of hope. To wait is to hope for something to arrive. While the expectation could be negative, waiting implies looking forward to something worth waiting for; a future good that changes the present, even redeeming the past.
While our weekly worship could (and sometimes does) move us quickly from one thing to the next, the Church's yearly liturgy is designed to form us by making us wait. Twice a year we linger for multiple weeks in expectation of what is certain to arrive. Once in Lent, we wait for redemption's new life. And once in Advent, we wait for the Redeemer's arrival.
Advent has become a special time for our faith family over the years. Not all of us grew up celebrating, much less understanding, the season of Advent. To us, it was just Christmas. Yet, as we have learned over the years from history and from one another, this season before the Christmas season plays an important role in the formation of our faith.
The word "advent" comes from the Latin word meaning "coming, a coming into place, or arrival." Advent connotes a pulsating sense of expectation, of waiting. Yet, because we are so conditioned against waiting, we feel we must prepare ourselves for the season ahead.
Over these days leading up to the beginning of Advent, our goal is to build our expectation. To enter into the story of humanity and discover, feel, rest in, and live from the hope of what was expected and still is. To do this, we will look to the words of the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah writes at a time when all seemed hopeless. Indeed, all that God's people had expected to become as they entered the land of promise, freed from the forces of external oppression, would soon be lost. Their capital city, the seat of power and of God, would be destroyed, and the nation (already divided and combative) would be overtaken, its people dispersed and exiled. And yet, amid the judgment and through the exile and suffering, a powerful force remained: an expectation of change, of renewal, of peace; a hope being built so that when hope arrived (at hope's advent) the people in the darkness would become the people in the light.
Now I must warn you, Isaiah does not build our hope in the gentlest of ways. He requires us to look at ourselves and the world honestly and rightly; to submit to reality as it is. Only when we recognize that which is, can we truly hope, and be formed in our hoping.
So, I invite you to build your expectation with us. Here is how:
Plan your Advent Season with these recommendations.
We'll be using this particular resource this Advent in the Gatherings. If you don't have it already, consider getting a copy.
In community, consider and discuss:
Do I expect God to judge sin (including my own)? Why should I not fear that?
Do I expect God's judgment to destroy? Why should I not?
How can a hope in restoration through judgment (re)shape my prayers and relationships this week?
May we find that "those who hope [wait] in the LORD shall renew their strength..."
Love you, faith family. God bless.