First United Methodist Church |
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY? – PART III
The season of Advent is a rather strange time in the church. Just at the time when we want to be celebrating Christmas already, we are told to “wait”. We are told to “prepare our hearts” for the coming of Christ. On the one hand we know that the Christ in the form of the infant Jesus has already come and gone in our world, and yet we keep telling and retelling that story as if it is still to happen. On the other hand, at this time of year we study the scriptures of the Old Testament, especially the prophet Isaiah, that foretell the coming of the Messiah who will provide salvation for all people and the scriptures of the New Testament that tell of that Christ or Messiah who has come in Jesus and who will come again into our midst. At the heart of all of that is the message that we need to prepare our hearts and minds in a way that makes us ready to enter into a new relationship with Christ at all times. So Advent becomes a time of waiting and preparation to receive the Christ, much as you might prepare for a special Guest into your home. It’s not passive waiting, it’s cleaning up, throwing out, putting our house in order, continually working to ready our part of the world for the coming of God’s kingdom. No matter how “good” a Christian we might be, we all need that time of renewal and recommitment to our faith which Advent provides.
So how do we begin thinking about this strange season? Once again, I tend to begin with John 1 1-1-18. The gospel of John was written close to the end of the first century in a time when the church was being persecuted for this strange new faith, and the Jewish Christians and the gentile, or non-Jewish Christians often found themselves at odds. The temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed in 70 A.D. and the Jewish people are struggling to figure out who they are without the props of their faith. The gentiles are people who have come to the faith without benefit of all the laws and rules of the Jewish faith in their background, and are being told it is the “circumcision of the heart” that matters in the end. The Good News is that we all are invited to come to Christ as our hearts are prepared to let him dwell within us. So John’s talking about the “Word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ and dwelling among us” would have been an especially meaningful way for the gentiles, for us, to hear about the good news.
However, it is still a mystery as to how that happens, because it is more than a baby born to a virgin mother; it is more than angels singing in the sky, or strange wise men coming to visit the child, or shepherds kneeling at the manger. It is a story that encompasses not only the birth, but also the death and the resurrection of this man Jesus, and then an understanding of his continuing presence among us as the Risen Christ. It’s as if we celebrate Christmas and Easter simultaneously on both of these holidays. Retelling the story of Jesus’ birth would be meaningless without also knowing the Easter story, and vice versa, just as your present experience would be meaningless if your history and your family’s history was not known to you. And the future only has meaning because you know what has come before and what you have to build on.
So in Advent we retell the wonderful, ancient story of Jesus’ birth and we never get tired of hearing about it. We also remember that Jesus died and rose again to resume his rightful place as the Son of God and to be the ever present “God With Us” in all the joys and trials of our lives. He has come to be with us in the flesh as Jesus; he comes to us as the Christ at all times when we call upon him, and someday, in God’s time, he will come again to draw all people unto himself in a kingdom where the “last shall be first”, where justice and peace will be a given, where love will outweigh hatred and sorrow. Listen in church as we study these scriptures and stories together and I hope this study helps to shed light upon what you are hearing and studying. I invite you also to be part of one of the Advent Studies, “Come to the Manger” that are being offered on Sunday morning and during the week beginning on November 30.
Nancy Gammill