Advent Ramblings...

For most of my career as a pastor I’ve missed the first Sunday of Advent at the congregation I pastored. This year was no different. The reason for this is that the first Sunday of Advent most typically occurs at the end of the week of Thanksgiving—and I always take that week off.

It’s a “that’s the way the cookie crumbles” thing—as I really have no regrets for taking a week off to rest and rejuvenate (especially just before the busy season of Advent). However, not being present for that FIRST Sunday of Advent means that at some later point I have to play a little “catch up” if I want to make sure everyone is tracking with the various themes of Advent.

And this is SO IMPORTANT.

These days we are in such a RUSH for everything, and RUSHING ahead to Christmas is no exception. We see this on TV, we hear it on the radio, we witness it in the shopping malls; Christmas has “been here,” it seems, since they took down the Halloween décor.

But we in the Church know better…or at least we should. Advent is given to us as a season of INTENTIONAL SLOW-DOWN. Yes, of course we all want to gallop off to Bethlehem and the manger scene—or perhaps to the Christmas tree bursting with presents—but we need to intentionally SLOW DOWN so that when we get there, we’ll fully understand and know what it is that we’re seeing. Advent helps us do that in several ways. Allow me to illustrate using the prayer of the day for each of the four Sundays, otherwise known as:

THE COLLECTS OF ADVENT

Each of the four Sundays of Advent have very precise collects. In each of them we pray that SOMETHING would be “stirred up.” Observe:

1st Sunday:
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection save us from the threatening dangers of our sins, and enlighten our walk in the way of your salvation, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
In this collect we pray that God would stir up His power and COME. Within the context of the day, this coming is further defined as the SECOND coming of Christ. This is a major theme of Advent. After all, none of us has a time machine; we cannot travel backward to Bethlehem or the days leading up to Jesus’ first Advent—his birth in humility. We **attempt this as an act of spirituality, perhaps, but the first Sunday of Advent reminds us that when **WE** pray for Christ to “come,” we mean in power and glory ….his “second coming,” in other words.

2nd Sunday
Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son. By his coming nurture our growth as people of repentance and peace; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
John the Baptist is the star of Advent. He gets two of the four Sundays to himself…beginning with the second Sunday of Advent. John’s major theme is REPENTENCE. We prepare to meet our Lord personally in faith when we repent—and it, quite frankly, takes a “stirred up heart” to do this, hence the collect of the day. As a sidenote, many preachers through the eons have noted that there are actually **THREE Advents of Jesus—all three of which deserve attention during the Advent season: (1) His coming in history 2000 years ago; (2) His coming individually into our hearts by faith; and (3) His coming again at the end of the age to judge the living and the dead. Here on the second Sunday of Advent, we concentrate on his coming into our hearts by faith.

3rd Sunday
Stir up the wills of all who look to you, Lord God, and strengthen our faith in your coming, that, transformed by grace, we may walk in your way; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Continuing the thought process from the week before, we pray on the third Sunday that God would stir up our WILLS. This is not the same as a stirred up heart. The stirred up heart *repents and turns to embrace Christ; but it is the stirred up will that seeks to then live IN CHRIST. The collect says it well. We pray that “transformed by grace, we may walk in your way.” Hence, the stirred up heart talks of a discrete moment in time, whereas the stirred up will talks of a continuous way of life.

4th Sunday
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. With your abundant grace and might, free us from the sin that hinders our faith, that eagerly we may receive your promises, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

In the final Sunday of Advent the collect once again turns our thoughts to the COMING of Christ. This is, no doubt, due to the close proximity of the fourth Sunday of Advent to Christmas. Other themes of the day are “Emmanuel, God with us.” The sense is….he’s almost here. Yet, there is a distinction between the theme/mood of the first time we prayed that God would stir up his power and come, and this time. Whereas the first time—taken with the readings for the day—really pointed us to Christ’s second coming in power and glory at the end of the age, this time the emphasis is much more historical. Here the emphasis is that of a thanksgiving that God has kept (and is keeping) His promise to act/intervene in human history.

Remember….
Slow down …..and have a blessed Advent!


cheers,

TM