Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Decem­ber 2, 2016

We enter Advent hope­ful and antic­i­pa­to­ry!  Like chil­dren wait­ing for Christ­mas?   Or is there some­thing else much more mean­ing­ful that we can be doing dur­ing Advent?  For how much more can we hope?  Isa­iah tells us that all good things are pos­si­ble!  There is a gift here for every­one in this pas­sage.  Those of us who are con­cerned about the envi­ron­ment may read that the earth will be restored.  Those of us in need of phys­i­cal heal­ing might read that we will be healed.  If we are in con­fu­sion or sad­ness, we will antic­i­pate being lift­ed out of gloom and dark­ness.  The low­ly and poor hear hope that those who tyr­an­nize them or who are too lofty to care about them will dis­ap­pear from their lives.  And what a relief to hear that evil will be cut off and the just will be vindicated!

In this pas­sage Isa­iah con­veys a pow­er­ful mes­sage that the Lord God wants us to know that the Lord is in our midst!  There will be no mis­tak­ing that we will see the work of his hands.  The peo­ple of God will be so impressed they will rev­er­ence the God of Israel and keep his name holy.  The weak and way­ward in spir­it will acquire under­stand­ing and those who find fault will get redi­rect­ed.  Wow!  That about includes every­thing on my Christ­mas list!

So what is our response to this amaz­ing news!  Do we see Advent as the time to sit back and wait for all these good things to hap­pen to and for us?  Like chil­dren wait for San­ta Claus?  No, it can be more than that!  The Psalm for today says we can ask for even more than Isa­iah says is com­ing.  We can ask for entry into the house of the Lord where we may gaze on the love­li­ness of the Lord and con­tem­plate the beau­ty of his tem­ple all the days of our lives.  There we shall see the boun­ty of the Lord in the land of the liv­ing.  But there is a catch.  The Psalmist says we have to wait…..it seems that one of the ten­sions with our faith is cen­tered in all that God promis­es to us is already, but not yet.  There is a lot of wait­ing going on…..but it is a spe­cial kind of wait­ing, I think. 

Dur­ing Advent, this wait­ing is some­thing like prepar­ing for Christ­mas.  It is an active wait­ing in which we can reflect on what is it that we real­ly need and want beyond that Christ­mas list.  Chil­dren pre­pare for Christ­mas by hop­ing and antic­i­pat­ing, but adults engage in the sea­son by work­ing to make it hap­pen.  In many ways that is the dif­fer­ence between adults and chil­dren in terms of our faith as well.  Chil­dren aren’t good at wait­ing.  Becom­ing an adult means we learn to wait…..while active­ly engag­ing in life.   I like to prac­tice Christ­mas the way I prac­tice Advent, which is to antic­i­pate and cel­e­brate all of the events that lead up to it more than just the events on Christ­mas Eve or Christ­mas Day.  I like the busy­ness of the hol­i­day sea­son.  Christ­mas is the com­ing togeth­er of fam­i­lies and friends, the shar­ing of the bless­ings of hos­pi­tal­i­ty and good food, and the thought­ful­ness of con­sid­er­ing how we might pro­vide good cheer and good will through gift giv­ing to those we love and those in need.  In those ways, many of us cel­e­brate Christ­mas all year long.  It keeps us busy!

So then, what is so spe­cial about Advent?  I think it is a spe­cial time of lift­ing up our hope to a high­er lev­el of con­scious­ness in our faith.  It is a time to wait for the full­ness of the Lord with renewed courage.  It is a time to expe­ri­ence more deeply the light and sal­va­tion of the Lord in our lives.  That’s why we light all those can­dles!  And Advent is a time to real­ly grap­ple with the dark­ness of our fears and our unbe­lief.  It is a time to be stout­heart­ed, for what have we to fear?  Jesus tells us in Matthew that he can do any­thing for us accord­ing to our faith….if we just believe.  Like chil­dren who believe in San­ta Claus?  No, like the adult peo­ple of God who will acquire even more under­stand­ing of the boun­ty of the Lord in the land of the liv­ing that is here, already.  It is the belief in the hope that the Lord can do any­thing.  No mat­ter what our cir­cum­stances, all things are yet pos­si­ble.  But to see and under­stand that, we must have courage in our refuge, in our light, and in our sal­va­tion.  So I pray with all of you, that Advent will be for each of us a time of lift­ing up our hope to a high­er lev­el.  I pray that Advent is for each of us a time of coura­geous hope and antic­i­pa­tion for a bet­ter world in which we will share all the gifts we have been giv­en of faith, love, peace, joy, mer­cy, accep­tance, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, self-less giv­ing, and a gen­uine sense of broth­er­hood with all of human­i­ty.  If we believe in Jesus, we can do this with him, for him and in him.