Anticipating Advent | Bishop Kevin Allen

Dear Friends,

The candlelit Cathedral vigil for peace was dutifully kept . . Anticipation.  Children peek into Christmas display windows . . . Anticipation.  The Bangladesh rice paddy workers keep alert for the church bell announcing a Eucharist - the first in thirty years . . . Anticipation.  A mother feverishly prepares for the holidays just in case the prodigal child makes it home this year. . .  Anticipation.  He opens the letter from yet another personnel office to know if his two-year unemployment will end. . .  Anticipation.  The young man's head is caressed as he wondrously listens to the life within his wife's womb. . . Anticipation.  Readings were debated in the Temple, wise men watched the heavens, stories of promise were retold around the fires, and prayers were raised to God. . .   Anticipation of Advent.

We all know advents:  the anticipation of and preparation for a "coming" which will alter our lives.  Even when they portend good things, they elicit a variety of reactions: joy, fear, hope, anxiety, security, chaos, peace. 

In a symbolic way, the season of Advent is by nature, trinitarian. It is the season of coming, when, as Madeleine L'Engle wrote, "...chronological time opens up and we can see simultaneously Christ's `earthly coming to a manger in Bethlehem; his coming to each of us by faith in our hearts; and the anticipation of the future Day of the Lord; his coming again in glory.'"

                Israel’s longing for the Messiah

                Christ in our midst today.

                Christ’s promise to Come again.

Which sounds very familiar to us from our 2019 Book of Common Prayer Holy Eucharist liturgy:           

Christ has died

             Christ is Risen

             Christ will come again.

Anticipations, however, can also be distracting; the irony of the ‘Christmas rush’ symbolizes this all too well.  We might become so focused on the celebration that we forget about and even ignore the guest of honor who is standing right next to us throughout these preparations. Or we may become too focused on our ministries resulting in a spiritual imbalance. The temptation for misdirection of focus is increasingly evidenced in secular society where widespread promotion of and preference for unsatisfying substitutes fall short of God’s desire and design leaving one disappointed and disillusioned.

Leslie Wilder wrote:

Sin “is the impulse to crowd God out of life and to fill that vacancy with something other than God...

The root of the matter lies in our hearts and in our wills crowding God out, preferring something less than God.”

And so, I encourage us all to begin this Advent… by prayerfully re-filling our hearts with God in Christ.  Take a time to consider what it means that He died for us, that He is with us now and that we will be with Him in his glorious kingdom.

Let us also pray for God to inhabit our thoughts and hearts so that Christ's presence and love is revealed through us to others.   As you and I share the message of hope to those who are hopeless, we offer the prescription for new life. As you and I serve the risen Christ, he is present to touch others with hope to heal what poisons the blood. As you and I speak the good news, a word of joy emerges to transform despair.

While our culture and people prefer something less than God…let us anticipate and prepare

for Christ coming through our prayers and actions and so affect others’ lives for the better.

I pray that God will keep you safe and healthy this Adventide and wish you a blessed and Merry Christmas.

 +Kevin