Advent Reflections

Dear Friends in Christ,

In a few days it will be Christmas, and all the preparation, all the waiting, all the watching and wondering will be over. Like some cosmic game of hide and seek, ready or not… here Christ comes! It is time to leave whatever bubble of contemplation and calm we created for ourselves during Advent (ha!) for the frenzy of last-minute Christmas preparations.

I am wondering… once Christmas arrives, once the waiting is over and everything is ready… or not… what happens to all these things we have thought about, and pondered, and wrestled with during Advent?

Karoline Lewis, Associate Professor of Preaching and Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Homiletics at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, in her commentary on the Gospel for the fourth Sunday of Advent in 2014, asks us to consider why Advent matters. What difference has it made to us to wait, prepare, and anticipate for four weeks? She suggests that the answers to those questions can only happen in hindsight; once Advent is over and Jesus has been born and we experience Christ incarnate in the world.

I have begun to understand that these things we contemplate during Advent, what it is to wait, and watch, and wonder, to anticipate the arrival of Jesus, and to prepare for Christ’s return, are practices not just suited to Advent, but are in many ways a blueprint for a life of Christian discipleship… to wait, and watch, and wonder… anticipating Christ showing up in our world and preparing ourselves to recognize and respond to His presence. So as Advent ends and Christ is born anew, in the world and in our hearts, I invite you not to put your Advent practices of reflection and anticipation back on the shelf with the Advent wreath and candles, but to continue to stay awake and remain aware, to continue to watch and wait and wonder, anticipating that Christ will continue to always show up in the world and being prepared to respond when he does.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Jane+