Advent

Advent is about darkness, about living in darkness, about waiting for the light in the darkness. The dark is an uncomfortable place to be, especially in winter. The nights are cold. The sun's rays in the daytime do not warm but only highlight the overwhelming presence of the dark. The nights grow ever longer until the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. Then there is light, the light that shines in the darkness. The light the darkness cannot overcome. The light that lights everyone, the light of life. But I am getting ahead of myself. Advent is about darkness, about living in darkness, about waiting for the light in the darkness.

It is tempting to make the move from the Thanksgiving Day feast to the Christmas Day feast and bypass Advent entirely, to reach for festive garments of red and green, to deck the halls with bright lights and evergreen boughs and sing cheerful songs so that no one will know we are afraid of the dark.

Yet as Christians, we are called to be honest about the darkness. In summer, the darkness brought relief from scorching sun, but now, it exposes our own mortality, our most private fears and our deepest longings. As the darkness becomes more enveloping, we light one candle, then two, then three and finally the entire advent wreath is ablaze with the proclamation of Jesus' promise to return. for it is Jesus for whom we wait, not the baby Jesus, but the crucified and risen one who is coming soon to make all things new.

We were all conceived in the darkness. We waited and grew and at the proper time, our mothers brought us into the light. During that time of waiting, our parents prepared for our arrival, sometimes ill, sometimes excited, sometimes anxious and even sometimes in great despair at our promised advent. For many expectant parents, the wait is long and the labor seems endless. So it is with Jesus' return. The church waits with the signs of labor all around it: wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes in various places, famines, signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves (the signs which have been always around the church from the first). Yet the new creation has not yet been revealed. Jesus has not yet come, though the Lord is near.

Instead of trying to convert the ever-present signs of the creation's labor into a timetable for Jesus' return, or carelessly skipping from celebration to celebration with forced cheeriness, Christians tell the truth about the human condition in the darkness of Advent. We tell also of the promise of God's salvation through our savior Jesus Christ, Shining forth in the flickering light of the Advent candles.

And, to encourage one another in this season of waiting, consider wearing Advent blue. It is the color of the darkness just before dawn.

Note: I have no idea when I wrote this.