Dear Friends,
The season of Advent begins this coming Sunday, December 1, with the first of the four Sundays of Advent. The season provides time and space for the coming of Christ as we celebrate his first coming at Christmas and anticipate his second coming at some future unknown date – the time when, as the Nicene Creed says, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”
Read several of Paul’s letters to the churches he founded, and you’ll quickly see how the first Christians were standing, as it were, on tiptoes. They expected Jesus to return at almost any moment and looked forward to that time with joyous anticipation. They saw themselves living in an in-between-time; the awareness of this inspired them to share the Good News with as many people as possible, to serve the world in which they found themselves, and to risk everything since they believed they would be called upon right away to give an account of the gifts God had given them.
Two thousand years, and then some, have passed since the early church waited with eager longing for the return of their Lord and Savior. Quite understandably, people found it harder and harder to wait for Christ’s return. The church settled down for the long haul and created institutions and orders of ministry that could sustain the faithful for a longer journey than they had anticipated. So, with the exception of a few believers, most of us don’t stand on our tiptoes in anticipation of the Second Coming. That’s why, it seems to me, the season of Advent is so valuable. For four weeks out of fifty-two, we recapture some of the joyous anticipation of those first Christians.
I will admit that most of the joyous anticipation this time of the year seems more directed to the celebration of the first coming – Christmas – than to the second coming. But I believe we can anticipate more than one thing at a time – and I hope we’ll try.
What might that look like? Here’s a suggestion. Take some time each day of Advent and remember a time when you waited excitedly for something – perhaps the birth of a child or grandchild, the return of your college student after a semester away, a service member’s homecoming after a deployment, how about the arrival of Trinity’s new rector sometime early in 2025 – you get the idea – and then ask yourself this question, “how would I live my life differently if I was waiting excitedly for God to come into my life?”
I look forward to observing Advent joyfully with you again this year. How will you be transformed while you wait?
Blessings,
Stephen Applegate