{Keep an eye out for video posts coming soon!}
…Focusing the ritual of Advent entirely on the past, on something that happened 2000 years ago, can also miss the point of the season. In Advent, we celebrate and await the arrival of God’s presence among us in every moment, in every era. Our lives and we ourselves have the potential to be filled with God if we allow God to arrive—to inspire us, to love us, to guide us, to change us. Emmanuel, God with us—God present in all created things, not merely in events 2000 years ago. As described in passages like John 1 and elsewhere, from the beginning of time every quark in creation is shot through with divine presence and availability. As Jesus said a radical “yes” to God, his life made God’s immanence visible to us, showing us the possible. But the waiting and anticipation of the Advent season is a reminder that God comes also into our lives, our very world, every single day. And so we await, expect, look for, receive the coming of the Universal Christ—that theological notion of God present among us in every circumstance, moment, and element of creation.
This year, the lectionary gospel passage (Mark 13:24-37) that kicks off Advent seems odd. It’s not very Advent-y, having nothing to do with Jesus’ birth. In the narrative, Jesus waxes apocalyptic. The earliest Jesus followers clearly believed the end of the world and their teacher’s literal return would happen during their lifetimes; and in this, they were wrong. But as I read the passage, I can’t help but think many groups of Jesus followers—in every era—have thought the passage was about them. People in all times look around and see fear and foreboding. Terrible things happen, no matter the era. Into the midst of this, God arrives, working repair or redemption in our midst; and that is what we celebrate…. {Read remainder of article on Patheos HERE.}