We do get another chance!

The Season of Advent 

We do get another chance!  The Season of Advent gives the church the opportunity to begin again.  Once more the full story of God’s grace is awaiting our discovery.  Once more we shake off the failures and victories of the past, and we get a clean page on which to write the story of our companionship with God in Christ.  Once more we get to listen and respond in faithfulness to the God who comes to us so humbly, intimately, and personally in the birth of Jesus.  Advent marks the beginning of the church year and lays before us the pathway of faith for the year ahead.  Advent initiates once again remembering, retelling, and celebrating the whole drama of God’s revelation.

Four weeks is the limit to this season that declares the truths about a God whose love and resourcefulness have no limits.  “Advent” has its roots in the Latin word adventus, or coming.  This season proclaims the coming of Christ in the birth of Jesus, in the Word and Spirit, and in the final victory when God’s kingdom shall be complete.  Our privilege as Christians is to receive the gracious gift of God’s presence in Christ.  Our task is to prepare for his coming so that we will not miss life’s greatest gift.

Sometimes the hype of the season distracts us.  The clever marketing efforts make us desire things we can hold in our hands and savor as gifts.  But marketing hype cannot answer the deep questions of the heart, explain the mystery of God’s presence, or help us comprehend the meaning of our existence.  Yet all these gifts are promised to us in the Advent Season.

God’s astounding and radical intervention in our human history cannot be contained in the displays of Christmas lights, catchy slogans, or the exchange of gifts.  Advent confronts us once again with God’s effort to communicate the message that all humanity is embraced and held close by a God of love.  Jesus Christ has come, is present with us, and will come again in final victory when all darkness, pain, and evil will be ended.  In Advent we begin again to try to make plain the wonderful truth of the most extraordinary good news the world has ever heard.  Soon we will join the angels in singing, “Christ the Savior is born.”

By: Pastor Leslie Ann, Pastor,  ircrest United Methodist Church