What are you waiting for?
Advent Carol Service
Whaley Bridge (Taxal)
28.11.21
“What are you waiting for?”
‘What are you waiting for?’ was something my mum would say to me when I was a boy and dawdling or not paying attention and she wanted me to go faster or catch up with her.
Now, the word ‘Advent’ comes from the Latin meaning ‘coming’ and implies anticipating and looking forward. But looking forward to what? What is it that we’re hoping for, waiting for, this dark season of the year? What are we waiting for is a question which the season of Advent asks us and I want to spend a few minutes exploring that question.
The meaning of advent has changed over the centuries in the Christian church. In the very early years of the church, it was a time when people who were going to be baptised underwent preparation. By the 6th century AD it had evolved into reflecting on the coming of Christ into the world but it wasn’t his birth they were thinking of, it was his second coming at the end of all time in judgement. It wasn’t until the Middle Ages that it was linked with the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas.
So, it’s a season whose meaning has evolved but I think, throughout all of these different phases, there’s been an undercurrent of taking stock, anticipating the presence of Jesus with us and, crucially, wondering about what that might mean for each of us.
The temptation today, I think, is to wrap Christmas and advent up, as part and parcel of the same thing but, really, they are different things with different meanings and I think that making the distinction can be helpful to us in the rush and pressure of the next few weeks.
Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier each year, doesn’t it? Santa has already visited Whaley Bridge and, at one level, that’s a lovely bit of fun, but don’t you think that it can sometimes feel superficial? Santa seems to simply be an advertising executive’s device to make us all buy stuff. Is that all there is to the season? Is it really all just about the presents?
Well, you might say to me that, really, Advent is about waiting for the arrival of baby Jesus, and we talk about baby Jesus as a hopeful thing, but in the cold, hard light of day, what on earth does that really mean?
I want to suggest that we leave celebrating the arrival of Jesus at Christmas until Christmas arrives. Instead, I propose that we see Advent as a precious space, an opportunity, to think through the things that are really important to us and to take time to work these things through. We don’t have to rush to Christmas. It will happen in its own good time. This time is a space to step back and take stock.
What are we waiting for? We’re waiting because Christmas isn’t here yet and, if we really want to understand why the arrival of Jesus is a special, hopeful thing, then we need to take time to look around us and clock what’s really going on in this sad old world of ours. It’s only if we do that that Jesus’ birth really makes any kind of sense.
So, what kind of things should we be giving our attention to? Well, our politicians can’t be trusted to tell the truth. Huge numbers of people are carrying burdens of grief and sadness after Covid. The world is on fire with global warming. On the borders of Europe, refugees are being herded up against the Polish border and left to freeze to death as a way of destabilizing European countries for political ends. Children are drowning in the English Channel because there is no safe way for them to come to this country. It’s not a nice list, is it? It’s not easy to listen to, but it is the truth about the world we live in.
Now, I’m not saying that there are easy answers to these problems. What I want to suggest, though, is that Advent gives us a precious space when we can face up to the troubles and strife of this sad old world, look them square in the face and say ‘does it have to be like this?’. To take time over that exercise. Really face up to what’s going wrong in this world. That’s what this season can help us do as we travel, week by week, in church listening to the stories of God which help us make sense of this sad old world.
And, as we take that cold, hard look at the real world, will we feel everything’s hopeless, nothing we can do? We might, but I hope not because, if we really look at what’s wrong in the world now; when Christmas does come around and we hear again the story of how God doesn’t abandon us, but comes to us as a baby to stand alongside us in our frailty and vulnerability, that story will make sense to us. We’ll properly understand how God coming to humanity as a baby really does offer us hope and an alternative vision of who we really can be.
Because Jesus didn’t come into a comfy, safe world. His first experiences were those of being born in a country under occupation, of having to flee for his life as a refugee, of sin and brokenness and wrongness all around Him. Yet what we’ll learn He offers an alternative to this. He’ll show us that this sad old world doesn’t have to be like it is and He’ll show us how to change it. But not yet. We haven’t reached that part of the story yet. This Advent we still have work to do.
We’re waiting and we’re hoping. We’re hoping that there’s something better on offer this Christmas day than over cooked brussels and overpriced presents. And there is something better but we’re not there yet.
This is Advent and I want you to think of the next four weeks as an invitation to hope. I want to invite you to find time, amid the busyness and glitter and spending, to take a little time out to think more deeply about what gives you hope. To ask yourselves how you can explore the depths of hopefulness in our troubled world. To reflect on what you can do to find a more hopeful way.
Advent is an invitation to take that journey, ask those questions, maybe see the world we live in differently. And, if you do want to explore those questions, take the opportunity, then do join the advent journey in your local church. We’ll all be asking ourselves these questions, and taking time over them, in this waiting time. You’re welcome to join us.
May God bless you in your waiting this Advent season. May he grant you the gift of patience and eyes to see the sin and suffering of this broken world. May He give you the blessing of hope and trust in Him and the assurance that He is coming and in His coming all shall be well. Amen