It is Advent Sunday, and the darkness is drawing in. The days are short. The light is failing. And this tumultuous year, in which all our expectations of normal life of been turned on their head, edges towards its close. And on Advent Sunday we do something very simple. We light a candle – and we wait. Advent is the season for waiting.
And waiting is something that we had increasingly forgotten how to do. In the eighties there was a slogan for a credit card - ” Access takes the waiting out of wanting.” No need to wait, we were told, you can shop your way to salvation right now. Leisure shopping, online shopping – why wait when you can have what you want at the click of a mouse? Around us the world became increasingly fast moving, impatient unable to tolerate waiting for anything.
Yet this year the virus has changed that. We have waited for weeks, for months to see family, to leave the house, to gather for worship in church or in the pub with friends. Time has dragged. We have been reminded that so much is beyond our control, and have perhaps been forced to confront our need for God. We have seen behaviour change, priorities shift. We have seen how change in society can be possible.
Our Advent texts tonight have reminded us how the coming of the God’s chosen One was the culminations of the dreams and hopes and longings of God’s people over many centuries. As we wait in Advent we wait in solidarity them. Isaiah writes into a time of huge change and social upheaval, and into that situation unfolds a radical and breathtaking vision of God’s justice and liberating power. And as Jesus begins his mission in Galilee some seven centuries later we hear how he claims Isaiah’s vision for himself:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus
For he appointed me Jesus to bring the good news to the poor
Release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind”
In in Advent in the company of the all God’s people we wait for the coming into the world of Jesus, God among us, God among the poor and outcast, Jesus who is the fulfilment of Isaiah’s vision, Jesus who will announce the coming Kingdom of God where those who are despised and rejected have the foremost place.
In Advent we wait with Christian people all around the world: remembering that the majority of the world church is black, is poor and lives in the Southern hemisphere.
For the world’s poorest people there is no choice but to wait for climate justice. As the climate crisis has increased the prevalence of drought, flood and infestation, farmers have struggled to bring in their harvest, and low lying countries already see the impact of rising sea levels. Meanwhile they wait for the wealthy countries to wake up to their responsibilities.
Over the past twenty years there has been steady progress towards the millennium goal of eliminating extreme poverty, defined as living below one dollar ninety per day. Christian Aid has been active in that, advocating and partnering to enable communities to become economically self-sufficient. Yet the coronavirus pandemic seriously threatens progress to eliminate extreme poverty. The World Bank estimates that 150 million people may be tipped into extreme poverty by 2021. In this context our government’s decision to cut the overseas aid budget should give all Christian people serious pause for thought. This is not good news for the poor – it is bad news for the poor.
On Advent Sunday we light a candle. We wait. We give to God our longings for a world where wars may cease and oppressive rule give way to justice and mercy. We do not wait alone, but in the company of God’s faithful people of every race and nation, with the farmer from Ethiopia, the fisherman from the Solomon Islands, the healthworker from Bolivia. We share our Advent hopes and longings with them. We wait together. Maranatha: come, lord Jesus.