Advent is the liturgical season that precedes
Christmas. During the four weeks of Advent, the Christian community prepares
a place for Christ to be born again in our midst. As the word becomes flesh
and make it's dwelling among us, it is God's grace through Jesus' birth,
suffering, death, and resurrection that gives hope to a world that seems to
lost hope.
Advent is a season of hope. It is this hope that
is marked by a spirit of expectation, anticipation and longing that calls us
to tell the truth of God's love.
Advent symbolizes the spiritual journey of
individuals and a congregation. This journey affirms that Christ has come,
that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power.
Through the signs and symbols of Advent,
worshippers are called to remember how God broke into human history and
changed it forever. The Advent wreath, the purple vestments, the lighting of
the advent candles, the singing of the "O" anthems all seek to engage
worshippers in the ongoing life and hope that Christ's birth brings into a
cold world. Jesus is truly the "dawn from on high" that has come upon us.
Advent is more than a simple marking of a 2,000
year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God reconciling
the world. Jesus comes to show us what it really means to be human. The
greatest gift and virtue of a reconciled Christian is humility. Scripture
reminds us that Jesus humbled himself taking on our form.
There is a yearning for deliverance from the
evils of the world. Expressed by the Israelite slaves in Egypt, freedom is
not an option but is a right. It is the cry of those who have experienced
injustice and who long for a day when the loin and the lamb shall walk
together that God replies by sending us Jesus. New life, new hope, new joy,
he brings, listen to the angels sing, Glory, Glory, Glory to the newborn
King.
