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The Bishop of Exeter, the Rt. Rev’d Dr Mike Harrison
The church has often used the season of Advent, the start of the Church’s year in December as a run up to Christmas and all the nostalgia, sentimentalism, and bubbliness that comes with it. BUT, Advent was never meant to be just about a warm-up act before Christmas. In fact, it was meant to be serious preparation for the second coming of Jesus and his final judgement.
And as Christians we are called in Advent (and beyond) to bear witness to the coming of the Lord. We see signs of our Lord and His Spirit coming among us even now, for example, when a family conflict doesn’t happen, when works of mercy or kindness occur, when the refugee is welcomed and the hungry shown compassion…these are anticipations, signs of the end, when complete breakthrough occurs with the Kingdom coming on earth.
Advent also tells us to wait expectantly for the coming of the Lord – whether that is in daily moments in our mundane lives as we open the door to God’s power and persuasion, or as we await the final New Age which Jesus alone will inaugurate.
The Good News of Advent is that ultimately our hope lies not in our own personal or communal efforts, initiatives or agendas, but rather the God of Advent who drew near to us in the babe of Bethlehem. He will come again to take away the darkness forever and be our eternal light. Advent is deeply counter-cultural, because it speaks not of human progress but of God’s progress, about the Lord progressing towards us, which is Good News.
And there is joy in Advent because it centres on the One who is moving towards us, who is doing away with death, whose good judgement on evil is banishing darkness, who wildly desires us to reign with Him in the new heavens and new earth.
The church has often used the season of Advent, the start of the Church’s year in December as a run up to Christmas and all the nostalgia, sentimentalism, and bubbliness that comes with it. BUT, Advent was never meant to be just about a warm-up act before Christmas. In fact, it was meant to be serious preparation for the second coming of Jesus and his final judgement.
And as Christians we are called in Advent (and beyond) to bear witness to the coming of the Lord. We see signs of our Lord and His Spirit coming among us even now, for example, when a family conflict doesn’t happen, when works of mercy or kindness occur, when the refugee is welcomed and the hungry shown compassion…these are anticipations, signs of the end, when complete breakthrough occurs with the Kingdom coming on earth.
Advent also tells us to wait expectantly for the coming of the Lord – whether that is in daily moments in our mundane lives as we open the door to God’s power and persuasion, or as we await the final New Age which Jesus alone will inaugurate.
The Good News of Advent is that ultimately our hope lies not in our own personal or communal efforts, initiatives or agendas, but rather the God of Advent who drew near to us in the babe of Bethlehem. He will come again to take away the darkness forever and be our eternal light. Advent is deeply counter-cultural, because it speaks not of human progress but of God’s progress, about the Lord progressing towards us, which is Good News.
And there is joy in Advent because it centres on the One who is moving towards us, who is doing away with death, whose good judgement on evil is banishing darkness, who wildly desires us to reign with Him in the new heavens and new earth.
