It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. – Lam. 3.26
If ever there was a season created to drive the typical American crazy, it is Advent. The American reputation for being driven, impatient, goal-obsessed, “let’s get it done” people is not without evidence. It’s been pointed out to us so often how much our lives revolve around instant breakfasts, ten-minute oil changes, self-help books, and microwave ovens, we hardly hear the words as a criticism. “It’s who we are,” we say to our critics and to ourselves. We rarely imagine we could be any different.
If ever there was a season that Americans need more than Advent, I’m not sure what it would be. We are a materially prosperous people – a prosperity due in no small part to our cultural task oriented-ness. We are also a spiritually impoverished people. Far too often, if we think of God at all, it is only to include him as a partner in our own plans. And never one with a voting majority in the company.
Advent is the season of waiting and watching for God to act – two activities which are profoundly counter-cultural to our way of life. Advent is not at all about hurrying up. It is not about getting anything done. It’s not even about going anywhere. It is so, as I said, un-American.
For four weeks before Christmas, we try to remember what it must have been like for Israel to nurture the hope of God’s salvation. We try to wear the hat of a worn out, tired, hungry group of people who are at the end of all their ropes and know they need more than just a stronger army or a more vibrant economy or a new king on the throne. We imagine what it must have been like to wait, not for a therapist or a professional coach or a consultant to help us manage our lives, but for a savior. We try to wait, helpless as helpless can be, like they waited for God to come and do what he said he would do. We try to imagine not our future with God in it but God’s future with us in it.
There is a lot of future-tense language in Advent. In Isaiah we read words like these: In the days to come, the house of the Lord will be established…. He shall judge between the nations…. They shall beat their swords into plowshares…. The wolf shall live with the lamb…. The eyes of the blind shall be opened…. And notice it’s all God’s future. There are no plans of ours.
This is a vision of a very pleasant and comfortable future. It’s a world in which life is good for every person and every creature. Advent language is all about a world where justice and health is second nature and God is on the throne of government. It’s a place where the metals of industry are shaped into tools for life and not for death. Above all, it is a universe of divine order and all living creatures know and are content in their unique place.
The hope of Advent was fulfilled in the Babe of Bethlehem, of course. God did keep his promise. Jesus is the reason why we ought to trust God for anything else he has promised, too. He did it then and he will certainly come through for us again.
Advent probably makes sense only to people who know they need God more than anything else. It won’t work for those who want God sometimes, to help on some projects, or to be present in some places. But for those who know they need a Savior, it’s a great time of the year. The watching and waiting are, well, just what God’s people are supposed do.
- KDS
