Reflection 13 - The one about Advent

On Sunday we were looking at some very difficult verses from Daniel 9:20-27. If you haven’t yet had a chance to listen you’ll find it at https://youtu.be/p-zVESmU9w4

 

It was great that this passage coincided with the beginning of Advent - it wasn’t planned that way (at least by me).

Most people in our society are probably aware of the word ‘Advent’ in relation to Advent Calendars. That period of time which begins on the first of December and counts down to Christmas Day – usually accompanied by chocolate, although beer, gin, coffee and cosmetic Advent Calendars are all available as companies seize every commercial opportunity they can find.

Hope is often a word associated with this time of year. Small children are encouraged to write letters to Santa Claus giving him a list that they hope he will deliver on. Plenty of musicians since Bing Crosby have warned us to behave and we hope that we’ll be on the nice rather than the naughty list. As the wrapped presents start to appear under the Christmas tree, we hope that the box with our name on it contains… 

I expect for a lot of us though, at the moment, we’re hoping that whatever tentative plans we’ve made for Christmas will still be able to take place. We’re hoping that we’ll still be able to see family and friends. We’re hoping that we won’t have to use Zoom again.

 

Within the church calendar Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day and is a period of anticipation and preparation. Different church traditions focus on different themes on each Sunday in Advent but many will start, as we did, with hope. But Advent isn’t about hoping that you get a PS5 or a new pony on the 25^th December. The preparation isn’t just about making sure that the cake is baked and iced.

 

Advent is about looking at the big story that we find in the Bible. Celebrating Jesus’ first coming and looking ahead to his second coming.

 

As we said on Sunday, not everyone interprets Gabriel’s words in Daniel 9:20-27 the same way. But most will agree that God wants Daniel to see a bigger picture than just the end of the exile. 

 

God is passionate about our here and now and we have his promise that he is with us in it – that’s one of the truths of the Christmas story: Immanuel, God with us. But God also wants us to lift our eyes above the here and now and see that he has an even bigger plan. 

 

Within traditional churches the focus of the first week of Advent is very much on the Second Coming of Jesus – which is why hope is often the accompanying theme taken in less traditional churches.

I don’t know about you but there are times when I find it really hard to know what to pray about what is going on in our world. These are the times when we need to remember that there is a bigger picture which gives us hope. But not in an escapist, it’ll be alright in the end, kind of way. But the encouragement to keep on keeping on in the present, to keep on working for justice and truth and peace, because God’s people will be vindicated in the end, and everything will be put right.

 

Many of us don’t read Revelation for the same reason we don’t read Daniel 7-12. But Revelation is the end of the story. Reading the Bible without reading Revelation is like reading a novel but never getting to the final chapter.

 

For those of you who have never read to the end it says, **SPOILER ALERT**

 

He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. (Revelation 22:20-21)