by Bishop Bill Gohl
Two thousand years ago in Bethlehem of Judea, God did something new, and our Advent journey is rooted in the hope that our future is wrapped up in a God who continues to act in our human story with justice tempered with mercy, redemption offered with compassion, and a selfless love poured out over and over again at the many crosses Jesus is crucified on in this sin-sick, self-centered world we live in.
And while the world impatiently accelerates at warp-speed toward Christmas with its carols, candles and credit card bills, Advent invites the church to slow down; to sit in the dark places of this life and world, if but for a while before the light is enkindled in us again with new responsibility for sharing that light with others. Advent is about hope, and it comes at a moment when the world desperately needs a reason to be hopeful.
Douglas John Hall, a contemporary Canadian theologian, said something to the effect that a pervasive loss of hope — what he calls "a covert despair" — is the "spiritual hallmark" of our time. For Advent to mean anything in this post-Christendom world — and dare I say church — that we are living in, we must absolutely become renewed in our call to be brokers of hope in Jesus Christ.
We are living in an odd time in the life of the world. There is a pervasive Christian train of thought that if only we invest enough, believe enough, trust enough, hope enough (and the worst of the lot: if only we work hard enough), then God has our backs, we’re safe, everything is going to be alright. God wants us to have wealth, health and prosperity! And that sounds good to us, especially in the politically, economically, globally challenging times we are living in. God wants us to be well. Everything is going to be okay. But here’s the problem. There is no earthly guarantee of happily ever after.
The hope we have in Christ, this hope that we share is not some mall-Muzaked, bedazzled and blinged sense that despite the satanic and demonic forces that are abroad in this country and world; the hurt, loss and despairing that our neighbors are living through; and the very real fear and uncertainty many of us are experiencing in these uncharted times; will somehow make everything okay, that like a Disney movie, everything is going to turn out happily ever after. Advent hope is real hope, serious hope. And yes, sometimes it’s remote, so remote that it feels unreal, silly even. But across generations, God’s people have held tightly to that hope, and it has given them resiliency and courage, even in the darkest and most hopeless situations and circumstances.
In the wake of 9/11, John Buchanan, many years the publisher of The Christian Century, said it like this: "Be ready, Jesus said, stay awake because you don’t know when God will show up. No one, after all, expected God to come in a humble birth in the out-of-the-way little town of Bethlehem. Nobody much recognized God’s presence in Jesus later, as he taught and healed and confronted and challenged. And even fewer, about nobody in fact, recognized God as he was betrayed, arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified. Be ready and awake and alert because no one knows how and when God will appear. What we believe and trust is that God will come. We don’t know how or when—but we trust that God will come again into our lives with love and forgiveness and reconciliation and healing."
That’s what hope is; that’s what Advent is about.
This Advent, we hurry up and wait once again. We wait for Christ to come, and in the meantime, we bring the hope we already know in Christ to the vulnerable among us in this harsh and transient world. We bear the hope we know in Christ into the enlarging chasm between the divisions that define our nation and world.
"And, when we get tired, when we are weary of resisting, when we are told over and over again that this is how things are going to be, [hope’s] call is clear. God has something better for us. Something liberating. Something just. Something transformative." (Eric Barreto, ON Scripture)
Hope is not benign or passive, it is an active call to action. Real hope in Christ transforms our lives – and the lives of others, in this time, for eternity.
"But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." - Matthew 24:36-44