What if we stopped thinking of Advent as a season of waiting, as it’s so often called? Waiting is just marking time. It’s passive. Jesus wasn’t so much into waiting, sitting around, marking time – or sticking it out until death claimed him. Instead, Jesus’ life was stewarded by enacting the reign of God: by feeding, healing, forgiving, advocating, comforting.
A better word for Advent than waiting, then, is anticipating, a word that literally means, “to take into possession before something actually happens.” That is, Advent isn’t only reclaiming its time, it’s reorienting our time. Our time, as Christians, is calibrated to the risen Christ.
Advent is here, happy to reclaim its time and reclaim our attention.
This message is from “Reclaiming Time” by Anna Madsen in the December 2017 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate John of Damascus, theologian and hymnwriter, c. 749. All are welcome to attend a Blue Christmas service via Zoom, December 21 at 7 p.m. (CST).
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