I made a stop at our local shopping mall a couple of days before [tag]Reformation Day[/tag] (a.k.a, October 31st and Halloween) and as I was walking down the corridor, I noticed decorations hanging from the ceiling. Despite the fact that a major consumer holiday was two days away and [tag]Thanksgiving[/tag] was only three weeks away, these decorations were for the [tag]Christmas[/tag] season. Wreaths, ribbons, greenery, candles. It was all there. The mall’s central area, usually filled with play equipment for weary children, had been taken over by a Christmas village, complete with [tag]Santa[/tag]‘s chair, a camera, and (not surprisingly) a cash register.
My wife texted me two days ago and notified me that our [tag]Christmas tree[/tag] was ready to be decorated. Even now, church volunteers are in our sanctuary placing garland and wreaths and candles that will transform our austere 150 year old worship space into a stunning visual feast.
I wonder if we are getting ahead of ourselves. In the free worship tradition, we haven’t historically made much of the [tag]Advent[/tag] season. Perhaps many have never heard of Advent.
We live in a world of instant gratification. We have access to everything right now. Literally, we have the ability to know of major events on the other side of the world within seconds; no more waiting for film reels or tomorrow’s newspaper, or even tonight’s newscast. (I’m as guilty as anyone; as a news junkie, I have news alerts sent directly to my phone!) Rather than going to a music store and buying a CD, I can purchase and download almost any music I want and listen to it within minutes. Good News Publishing even allows you to download a PDF version of most books you purchase online; you don’t have to wait for the book to arrive in the mail before you can read it.
But the season of Advent runs counter to all of that. No, it isn’t Christmas already. We’re still waiting. We’re still waiting to celebrate the birth of our Messiah. We wait, as Isaiah and Israel waited. “Prepare the way of the Lord . . . And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” (Isaiah 40:3a, 5a [tag]ESV[/tag]). We wait with the ancient songwriter: O come, O come, Emmanuel, / And ransom captive Israel. We wait and plead, “Come, thou long-expected Jesus.” Perhaps we wait so long that when the event finally arrives, we ask, as John asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3 ESV).
But we wait.
And while we wait? We make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3b ESV). We prepare ourselves. We spend time in repentance, examining everything that might make us unworthy to enter into His presence, realizing all the while that it is only He who can make us worthy.
The waiting isn’t waisted. When the event finally arrives, we leap with joy. The victory is sweeter. The worship is deeper. The Savior was well worth the wait. It’s more than we ever imagined. All the anxiety of the wait is wiped away. We bow in adoration. We offer our gifts. We offer ourselves at His manger. Because, at last, Emmanuel—God is with us!
[...] I mentioned in an earlier post that those of us who are in the free worship tradition1 don’t often don’t do much with the season of Advent.2 That isn’t true across the board; individual congregations are free to observe Advent or not. Some do and some don’t. So the level of knowledge about and experience with Advent varies greatly. [...]