Emmanuel Lutheran Church

December 2019

The Gift of Advent

Ever wish you could just slow down? I know many of our young families are rushed from here to there and back only to have to go somewhere else. Some are trying to figure out how to be in two places at once. Busy, busy, busy! I even hear from those who are retired that they find themselves busier than ever before.

In a fast paced world, the season of Advent offers a call to slow down and wait. Advent is often overshadowed these days by the rush to get to Christmas. But it is not Christmas as Christians know it. It is the Christmas of retail and fantasy (big box store and cable channel movies).

For Christians, beneath this rush to get to Christmas is a subtle, quiet call to slow down and wait with great anticipation, like a child waiting excitedly for their upcoming birthday or a parent waiting for their first grandchild. It’s coming, but not yet.

Advent is a Latin word that means “to come” and the season is full of anticipation in looking forward to the coming birth of the Savior of the world, but more importantly, the coming of Christ again. It is a season of hope.

The color of Advent is blue which symbolizes hope. This is not the “I hope the Cleveland Browns can have a winning season” kind of hope. No, this is the hope that is full of trust in a God who keeps promises. This is a kind of hope that uplifts even in the midst of struggle, to the point that people might think is “crazy.”

Paul writes in Romans chapter 8: “…For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” And again 1 Timothy, chapter 4: “…because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.”

Indeed, God is our hope and the season of Advent helps us to remember that, because in our busy lives, in our lives of comfort and security, we can easily forget the hope of our ancestors of scripture who yearned for a Messiah or, even now, our more recent ancestors whose faith and hope in God guided them through the desperate times of the Great Depression or the persecutions and hardships of World War II.

Perhaps the troubles of this day and age to which so many complain and lament are begun in a loss of this kind of hope in a God who does not forget his people. Celebrate Advent before Christmas and be renewed and refreshed in a living hope – a hope that trusts in a God who comes to be with us in our joys and our sorrows. Advent is truly the “most wonderful time of the year” for it prepares our hearts to receive our Savior.

God bless,
Pastor Alan