Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Advent and Advent People


Advent and Advent People


Written by Dan McDonald

 

            In the 2016 science fiction movie “Arrival” twelve alien space ships land on different places on the Earth. Doctor Louise Banks (A leading linguistic expert, whose character is presented by actress Amy Adams) is called upon to try to communicate with the visitors. One of the discoveries Doctor Banks learns is that while we move from our past to our future, the aliens move in the opposite direction from what is our future to what is our present. The visiting aliens have been visited by us in their past, during a crisis time; and now are reaching us in our present during a time that is a critical period in our human civilization. Doctor Banks understanding of time becomes less certain as she finds her life being informed by the impressions of her future presented to her in her contact with the visitors who can give her impressions of the future they know concerning her life.

            The Latin originated name “Advent” means to come. Our Christian season of Advent focuses on the twin focal points of Christ’s coming into our world. He has come in our past, to be born of Mary, to live, to suffer for our sins, and to be raised from the dead, conqueror of sin and death on our behalf. Advent, however, also focuses on a second coming of Christ when Christ, having interceded for us in heavenly places will return to complete the work of our redemption and salvation in that coming day. St. John gives us a wonderful sense of what shall take place, and also what it means for our lives in the present time between a past and a future coming of Christ. We are given the promise in I John 3:2-3 “Beloved we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him and shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hoped based on him, makes himself pure as he is pure.” (New American Bible)

            In the “Arrival” film, Doctor Banks sees glimpses of her future, conveyed to her through the aliens who are reaching into her world from their past which is part of Doctor Banks’ future. Doctor Banks sees beauty in the life being presented to her. She also sees trials and sufferings. The beauty she sees is so wonderful in its human beauty that she can accept the great sufferings she believes to be interwoven as a package with what will be her future life. I find in our participation in the season of Advent that what God has done for us in Christ in the past, and how he shall complete it all in the future is essential for our understanding how we are to embrace our place in the middle. We, who had fallen into sin with our lives lost to both God and ourselves, were granted to have Christ come on our behalf to enter our lives and redeem them though both his sufferings and his resurrection. The Serpent bit the son of the woman’s heel, while the long awaited Son crushed the serpent’s head. In the yet future great day of salvation our dear kind patient Savior shall arrive to bring to happy conclusion our triumph through him over sin and death forevermore. He shall wipe away our tears and the former things shall be no more.

            We are still in waiting for that final day. We do not wait passively. We wait both in suffering and great expectation. The Apostle Paul encourages us to recognize the suffering that is part of our redemption. He speaks to us as people in the middle, between the two comings, encouraging us to conduct ourselves in a matter worthy of the Gospel of Christ whatever is experienced in this life. (Philippians 1:27) He encourages us to remain steadfast in our Gospel centered lives telling us – “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.” (Philippians 1:29) There is great pain to be experienced in our future until he comes again. We should not expect to escape this experiencing of suffering. It is part of the redemption granted to us in Christ who both suffered and overcame both sin and death on our behalf. His life for us, becomes his life in us as we believe and follow him in the middle between his two comings. This is not us earning a works righteousness, but us being made alive to participate in the work of our own redemption.

            Despite the suffering we also find in our lives lived out in the middle, the growing confidence that he who began a good work in us will bring it to perfection. We shall see him and when we see him, we shall be like him. Knowing this is part of our future, we delight ourselves in seeking to be pure as Christ is pure. We embrace the painful sufferings of this middle season, encouraged by our knowing the beauty of that as we shall be purified we now seek to grow in grace in the beauty of the redemption Christ has granted us in our union with his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

            Advent helps us know that all time is in God’s hands. The future and the past have been transformed to speak to us who live in the middle and to encourage us in our sufferings and in our ambitions to grow in grace and to hunger and thirst for righteousness knowing that when we see him, it shall not have been a fruitless task of living in the middle, but we shall see him and shall be like him. So here in the middle we prepare ourselves for grief and pain and suffering. Here in the middle, we prepare ourselves for the great joy of seeing him and being brought to be like him.

            Here in the middle we see horrible wrongs that need confronted, confronted with the hope of the Gospel. We see children deprived of life as they grow in their mother’s womb. We see children with families fleeing thugs with power, only to be tear gassed as they approach what they hope will be their place of refuge. We see one nation bombing another nation and cutting a whole population off from food and resources so the entire nation is drawing near to a time of mass starvation. We see children plucked from their families to live in virtual slavery in fields where the laborers are seldom paid their due, while their labors bring great profits in providing us with the delicacies we desire. We see children taken from their families and turned into tools for the sexual exploitation of the privileged in an unjust world. This is life in our world. We see it in ourselves. We see our selfishness, our ruthlessness in yearning for our good while making another’s good of no importance. We find in ourselves our own tendencies to Cain’s false religion where he offers is personal sacrifices but refuses to believe he has anything to do with being his brother’s keeper. This is part of the world in which we live in the middle. But we are advent people. We know of his past and future coming. We are moved by his longsuffering on our behalf so we are overwhelmed by his granting us to participate in his suffering. The future speaks to us of the certainty of his future triumph over all the ills we face, and thus we begin to pluck the logs out of our eyes, and begin with humility the search to become pure even as he is pure, to become loving as he is loving, to be gracious to others as he is gracious. In Advent we learn how precious it is, for us to be Advent people, living in the middle with its sufferings and with great joy incomparable. It is a privilege to live as Advent people experiencing simultaneously living out the long loneliness and living in the company of the saints no man or woman could ever begin to count, surrounded as we are by such a cloud of witnesses. Living in the Middle is a painful, joyous paradox that we navigate knowing the ramifications of our Savior's past and future comings.