Christ Church, Advent 2012
Coming in History, Mystery and Majesty
In a particular place at a time when the world both watched for it and was unprepared for it, God broke into our world in History, Mystery and Majesty. As we walk through Advent, a time of waiting and anticipation, we see this most clearly.
A baby is born. For the most part this is a lovely but hardly surprising event. Even a baby being born to a peasant teenager in an obscure village in a country ravaged by war and strife is hardly front page news. It has happened since the beginning of human history and it happens many times each day even now.
But this baby ? this little scrap of humanity was not just human but God. This baby was the God of all the Universe, our Creator and Sustainer. This baby was that God breaking into the world of human history. This baby was the embodiment of a love so great and profound that we struggle to find words to express the mystery of it all. This baby will come again, not as a helpless child, but in majesty and glory. And before Him, every knee shall bow.
Advent is our time of waiting, and in the waiting we both remember and anticipate.
We remember that the first coming was not God?s first interaction with the Creation crafted eons before, but rather the culmination of a plan that had been set before the world began. We listen to the story of God?s working with his frail and broken people ? a story of renewing and reshaping and redemption. We hear the prophecies and see the pattern of God?s fingerprints on every aspect of history. And we read the predictions yet to be fulfilled and in them and in the record of God?s dealing with our world, we find hope.
Advent is our time of waiting and in the waiting we both remember and anticipate.
We remember how God has sustained and challenged and led our church family to the place where we now recognize God?s work among us in a new way. We remember the challenges faced in faith and God?s faithfulness to us. We listen to the stories of those whose history we now share. Some of those stories, like our present stories, are tales of difficulties and even brokenness but above all they are wonderful stories of God working with us, renewing, reshaping and redeeming lives for God?s glory. They are stories of God providing for God?s people who seek to do God?s work. They are stories of God?s love lived out in human lives that touch and treasure each other. And in these stories we find hope for a future marked by the fulfillment of the purpose God is working to His glory at Christ Church. God has been in our history. With great joy, we anticipate. We are confident that God is working God?s own plan as we walk into a future that seems still somewhat of a mystery.
Advent is our time of waiting and in the waiting we both remember and anticipate.
We sit quietly in the waiting, in the midst of the busyness and noise, and allow our minds to review our individual histories. We see the pattern of God?s fingerprints everywhere. We see God?s gifts of love and care. We see God?s purposes worked out in what seemed disasters. We see dashed dreams that have been replaced somehow by infinitely better realities. We see the abundance, the amazing generosity, of God?s gifts and blessings. We see God persistently and loving crafting our past and that gives us great hope. And as we look at the past, our confusion and even fear are quieted by a mysterious confidence that God is working in our present and will continue to do so in our futures. In this, we find peace
Advent is our time of waiting and in the waiting we both remember and anticipate.
As Christ?s Body, here and now, in a particular place and time we celebrate God?s gift of including us in His plan, and we live in joyful expectation. We pray that the Babe of Bethlehem will be born anew in us. We pray that we will enter into the mystery of this unimaginable love and that as that Christ-love is born again in us, here and now, the world will see not us, but Him, in all the majesty and glory that is due Him.
Maranatha ? Come O Come Emmanuel!
Rev. Marie, Advent 2012
P.S. Once again, Rob and I thank God for the amazing gift of serving God among you and with you. And we pray God?s great blessings for each of you in this new year!