Advent

One of the greater failings (in my humble opinion) of the Evangelical church movement (non-denominational, of which I am a member) is that we don't do the season of Advent. Growing up Episcopalian and Lutheran, Advent was something that became anticipated - I'm sure as a child, mostly because it meant that Christmas was right around the corner, but also because it built anticipation for the event itself.

I say to our detriment because the darkness of Advent makes the brightness of Christmas all that more brilliant. As an Evangelical, Christmas just sort of comes one Sunday - we sing a few carols, have the children do a small program, and then it's here. There's none of the more traditional anticipation, done through the mechanism of Advent, as Sunday by Sunday the Advent wreath reflects the physical (and our spiritual) journey to Bethlehem.

I'm stuck this fall (more so than others, I think) of darkness - darkness of nature, and darkness of soul. I alluded to this to An Polleaneach yesterday - a sort of malaise where I have little interest in doing anything, a sense of going through the motions of life without zest. She responded that she too was experiencing the same thing.

I wonder if that is not a proper thing for Advent. We anticipate the coming of the Messiah, but we do it in the background of 400 years of silence after Malachi. In fact, in Malachi some of God's very last words to Israel are to look - to look for Elijah before the coming great and terrible day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5). Like the Jews of that era, waiting through the darkness of the times towards hope, so Advent, with its seasonal darkness, cold, and wet, gives me pause to reflect in silence on both the promises of God and His return, seen through His arrival in the manager at Bethlehem.

I wonder as well, if at this season, we are called - at least I am called - to use this period of waiting to look at our lives. Earlier this month, I lamented the fact that Christmas always seems to rush by in a hurry. I wonder if my malaise is simply God's way of saying "Take a minute and look at your life in the light of Me. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Are you letting the good take the place of the best?"