Why Advent Matters in 2020
Historically, the Advent season emphasizes waiting for Christ's birth but, even more so, waiting for his final return. Why? What’s the big deal?
If this is a year in which you are aware of how broken this world is, then this is a year in which Advent can become the most meaningful and transforming that you’ve ever experienced!
The Old Testament prophecies clearly look forward to what God’s long-term plan for the planet is. What wasn’t so clear was that the plan was to be accomplished in two major steps.
Step 1
The Messiah is born to live a perfect life, be crucified and rise again, thus becoming the spotless lamb whose death atones for the sins of the whole world for all time. In Step 1 we gain the ability to be reconciled to the God of the universe through the atoning death of Himself as Jesus.
And then … He assigns to us the task of being ministers of His reconciliation throughout the world. All the good that Christians do and have done throughout the world in Jesus’ name has been done as ministers of God’s reconciliation made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
That alone gives us plenty to think about this Advent: To be renewed and restored in Jesus and, filled with gratitude, to respond by pouring ourselves out for others.
For hundreds and hundreds of years, the Jewish people had been longing for the coming of the Messiah because they wanted to see the ancient prophecies become a reality. They weren’t expecting that there would be two stages; that the Messiah would not accomplish all of the prophecies in His human lifetime on earth. Believing that Jesus was indeed Messiah as he claimed, confirmed by His resurrection, we continue to long for the rest of what the prophets foretold. What’s that??
Step 2
The rest of the role of the Messiah that the prophets wrote about will not happen until the second coming of Jesus. Jesus’ return initiates a sequence of events that ultimately culminates in what we read in Revelation 21:3-4.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Historically, people have especially longed for Jesus’ return during times of great difficulty, especially when thousands were experiencing those difficult times at the same time – periods of widespread starvation, oppression, plague, economic calamity. In those trying times, Advent was particularly focused on Jesus’ return.
The Advent hymn we sing, O Come O Come Emmanuel, was first written in Latin… documented as far back as 1710. It was translated to English in 1850 and is found in a popular hymnal ten years later. Here at The Summit, we usually only sing two verses but this hymn had 5 verses for the first two hundred years of its life and then two more were added in 1916 … in the middle of World War I, a time of horrific loss and devastation.
The hymn encourages us to rejoice because He will come. Across the seven verses, the congregation asks God
To ransom (set free) captive Israel that is mourning in lonely exile;
To free God’s own from Satan’s tyranny – from the impact in the world whenever humans have chosen and continue to choose evil over good throughout history;
To save God’s people from the depths of hell;
To give them victory over death;
To disperse the gloom (sorrow of the soul, without relief) and death’s dark shadows;
To come and make safe the way that leads to God’s presence;
To close the path to misery;
To put all things in order (to make everything as it ought to be) and show us the path of knowledge and wisdom;
To bind all peoples in one heart and mind;
To end envy, strife, and quarrels;
To fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.
In short, the hymn is asking God to bring about what is described in the passage in Revelation 21, the end of evil and brokenness and what comes from that – dying, mourning, pain.
2020 has been a year of mourning, death, tears, and pain for so many.
An estimated 1.5 million worldwide have died from Covid-19 so far; 266,000 deaths in the U.S. alone. That’s a lot of households who are mourning; that’s a lot of pain.
Over 600,000 deaths from cancer in the U.S. alone are expected by the end of 2020.
We have become much more aware this year of the damage done, including death, due to injustice, prejudice and complacency.
There has been much mourning over jobs lost, businesses closed, unwanted furloughs.
In years that have been more normal in one’s lifetime, it’s easier to notice less the disease and war and prejudice in the world. In part, it’s easier because the circles of our lives often have not intersected much of this up close.
If this is a year in which you are aware of how broken this world is, then this is a year in which Advent can become the most meaningful and transforming that you’ve ever experienced! It’s ok that, this year, you’re not “feeling Christmas-y” in an American cultural way. Instead, let this be the season in which you:
Thank God for the mind-blowing incredibly wonderful FACT that He has provided a way to be reconciled to Him and that this life is not the end. This is not all there is!
Pray for and look for ways to become a minister of that reconciliation in the upcoming year.
Spend some time thinking of the vast numbers of people affected in devastating ways in this past year. Understand that, for some, Covid-19 was just “one more thing” in their extremely difficult life situations. And, for their sakes, if not for your own, long for and pray for the return of Jesus … to complete God’s plan … to bring about the new heaven and the new earth where there will be:
NO MORE mourning
NO MORE death
NO MORE tears
NO MORE pain
NO MORE injustice!
Come! Oh please, come, Emmanuel!!!
This post was adapted from a segment of our Advent Worship & Prayer service on November 29, 2020. To replay the entire service, watch the video here.
