Redeemer Family,
Imagine your great, great grandparents were born on Mars. So your great grandparents grew up hearing stories about life on Mars and what a wonderful place it was to live. They, in turn, passed on the stories to your grandparents; and they to your parents, and your parents to you. The story would go something like this:
Long ago, our family lived on Mars. Life was wonderful, the land was good, and everyone had enough to eat and drink. We were at peace. But then, things went horribly wrong. We were exiled from Mars, were sent to Earth, and have been living here in captivity ever since. One day, a rescuer is going to come and take us home, and we must live in longing, anticipation, and readiness for that day.
Can you imagine how difficult it would be to connect to that story emotionally? You’re told that you were made for another life on another world, but all you’ve ever known is this life in this world. How can you long for a land you’ve never seen? How can you anticipate something you’ve never experienced? How can you prepare yourself for something other-wordly?
For Christians today, the practice of observing the season of Advent can feel just as odd. In Advent we are told that we were made for life in God’s Kingdom, and that we are merely sojourners in this present world. Advent tells us that our hearts are, deep down, filled with longings which will only be satisfied in the New Creation. In this way, Advent points us forward towards the second coming (second Advent) of Christ - at which time this world will be renewed and restored.
(Note: The second Advent of Jesus is not about escape from this world, but rather the renewal and restoration of our world).
But how are we to engage this at any level deeper than mere intellectual assent? How can we long for a land we’ve never seen? How can we anticipate something we’ve never experienced? How can we prepare ourselves for a world unlike this world?
We need more than information, we need practices - embodied knowledge. We need traditions and liturgies and songs and readings and decorations and candles and smells and food and fasting and celebrations and much, much more. If you’ve ever wondered why churches put all this effort into Advent and Christmas, you should know that the goal is not to make a big fuss about a special occasion (although I do love a big fuss!), but rather to help us cultivate a deep knowledge, in our very bones, that a day is coming when - at long last - all will be made right.
It’s odd, I’ll give you that - about as odd as being told you’re supposed to long for Mars when all you’ve ever known is Earth. But what Christian men, women, and children have - throughout history and around the world - discovered during the season of Advent is that there is something real here. There really is a deep longing within our hearts and yearns for thing which nothing in this world can satisfy. As CS Lewis memorably wrote, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Dear church family, we were - all of us - made for the New Creation. Shalom at Peace. A restored life with God, each other, ourselves, and the land.
And the odd promise of Advent is that this will, in fact, come true.
In the Father’s love,
Dan
