Every advent I think about a seminary chapel service I attended 15 years ago. The music director invited us to sing - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel but only the verses. For the weeks of Advent we were going to sing the words of longing without the relief of the chorus. We were going to wait in the musical tension.
As a musician, it bothered me. That is why I still remember it. The human ear naturally knows how songs should resolve, we can hear it. I could hear it but I was denied the musical ending.
I remember it every Advent because that unfinished, unsatisfying ending to a well known hymn is exactly what Advent is supposed to feel like. It is uncomfortably and expectantly waiting in the dissonance of the world.
Every December we are invited to look at the true state of the world and our own lives and be reminded of our need for Jesus. There is no celebration or skipping to the end in Advent. Instead, we embrace the difficult middle and live in the tension. We are a people that are still waiting but we know where our hope lies.
Our North American culture strives for perfection this time of year. The perfect party. The perfect presents. The perfect decorations.
But Advent is about acknowledging the imperfection and welcoming Jesus into those places to bring his resurrection power.
For four weeks we remember that we are priests, crying out to God on behalf of a world that is killing and trafficking each other, where children starve and elderly people die alone, where the natural world is burning and going extinct. We speak the words of ancient Hebrew poets and prophets - “How long O Lord?”
It is an opportunity to wait in the muck and mire of a world and hearts desperately in need of Jesus and miraculously find Jesus, incarnated, there. In the muck. In the mire. In the manger.
We raise our voices and hands in Advent not because life is perfect but because hope has come. Hope has a name - Jesus. God has kept his promises. He has fulfilled his covenants. This present darkness is not the end of the story.
As you hold the darkness this advent you will most likely find that the truth about Jesus becomes brighter. He is there in the tension - redeeming, moving, changing, and remaking. Meeting us in our need and leading us forward into his glorious light.
This Advent, will you allow yourself to feel that tension for four weeks?
Don’t shy away and move to the chorus but stay in the questions and the aching need of the verse. Join Jesus in the starkest reality of how things are and know him again as The Light of The World and the Hope of the Nations.
May you find yourself on Christmas morning singing “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel has come to thee o Israel!” with new strength and conviction. May you know the good news again that Jesus has dispelled the gloomy clouds of night and death’s dark shadow put to flight.
Coming Up…
Starting on December 3, I will be doing daily Advent readings on my Instagram and Facebook accounts. I would love to have you join me. I have found it an incredibly grounding and stress reducing practise amidst a crazy and busy season.
(This is one from last year - just to give you an idea.)