Sunday Sermon - 1 December
I am what we call a cradle Anglican, which means that I was born, baptised, confirmed, and raised in the Anglican Church. When I was young and in Sunday school I remember Advent as the Church’s new year and the time to get ready for the birth of the baby Jesus at Christmas. This made sense to my young Sunday school mind. The beginning of a new year, the Church’s new year, begins with getting ready for and celebrating the birth of Jesus. The rest of the year, we hear about Jesus’ growth, his ministry, and his eventual death and resurrection at Easter. That was the Church year in a nutshell in my young Sunday school theological understanding.
As I grew older and grew out of Sunday school and started to sit in the pew and work as an Altar Server, I started to listen to the readings and pay attention to the sermons. I got really confused. Why, if Advent is about preparing for the birth of the baby Jesus, are we reading these apocalyptic passages and preaching about the second coming? Why, if this is the beginning of the Church year, are we talking about the ‘end of days’? My Sunday school theology was getting turned upside down. I was caught in the Advent Paradox. Have you ever heard of that term? The Advent Paradox?
I also remember, in my youth as an Anglican, that my priest would call Advent a mini-Lent - the altar hangings were purple back then (does anyone remember that?) and there were to be no weddings or baptisms during Advent. I didn’t understand that either. Why would preparing for the birth of the baby Jesus be a sombre time of penitence like Lent?
Though both seasons are times of preparation, Advent is not a mini-Lent and I am so glad that priests now dress themselves and our Church in blue for this season.
Lent is a time of personal penance and spiritual reflection as we prepare for the sorrows of Christ’s death and rejoice in the celebration of His resurrection and the forgiveness of our sins. Advent, on the other hand, is a time of joy, of hope and anticipation - it is a happy season of excited preparation while Lent is a solemn season of fasting, self-denial, and penitential preparation.
I have no idea why my priest told me it was a “mini-Lent” but that message further entrenched my confusion as I wrestled with the spiritual whiplash of the Advent Paradox.
The Advent Paradox refers to the dual nature of the Advent season in Christian traditions. It is the season when we commemorate the historical ‘first coming’ of Jesus Christ as the humble little baby born in a stable in Bethlehem but, at the same time, anticipate Jesus’ future return, his ‘second coming’ at the end of time.
During Advent, this time of paradox, we remember and celebrate the past fulfillment of our salvation by Jesus’ historic birth, ministry, death, and resurrection but we also acknowledge, in hopeful expectation, Jesus’ coming again and the life of the world to come. The paradox is this, Advent is a time of “Already but not yet.”
Humility but not yet majesty.
The Alpha but soon to be the Omega.
The already fulfilled promises of the historic Jesus but the not-yet-realized hope of our Messiah’s return.
Kind of confusing, isn’t it?
Whenever I find myself caught in these theological conundrums I step back and take a breath. I turn off my mind and open my heart. My faith isn’t prescribed by theology - our faith isn’t prescribed by some intellectual, academic exercise of interpreting what scripture means. Our true faith, the substance of our belief in God, comes from grace. That sacred experience we have when we stop, read our bible, pray and listen - not to the words we speak in our mind - but we listen with our hearts to God’s words. Those that come into us by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
When I stop thinking and start listening, I am no longer caught in the Advent Paradox and I realize that Advent is not the time of “already but not yet” rather, Advent is the time of “already and not yet.”
Already but not yet, means there is a separation, a differentiation or tension between the historic Jesus and the Jesus who is yet to come. Separated in time and space as two very distinct experiences.
Already and not yet is simultaneous, there is no separation in time and space. Both are occurring at the same time. In Revelation we read that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. In Advent, we both remember and we wait.
When thinking of Advent in this way, not paradoxically but simultaneously, I am reminded of Dickens’ opening of A Tale of Two Cities:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."
In these words Dickens captures a world in the midst of profound change during the French Revolution, where hope and despair coexist at the same time. It is a time of transformation and upheaval much like us Christians who live in the midst of God’s Kingdom that is both here and yet to come.
God, in Jesus, did not just show up on Earth over 2,000 years ago and die, come back from the dead, and scoot off to Heaven. That speaks to only two aspects of God, the Father and Son, but there are three. There is the Holy Spirit, that is alive and amongst us, and lives through us. The Holy Spirit has been amongst us throughout all time. When we quiet ourselves and listen with our hearts, it is God by the power of the Holy Spirit that speaks to and through us.
The Kingdom of God that we anticipate this Advent season is also upon us, here and now, today. The Kingdom of God is now and not yet. Jesus himself speaks of this repeatedly in scripture. Take Luke for example, when He says to the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, "Look, here it is!" or "There it is!" For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” Jesus is calling out the Pharisees and us. Jesus is calling us to reveal God’s Kingdom, God’s power, through our good works and love for others. We are the bearers, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to bring God’s Kingdom to others until Jesus himself returns.
Advent is indeed a season of dual anticipation - we look back in time with gratitude for Christ’s first coming as the fulfillment of God’s promises and we look forward in hope and vigilance for His return, when He will establish His kingdom fully. As we read today, “We will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and glory.”
Until then, let us remember this Advent, as we prepare for Christ’s birth and anticipate His return, that the Holy Spirit lives and moves in us and through us. Like the fig tree in Jesus’ parable, we recognize that God's Kingdom is here and near, inspiring us to grow and to blossom fully into the life God calls us to live. To be a people of hope, to be a people inspired by the Holy Spirit to bring love and grace into the lives of others. Jesus is coming. Jesus has already come. The Kingdom of God is near. The Kingdom of God is here. Thanks be to God.
Amen.