Dear St. Luke’s,

Advent is here! Many Churches treat Advent like a mini-Lent where the emphasis is on penitence as we try to make our paths straight for the coming of the Lord. Don’t get me wrong, I love penitence, but I think this misses the mark a little bit for this season. Advent is about excitement and expectation of the unknown as we prepare for the incarnation of God in the world. As we read the beginning of the Gospel story, we are invited to suspend our knowledge of how the story ends. We do not yet know about the miracles, the passion, the cross, or the resurrection. This coming Sunday, we only have the voice calling out from the wilderness urging us to repent of our sins and prepare the way of the Lord. The Lord is coming, and we do not know what will happen when the Lord arrives, so we have to be prepared.

As a very young child, I remember learning that the advent candles in Church were essentially a count-down to Christmas. I knew what would happen when that last candle was lit, but what if we were clueless and we had no idea what would meet us on Christmas morning? It would be terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. Of course, we could go through a spiritual exercise where we pretend that we don’t know about the Christ child coming into the world through the Virgin Mary, but I think our task this season is much more straightforward and challenging. I think we are called to embrace the unknown of God’s work in the world that is around us. This isn’t a season where we remember a past event or embrace a hypothetical idea; it is a season where we embrace the very real mystery unfolding all around us.

Just as Mary, Joseph, or John the Baptist could not foresee the cross, we cannot predict what tomorrow will bring. We often lack the imagination to consider the fragility of the manmade institutions that we depend upon. They could not imagine a world without the Temple in Jerusalem or one that did not have the Roman Empire, but here we are. Even though those things faded into relics and memories, God’s love for us persisted through the unimaginable and inconceivable miracle of the resurrection. So, our task initially is not to predict the future or figure out who is the most right, but to prepare and sometimes sit in wonder of what is to come. In many ways, Advent is like “battening down the hatches,” but not under the threat of a great storm, but to prepare for the tremendous journey ahead of us that will land us on beautifully unknown shores.

I wish you a Holy Advent as we make way the way of the Lord!

Blessings,

Nick