Generally, churches do a pretty good job celebrating Christmas but have difficulty with Advent. What’s the difference?
“Advent” literally means visit, coming, arrival. Adventus for the latin crowd. 20 plus days beginning on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day characterized, not solely by joyful celebration, but by longing, and anticipation. Historically, Advent is not the season to celebrate the birth of Jesus in the manger but to long, in three specific ways, for the coming of the Savior.
1. The ‘Second’ Advent
The spirituality of Advent calls for an expectation of the second coming of Christ when the powers of evil will be fully exposed by the light and when the earth will be fully restored. Evil, regardless of what printed ink or flickering pixels say, is not the final word. The season of Advent forms us into a people who thoroughly believe – not just with our minds – that the evil of this world is ultimately doomed. The ultimate word in history is the triumph of God’s kingdom.
2. Anticipating Christ
Advent is more about “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” than it is about “Joy To The World.” It is a longing for redemption. The cries of God’s people enslaved by the Egyptians longing for Exodus; the hope of the exiles that one day there would be a Messiah who would restore a people and a land; that the systemically evil empires and tyrannies of our world will be brought to light by God’s justice; during advent we joyously wait the coming of the King.
3. It’s Personal
As we long for vindication from an evil world we remember that we, too often, contribute to the evil in the world. Advent calls out to us to consider what in our life needs to be redeemed while compelling us to commit it to the one who has come to set the prisoners free. True conversion is a turning from one way to another.
This year (2009), the season of Advent begins on November 29. May you be convinced that tomorrow can be different than the evil-filled world of today; may you hopefully expect the coming of the King; and may those places in your life that are dark be filled with a great light.
I’ve written about it before but I’ve been deeply influenced by the work of biblical scholar N.T. Wright. It started with The Resurrection of the Son of God, which would be a good thing to read if you desire to preach on Easter Sunday, and most recently showed its face in Surprised By Hope. Wright’s gift is articulating complex concepts in simple yet profound ways.
Each Wednesday I’ll share a quote that I find rather thoughtful. If you’ve read him, feel free to share a quote in the comments.
“Worship is nothing more nor less than love on its knees before the beloved; just as mission is love on its feet to serve the beloved.” – For All God’s Worth: True Worship And The Calling Of The Church
Three quotes for reflection that provide glimpses of a remedy for gluttony.
“Remedies for gluttony begin at the Eucharist. One sets aside all other food and drink for that bread and wine; there one’s hungers are redirected true and straight, to Christ. Healing for the body and the promise of its resurrection may be found there, the deepest nutrition…Around the table one finds sisters and brothers, friends in a family that is not born of any blood but Jesus.” – William Stafford
“Fasting reminds us of our need for God, our dependency on God, our humanity. Fasting heightens our sensitivity to God in a world that is bent on numbing us to spiritual things. Fasting causes us to feel in our gut the hunger of the world around us.” – Dan Boone
“‘Give us this day our daily bread‘ reminds us that our longings for bread, and all that it symbolizes, are not to be shunned as though they were of themselves evil. Of course a genuine glutton must repent of desiring, and grabbing, more bread than is wise or good…But if we truly pray this prayer, with due weight to each clause, we are taking the first steps from the chaos of our normal interior life toward an order and a clarity which will let the joy come through to the surface.” – N.T. Wright
At LFCN we’re in the middle of a series called ‘Seven’ where we are journeying through seven specific vices that are deadly in their destructiveness. Yesterday we talked about what appears to be the most tame of the seven: gluttony.
Because gluttony is about consumption, an activity that drives our economy and captures our imagination, it is probably the most socially acceptable of the seven deadly sins. But, I think gluttony is one of the most deadly.
Gluttony is an excess. More than we need. More than our fair share. Indulgence. It is too much of a really good thing.
Gluttony teaches us that more really is better. 32 oz is better than 12. 3500 square feet is better than 2000. ‘aholic’ is a gluttonous term.
It’s appeal is powerful enough to coerce our appetites and we begin to crave more. So much so that we feel, despite what our own body says, that we cannot live without the object of our desire.
What is interesting is all of that consumption doesn’t quell the hunger. It heightens it. We consume and hunger still. We consume more and hunger more. Simultaneously stuffed yet starving.
At its root, gluttony is about pleasure – an excessive appetite for pleasure.
Without us even noticing, it seems to me that gluttony has sown some seeds in our hearts. Weeks ago as I was preparing, I wrote out some questions to self-evaluate how extensively gluttony has made its way into my life. Consider it an exercise in self-diagnosis.
- Do you feel the need for constant excitement?
- When you get tired of something do you ditch it and move on to something else? (tired of your car? trade it in. tired of your city? move. tired of your job? change)
- Is your life goal to feel happy? How far will you go to avoid discomfort?
- Do you ever choose to do anything that might rob you of pleasure?
- Do you ever get disappointed when you don’t get good feelings during your ‘devotions’ or a ‘good vibe’ during worship?
Gluttonous thinking saturates our culture. So much so that we have difficulty imagining an alternative. Tomorrow we’ll look at a different way.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you see gluttony in your world and the world around you?
Wow. It’s been a while. There is a whole lot to love in this life. On Fridays, we channel the natural energy of the end-of-the-week-good-mood to battle the evil that is overlooking today for tomorrow. Lets get it started:
- I love lunch. I’m sure I’ve talked about this before. But, I just got done eating an empty-the-fridge combo that turned out pretty good. Left over roast, green onions, shredded cheese, tortillas, and hot sauce were turned into some pretty solid tacos.
- I love that my lawn has turned into a carpet of yellow leaves. I do not love raking. I just love looking at them.
- I just gave Ashllyn a bottle. She wasn’t as interested in the bottle as she was in talking and smiling. I love that.
Your turn. Name it. What do you love?
Last night Shari went over to a friend’s house for one of those ladies social events where they all get together and buy stuff. So, I was able to watch both of our daughters. Giving Ashlyn a bottle before bed is one of life’s great joys. She is just so peaceful. While I was doing that, Kyla was busy playing with one of her dolls. She talks to them a lot – tells them stories, puts them in ‘time-out,’ wraps them in blankets. She’s a pretty good mom.
I overheard her talking to her baby about how things work around the house: ‘Mommy cooks supper, I play with friends, Daddy mows the grass, etc.’ In the middle of that conversation she said to her baby: “Mommy, Ashlyn, and me stay home. Daddy goes to the office. He has to work. For a loooong time. But He comes home.”
I love coming home. My life revolves around my family and I love it. Recently, I’ve tried to be more aware of the schedule I work and what that is telling my wife and children. For me that means all of us eating together around a table, one day a week where I am unavailable to anyone else, and limiting the number of evening meetings. Why? We’re in this for the long haul. And I need some practices that will sustain that pace.
This Sunday we’re going to be talking about gluttony at church. One of the mistakes that we make is we limit gluttony to only food. Truth is, it’s the excess of really good things. Food is a good thing. Work is a good thing. Recreation is a good thing. In excess, however, they’re deadly. My temptation is not to be a food glutton, it’s to be a work glutton.
Shari took that picture right after I came home from work one night. It’s great motivation for when I’m tempted to overextend myself.
Thought 1
I’m reading Think Orange again for the second time. In it, Reggie Joiner tells of the origin of orange carrots. Back in the day there were black carrots, yellow carrots, even purple carrots but there were not orange carrots until some Dutch growers became patriotic and married yellow and red carrots to produce orange carrots in honor of their king, William of Orange. He says:
The color of carrots changed forever. But here’s an important point: changing the color of carrots did not alter the fundamental nature of the carrot….The only real difference between the two was that more people were willing to eat orange carrots than black ones.
Which leads to the application statement of:
If you knew more kids and students would engage in what you teach if you packaged it differently, would you?
While one may be able to alter the color of carrots without altering the nature of the vegetable, it is not possible to alter the packaging of the message of Jesus without altering the message. As Marshall McLuhan has taught us “the medium is the message.” Change the medium (or “packaging”) and you change the message. I’m not saying that is a bad thing. I’m just saying lets acknowledge that is the reality.
Thought 2
That idea, tweaking the packaging so it is more easily accessible, points to a dangerous line of thinking: more is better. I think the question “is bigger better?” is a fundamental question that the church-at-large needs to begin to discuss.
Some further questions: if bigger isn’t better then why are we publishing and selling lists of The Top 100 Largest and Fastest Growing Churches in America? And why will a leader in a church of ~500 people introduce herself to a leader of a church 0f ~5,000 with the words “I’m only involved in this ministry. I know it is not as significant as yours”? If bigger isn’t better then why would a church spend 5 Million Dollars on a bridge so you can get in and out of the parking lot easier?
Conversely, how can the church be committed to sharing the life giving grace of Jesus without getting caught in the thinking that bigger is better?
Full Disclosure
These thoughts have been motivated by reading and preparing for our next 2 teaching topics – greed and gluttony.
It’s been a while. My blogging over the summer and early fall has been sporadic at best. The point of this space has always been to be an outlet for dialog, a vehicle for wrestling (with God), and an attempt to foster disciplined reading, observation, and reflection.
Truth is, life has been anything but tidy lately and blogging is one of the practices that I intentionally pushed aside to give energy to other areas. But, I missed it. So, with the promptings from some friends, I’ve decided to start writing again.
I’ve had the great opportunity to pastor a great community of Jesus followers for a little over a year. In that time, I’ve made mistakes, silly decisions, led board meetings, prayed over new babies, prayed over too-early-departed loved ones, celebrated transformation, and grieved set-back. And every Sunday (except for 2) I’ve opened the word of God with God’s people. Here are some reflections about that practice:
- The bible is old. It is different from the world we live in. I too often try to make it relevant and recent. My modernity doesn’t like to have a conflict with something in the bible. I want harmony.
- The bible always talks about God. I want it to talk about us. I’m tempted to turn it into good principles and ideas because I want it to talk about us. The challenge is to let it be about God.
- I think the bible is about conversion, not agreement. Maybe it is supposed to sound odd and impossible.
- I live and preach amongst a wonderful community of people. This next statement is true of any community. If anybody hears anything at all during a sermon it is a miracle. It is not grace if it is predictable.
- I know that people forget 90% (i just made that number up) of what they hear. I also forget 90% of what I eat. But my body doesn’t.
- I always had trouble talking/preaching about grace until I learned/was forced to receive it. Now, it’s all grace.
Thoughts?
Kyla memorizes books. Loves to memorize books and then read them to herself. She does not love to be recorded while she “reads” books. Luckily, Shari caught her “reading” on a day when she was in a good mood. Obviously, she is a genius. (A really cute genius)
