Advent Devotions

Mark 13:35-37

“Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.  And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

While most Episcopalians are halfway through their first week of Advent, we at St. Anne’s have now reached the halfway point in celebrating a 7-week Advent season.  I know, it seems hard to believe that we have been shaped by Advent in our worship together for the past four Sundays.  Well, if I may be so bold as to paraphrase Jesus from this past Sunday’s gospel, we are called to “Keep at it”

We find ourselves right now in the week after Thanksgiving and December is literally right around the corner; the stores are already playing Christmas music, and the Tifton Christmas parade is this Saturday.  People are planning holiday parties and we have indeed moved into one of, if not the, busiest time of the year.  Advent now seems to take a back seat.  We have prepared for all this and are now ready for it, right?  This is the moment when it becomes easy to allow our spirits to shift into cruise control, to start dozing, to fall asleep.   For us though, we are right in the middle of it and though it might be tempting to switch on auto-pilot now that Christmas is coming into sight, we are called to keep at it.  Keep on keeping on.  Keep on living in the Christian Hope we have begun to understand a tiny bit more.  Keep on questioning your holiday practices, and if they don’t cultivate peace, joy, and hope within you and your loved ones, keep on looking for new and possibly better holiday practices.  Keep on opening up your life to the coming of Jesus Christ, and keep on living and working for the Kingdom of God.

It is in keeping at it – the preparing, watching, waiting, hoping, loving – that true spiritual life is able to spring forth within us.  So, keep at it!

If you have been paying attention even the slightest bit to the sermons and the Advent devotional thoughts over the past several weeks here at St. Anne’s, you may have noticed that there is a decidedly strong emphasis on the Second Coming of Christ; or to word it another way, the consummation of all things. Hopefully, you have been invited to contemplate things pertaining to the “eschaton”– the end of the age – in a more constructive and positive way.

As we journey closer and closer to Christmas, emphasis will shift, and a greater focus will be placed on Bethlehem and Christ’s first advent. Today though, we are living in-between these two Advents, in what St. Bernard of Clairvaux (pictured to the right) and Thomas Merton refer to as the middle Advent, or “Second Advent,” that advent which lies between Bethlehem (the first advent) and the eschaton (the third advent).

What is meant by this Second Advent you ask? It is simply when Christ encounters us through the Holy Spirit and enters yet again into a deeper relationship with us. This second advent is ongoing. Unlike Bethlehem and the eschaton, this second advent takes place every day – when we pray; when we encounter Christ in the scriptures; when we serve other people in the name of Christ; when we encounter Christ at the altar during the Eucharist. As we become more aware of Christ’s coming into our hearts each day, we are challenged more and more in how we spend our time and energy and to what purpose our life is pointing – to God’s purpose or to one of our own design? By preparing our hearts each moment for the arrival of Christ, Bethlehem takes on a much deeper meaning, and we are then ready for Christ’s visible appearing at the end of the age.

I like this insight. As Christians at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church who are living into an extended Advent season, remember that advent happens a little more each day with the coming of Christ into our hearts. What does this look like for you and how does this give you strength and hope as we prepare for the third advent, the eschaton?