Expectation!\u00a0 Advent is the 4 week long season of joyful expectation before Christmas.\u00a0 So, the question is, what are we joyfully expecting?\u00a0 What are you all charged up and waiting for in these four weeks?<\/p>\n
Are you waiting for the arrival of a relative, perhaps Mom and Dad from Chicago or some other distant place, for a Christmas and New Year\u2019s visit?\u00a0 Perhaps you\u2019re waiting on your son or daughter coming home from College?\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s the latest doll or lego toy set or video game you\u2019re expecting under the tree; or a new IPAD; or a new dress; or some designer Jeans?<\/p>\n
But as nice as all of these things may be for us to expect, Advent and Christmas are not about waiting for any of those things.\u00a0 Tonight we have carefully selected readings to guide you through the real meaning of what we are waiting for.\u00a0 They tell the story of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That means, they tell the story of how God sent His only son, Jesus, to become man, and take on our human nature.\u00a0 And Jesus became intimate with us, living and experiencing life as we do.\u00a0 He, though God, was not and is not, some distant, remote God who we cannot identify with.\u00a0 No, He lived as one of us, suffered through life like all of us do; and died like all of us will.<\/p>\n
Only he was resurrected, returned in glory, and promised all of us who believe the same glory.\u00a0 That\u2019s what is so special about Advent and Christmas- the realization that we will not just live this life; but, we will live forever with Jesus in glory if we believe and follow the Gospel message.<\/p>\n
So, just what should our experience of this expectation for this four weeks of Advent really be then?<\/p>\n
Some of you may be familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer.\u00a0 He was a Lutheran minister imprisoned and executed by the Nazis because he spoke out, and acted on his convictions.\u00a0 This is what Bonhoeffer once wrote about Advent while in prison:\u00a0 \u201cLife in a prison cell reminds me a great deal of Advent.\u00a0 One waits and hopes and putters around; but in the end, what we do is of little consequence.\u00a0 The door is shut and it can only be opened from the outside\u201d.<\/p>\n
Amazing, isn\u2019t it, how clear things can be when we are forced to reflect on them.\u00a0 Bonhoeffer had no choice- he was imprisoned.\u00a0 He had the time, and he took it, to reflect.\u00a0 Bonhoeffer recognized that while we live this life, it is like we are in prison.\u00a0 We are imprisoned by our limitations- our body constrains us in many ways.\u00a0 But our minds constrain us even more.\u00a0 We are constrained from recognizing the magnitude, the complexity, and fullness of the love of God and what He has in store for those who love him. So, the question is, when, and if, the door opened to the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 Will you be ready for it?<\/p>\n
You and I are so fortunate that we have Advent every year to reflect on the meaning of Christmas and to get ready for the Coming of Christ.\u00a0 The Christ child is one coming- the coming that brings us the hope of eternal life.\u00a0 But the second coming of Christ is also heralded during Advent.\u00a0 It is that coming that all of us simply must be prepared for.\u00a0 And so, what really matters is whether or not you are ready when that door opens; and that coming will happen for each and every one of us.<\/p>\n
We can hope for and kind of anticipate the joy of living in glory forever with Jesus.\u00a0 We do that in joy every Christmas day with the celebration of Jesus\u2019 birth.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we gather around with our families and celebrate at Christmas; and we share gifts with each other to show that we understand what God did for us- the fact that God shared such a very special gift with us, te gift of His son.\u00a0 And so, we shower special gifts on others as God showered his gift on us.<\/p>\n
But the cold, hard, fact is that we are imprisoned here until that door opens with the Second Coming.\u00a0 And so Advent is really about reflecting on whether we are prepared for the Second coming of the Lord so we can benefit from the hope and the promise of everlasting life.<\/p>\n
Just what is God asking us to do to get ready for that?\u00a0 He is asking us to think about where we are going in our lives.\u00a0 He wants us to find and root out the things that are hindering us from that goal; and then repent of anything that is holding us back before it is too late.\u00a0 Repentance is what we are all called to do in this four weeks; repentance, a basic change in our lives.\u00a0 So we can truly live to see the full glory promised us by the Lord.<\/p>\n
And we need four weeks because we are always so busy- busy getting ready for the joy that only really comes if we repent.\u00a0 Not only that, it is hard to face the reality of who we really are and change that.\u00a0 The devil tries to mask, to shield, to hide us from facing that reality.\u00a0 We need time to break through and think it through- all of us.<\/p>\n
As you leave here tonight, take with you the great and unbounded joy that eternal life in the Kingdom is yours.\u00a0 But also take comfort in the fact that God has given all of you time- time to repent and find your way to use this Advent season wisely; to get ready for the Lord\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Advent Reflection Service Dc. Larry Brockman Expectation!\u00a0 Advent is the 4 week long season of joyful expectation before Christmas.\u00a0 So, the question is, what are we joyfully expecting?\u00a0 What are you all charged up and waiting for in these four weeks? Are you waiting for the arrival of a relative, perhaps Mom and Dad from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91],"tags":[97,312],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}