Raw, unscripted reflections on the texts for this coming Sunday.
Advent is a season of waiting, a season of waiting on God. But of course God is already here, already acting—continuing to do what he’s always already done. This is the mystery at the heart of our faith: it is precisely because Christ’s work is “finished” in his death that it can and must take place at the right place and at the right time in our lives. So, Advent is not a season of waiting for God to begin to act or to be a better God. We’re not waiting for God to do what he’s up until now failed to do. Advent is a season of waiting for God and with God, a season of waiting on God in ways that open us more and more completely to the fullness of God, a time to learn to wait as God waits. And we learn that way of waiting by praying as Jesus taught us to pray, seeking in those prayers the changes that become possible only because of the unchanging goodness of God.
Becoming the Advent of God