The Scandal of Advent
Advent is here again and I am so thankful. The church looks like a vision; it is never more beautiful than when we celebrate the Incarnation. There is no better argument that we are more than merely thinking creatures than a church festooned and gilded to the nines. We want more than the ordinary when we are making our way towards something as momentous, history-altering, and life-changing as the Incarnation. We want the ordinary taken to another plane of beauty.
This Advent Season we are contemplating, It’s a Wonderful Strife. Yes, you saw that correctly and, yes again, it is a riff on Frank Capra’s classic Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. If you think about it, most of the story of Jesus coming into the world is filled with strife. (In fact, George Bailey’s life was, as well!) Nothing about it looks like a Hallmark Christmas movie. Seriously, an unwed mother, a fiancé who is going to end the engagement privately to hide the shame, mangers for a king, animals, and ne’er-do-wells who would never be on the guest list as attendees, murderous rulers, and unexpected journeys away from danger. And yet, this is the story of Advent; and it is wonderful and full of strife—a wonderful strife.
Isn’t it? Isn’t it just like God to work in the midst of, and at the point of, strife to bring about his purposes? Isn’t it just like God to build a dance floor on the ashes of our lives and to weave a better story than we would ever dream of? So much of the gospel and the Christian life is telescoped into these few small narratives. And the truth is that, if you try to remove the strife, you will also remove the fact that Grace is Everything.
We will start with Mary and Joseph and how Jesus entered their lives—talk about scandal! I hope you will join us for this first Sunday of Advent. I, for one, can’t wait!