A Prayer for Advent

Not many worship services stickout in my mind, but I remember one from my freshman year of college. My churchhad been reading through the Bible in a year, with the pastor preaching eachSunday on a passage from that week’s reading and telling the story of redemptivehistory throughout the year.

I remember the Sunday that wemade the jump from the Old to New Testament. Our worship pastor reminded usthat God had been silent for 400 years between the last prophets of the OldTestament and the angel appearing to Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father. Israel,who had been given all the promises and blessings as God’s chosen people,longed for the day that those promises would be fulfilled and God would sendhis Messiah. It was in the midst of that longing that Jesus was born.

To help us grasp the expectantlonging of Israel, the worship pastor led us in 400 seconds of silence,representing the silence of God for 400 years. As the time of silence drew to aclose, a soloist sang,

“Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.”

It was that worship servicethat taught me the spiritual practice of hopeful longing. Just as the Israelites,God’s chosen people, longed for the first coming of Christ, Christians today,who have been grafted in as God’s children, long for the second coming ofChrist. That is why our celebration of Advent is not only remembering the pastbut also hoping for our future. 

Advent simply means “coming.”In church tradition, the season of Advent begins four Sundays before Christmasand represents at time of expectant waiting and preparation for Christ’s birth.While the formal tradition of Advent wreaths, candles, and calendars may nothave been a part of your Christmas tradition in the past, its message ofhopeful longing is one that every Christian should let infiltrate their heartsduring the Christmas season.

What are we longing for? Peter saysthat we were saved to a living hope—the assurance that because of Christ’sresurrection, we will also be resurrected “to an inheritance that isimperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven foryou, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for asalvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5). It isthis hope of resurrection that sustains us when we face trials, even the trialswe may face during the Christmas season. 

Paul tells us that we’re not the only ones who are longing for Christ’s return; even the creation is longing to be set free from the curse of sin. “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved” (Romans 8:23-24a). See that word again—hope. During Advent, our joy that Christ came as a baby causes us to hope for when he comes again as our King.

While we have already beensaved from consequences of sin, we are waiting for the day that God’s Kingdomis consummated, and we are freed from the presence of sin. Isaiah describes thechurches hopeful waiting in this way, “It will be said on that day, ‘Behold,this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This isthe Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in hissalvation’” (Isaiah 25:9). While Christ fulfilled some of Isaiah’s prophecieswhen he was born in Bethlehem, we wait for the complete fulfillment in hisreturn.

But we don’t like waiting. Wedon’t want to put our hope in what we cannot see. We would rather hope inearthly love, material possessions, and other things that we can physicallyhold at Christmas time. Yet these distractions do not last. They will be thrownout just like the Christmas tree come January 1. Torn wrapping paper will fillgarbage bags. New toys will break, and new clothes will wear out. But our hopein Jesus’ promise to return will last, and we will obtain “the outcome of [our]faith, the salvation of [our] souls” (1 Peter 1:9).  

I encourage you this Christmasseason to not only rejoice in Christ’s coming as a baby but hope in his comingas King. Don’t stop your worship in the first verses of Christmas hymns butpraise in him those last verses which point to the second coming.

“Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
By thine all sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.”

With this hymn ringing in ourears this Advent season, let us pray for the second Advent with those finalwords in Revelation, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”