Advent of Grief
Advent of Grief
Advent prepares our heart in hope.
Hope is to trust in God for your future.
Welcome to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Light of Christ Anglican Church is located in Georgetown, Texas at MLK and University Avenue. We are a modern expression of the ancient faith. You can learn more about us at lightofchristgeorgetown.org.
Our morning meditation today is about the nature of hope in a broken world. What is Advent about, and how does it prepare us for the coming of the King on Christmas day?
As we enter the holiday season, I'm going to make a comment about the holidays and grief. For many people, for many of us, when the holidays come around, we remember in a really deep and vivid way the loss that we've experienced. When we get around the Christmas tree or go to the candlelight service, the hole left by the loved one that's died or the ugly divorce, is felt and experienced in a profound way. This is something we need to recognize.
It's very unfortunate that in our culture, here in Texas at least, we run right into Christmas and into celebration mode and we can barely wait for Thanksgiving to be done before we're talking about Christmas and running around frenzied, buying things and all of that. I think there needs to be a recovery of Advent so that we can really properly understand Christmas.
Advent began December 1st, it begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent means coming, and the theme of Advent is hope. It's preparation for the coming of the King and hope is important. The reason we hope is because we haven't seen everything that God is doing and will do. What hope is, is not, "I hope I will get a certain Christmas present", or, "I hope that next year will be better than this year." That's not what we're talking about. The biblical definition of hope is to trust in God for your future. Hope is to trust in God for your future, and the reason we trust in God is because this world is broken.
We're torn away from the ones we love by death, by divorce, by distance. There's something about this world that is just not right. Advent teaches us that in the midst of this brokenness, we can still have hope. That in the midst of this brokenness, we can trust, and must trust God for our future, because that's the only way forward. We are hoping and trusting God for his Messiah, King Jesus, who will come and make all things right, who will heal this world, who will wipe away the tears from our eyes.
We need this time of Advent to prepare for what Christmas is and to even understand Christmas, because Christmas is about a Messiah who came as a baby in a feed trough, about a King whose throne was a Roman cross. It's about a Messiah, a God, a King of the entire universe who entered into the darkness, into those places of suffering and grief. So he knows and he cares and he can shepherd us through those valleys into the green pastures of eternal life. That is what Advent's about.
So if you are grieving this Advent, I encourage you to grieve, to cry, yet to grieve with hope, grieve knowing God's love for you. And as you grieve in hope, I pray that the Holy Spirit would allow you, even in your grief, even in the feeling of loss, to celebrate the fact that the King is coming, that he has come and he will come and make all things right.
Thank you for listening to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Let us end our time together with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer. This collect for strength to await Christ's return can be found on page 22.
Oh God, our King, by the resurrection of your son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week you conquered sin, put death to flight and gave us the hope of everlasting life. Redeem all our days by this victory. Forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you, and to do your will and steel us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great day, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
