Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and I think more than any other year I remember, I welcome this season of the church. It is first week of a new year in the Christian calendar. I know not all my friends keep advent, so I suppose I should  explain why it’s so important and why, if you do not already, should remember this time of the year as special in the life of the church.

Advent is a period of expectation, of waiting and longing for the coming kingdom of God. Symbolically, in the northern hemisphere Advent takes place during the darkest month of the year as a reminder of the darkness that we are in now before the completion of the kingdom of God. And in the run-up to Christmas, where God is remembered as having come down to earth, we are to remember to be patient and to wait. So that is Advent, waiting and longing

This year I think Advent takes a much stronger tone for me, and why? I’m tired. I’m tired of not knowing what will happen next year. I’m tired of virtual church. I’m tired of seeing the church being so self-destructive. I’m tired of the world’s injustice, of racial inequality, of human slavery, and of the growing economic inequality. I’m tried of being Christian. That tiredness of the difference between the Christian vision of a renewed society and reality is why we can honestly pray “how long O Lord” in Psalm 13. It’s what creates in us longing for this all to be over, for God to make his promises real now here today and not some time in the future. That is the feeling of advent, and it has only been made stronger by being so long out of contact with churches amidst COVID.

Advent then is a time to slow down and reflect that our timing is not God’s timing and in in celebrating advent we join with the saints throughout the history of the church. The church has always felt this disconnect between the promises of the kingdom of God and the reality of our lives. And for at least 1400 years the church has remembered this period of waiting and longing.

The traditional hymn associated with this first Sunday of Advent is “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” And in this hymn, originally written around AD 800 in Latin, we find the words

O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,

And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

And that is what I want to remember these next few weeks. Even as we go bock into lockdown, even as COVID rages and churches are closed, Advent is a time to remember that Christ will disperse the clouds of night.

I made an Advent playlist with the themes of hope, longing, and kingdom, slowly moving from one theme to the next. I invite you to join me in reflection these next few weeks as we wait for Christ once again to return.