There is No Easter Without Advent

It may seem strange given I am writing this in December, but I would like to talk briefly about Easter and its relationship to Advent. You may think maybe I have gone off the rails; after all Advent relates to Christmas not Easter. Christmas, and the massive thing it has become culturally, has become the central event of the Christian year. It is certainly a time to celebrate. We celebrate the birth of our savior, but I think also we are celebrating much more. Whatever may have been worrying us as the school year started begins to ebb. The kids may be back into a routine, and even when it comes to gift giving, which is never easy, at least we may begin to recognize what people in our lives need as we connect with them more deeply. So, you will never see me or hear me fighting over Christmas; I love it, in all its guises, and I love celebrating it in church, especially this year as I share my first Christmas with you AND welcome my two new grandbabies.

It is important to note that if, as N.T. Wright says, you removed the Christmas from the Bible (and I am not suggesting we do,) you would lose one chapter in Matthew and two in Luke. If you removed Easter, you wouldn’t have a New Testament. Advent is surely a time of waiting, with our blue liturgical colors on full display. Advent belongs to the Old Testament, as we await the birth of the one who will save us all. But while we wait for the spontaneous in-breaking of grace into the world through Jesus, we should not be afraid to take time and remember the fact that the grace experienced in his birth, life, ministry, words, death, and resurrection is always reflected in the church not simply when it celebrates the miracle of Christmas, but when it experiences God’s justice rolling down like never ending waters. That justice, brought to us in Jesus, is what we seek and is what begins at Christmas time, as we celebrate the ushering in of God’s kingdom. This happens in small ways as well as large. It happens in the building of relationships, the integration of grief into our lives, the budding signs of hope in a broken world, the simple act of giving a gift. The small, commonplace experiences are just as capable of telling the world about our Savior as any wide scale program or policy can do.

A Christmas birth leads us to Bethlehem, it leads to a cross, and an empty grave. It leads us to one another and new ways of living in grace, peace, and love. Have a wonderful remaining Advent season, and do not forget what Jesus came to do…Jesus came for you!

In Christ,

Pastor Leslie