FRIDAY OF ADVENT 1
6 December 2013
Readings:
Key Verses:
Gen. 15:5: The Lord said to Abram, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them… So will your offspring be.”
Luke 1:13b, 17: The Angel Gabriel said to Zechariah: “Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John… He will go… in the spirit of and power of Elijah… to prepare a people prepared for the Lord.”
Reflection
If I had to pick a painting to describe the season of Advent, it would be Antonello da Messina’s “Virgin Annunciate”. I’m sure most of us have seen one painting or another of the Annunciation, depicting the moment when the Angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she will bear God’s Son to the world. But da Messina was more interested in what happened after the Angel departed. How did Mary, traditionally 16 years old at the time, react to this divine revelation? What went through her mind after her fiat, her acceptance?
Ignoring the obviously anachronistic book and home altar—the historic Mary was most likely poor and illiterate—I invite you to look at Mary’s face, whose expression is probably as complex as the Mona Lisa’s. What is she feeling? I see tempered joy, humble gratitude, even a kind of sincere unworthiness by the way she holds her veil. But if I look harder, I can also see an equal mixture of faith and doubt, comfort and worry. She believes in God, but she questions her own senses, her own abilities. She takes comfort in the Angel’s message, but worries whether she can handle what’s to come. In the end, she knows her life from now on will no longer be the same, and so I also see a kind of determination, an inner strength that resolves to take things one day at a time.
Advent is a very complex season because, like Mary, it handles all of those conflicting themes simultaneously. Traditionally, Advent is a kind of “lesser fast” made to mirror the greater fast of Lent, each fast preparing us for the great feasts of Christmas and Easter respectively (hence the traditional use of purple for both seasons). Therefore, the anticipation and joy of what’s to come are tempered by solemn tones of self-examination, confession, repentance, and penitence. The music is beautiful, yet serious; the prayers are hopeful, yet admonishing. It’s still a season of promise—but not the type of promise that instantly fixes everything. It’s a kind of “promise in limbo”, one that is re-confirmed, but still unfulfilled.
Abraham (here still known as “Abram”) and John’s father Zechariah lived in this kind of “Advent limbo.” God promised both of them things they wouldn’t see fulfilled in his lifetime. Abraham was to be not only the father of many nations, but also the vessel of God’s blessing to all the nations of earth (Gen. 12:3). Zechariah was to be the father of John, who, following Elijah’s spirit, would call all the nations back to God. But those promises weren’t enough to balance their faith and doubt, their comfort and worry. God confirms his promise to Abraham multiple times. Zechariah was silenced because of his unbelief, and didn’t regain his speech until his newborn son literally brought him the Word, making his father his first disciple.
And then there’s us. Abraham, Zechariah, and Mary are venerable figures in our faith, but God doesn’t treat us any less differently. Advent promises us two things that are beyond our reach: the birth of Christ, which happened 2,000 years ago, and the return of Christ, which will happen when God wills. But like Abraham, God is patient enough to remind us of his promises and presence over and over again. Like Zechariah, God humbles us into the discipline of introspection, teaching us how to use our words, but never refraining from working in us. And like Mary, who had to confirm the Angel’s message by visiting her relative Elizabeth, God is gracious enough to offer us a partial glimpse of his fulfilled promise when we celebrate Christmas. For in just a few weeks, Christians everywhere will be called back to God, to visit the Christ child in the stable, and to become a beacon of God’s blessing and peace to all nations.
Prayer of the Day
Eternal God,
through long generations you prepared a way
for the coming of your Son,
and by your Spirit
you still bring light to illumine our paths.
Renew us in faith and hope,
that we may welcome Christ
to rule our thoughts and claim our love
as Lord of lords and King of kings,
to whom be glory always.
Amen.
—Collect #2 for the First Sunday of Advent from the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian Church (USA), p. 173.
Hymn: “Creator of the stars of night”
(Words: ‘Conditor alme siderum’, Latin 9th century; translation in the Hymnal 1940, adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013
Tune: ‘Conditor alme siderum’)
Creator of the stars of night,
Your people’s everlasting light,
O Christ, Redeemer of us all,
We pray you, hear us when we call.
In sorrow that the ancient curse
Should doom to death a universe,
You came, O Savior, to set free
Your own in glorious liberty.
When this old world drew on toward night,
You came, but not in splendor bright,
Not as a monarch, but the child
Of Mary, blameless mother mild.
At your great Name, O Jesus, now
All knees must bend, all hearts must bow,
All things on earth with one accord,
Like those in heav’n, shall call you Lord.
Come in your holy might, we pray.
Redeem us for eternal day.
Defend us while we dwell below
From all assaults of our dread foe.
To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, Three in One,
Praise, honor, might, and glory be
From age to age eternally.
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