There’s hope in the waiting of Advent

We are a month away from officially beginning a new year, but our church calendar year begins with Advent. Some years Advent sneaks into the last few days of November, but this year it begins tomorrow (those Advent calendars that start on Dec. 1 don’t quite get it right).

Speaking of those Advent calendars, they have a way of turning the season into a countdown: Counting down the days with a verse from the Bible, or a chocolate, or a whole plethora of things as we draw nearer and nearer to Christmas. It’s one thing, though, to count down when you know what you are counting down toward. Somehow that kind of waiting seems more manageable. It’s quite another thing to wait when you don’t know how long it will be for what you’re waiting for to come to pass.

That second kind of waiting seems to be closer to what Advent is getting at. Patience does not come easily to many of us (I speak for myself too), and the more we long for something, the more exhausting waiting can be.

I’ve read that by many ways of measuring, life is improving dramatically across the globe: More people are being lifted out of abject poverty, fewer people are dying by warfare, violent crime, and starvation, more children (particularly girls) have access to education, and overall people are living longer and are generally healthier, too.

And yet this is opposite from what most of us perceive: We believe crime is increasing, so we feel less safe, and we hear of more and more reports of violence and atrocities. We need only point to the caravans of people that are moving to escape war or oppression or economic uncertainty. Closer to home, there’s enough crises around — opioids, pipelines, climate change — to give us a sense of foreboding, or at least anxiety over what will come.

Can both be right? Can things be getting better and worse at the same time? Does it all depend on your perspective?

I don’t know the answer to those questions, but this is where Advent teaches us something — because it’s honest about the waiting. No matter how far we’ve come, there will always be further to go. We will always have this sense that things are not as they should be, or could be.

But rather than despairing, this honesty in the waiting gives way to hope. For Christians, that hope is rooted in our belief that one day Jesus will bring all of God’s purposes to completion: When sin and sorrow will be no more. And this hope gives purpose to our waiting. We trust that God through Jesus is slowly and surely working out his purposes in and through us, even as we wait. Blessed Advent to you all. Rev. Jeff Decelle is pastor at Unity Lutheran Church.