Advent: A time of waiting

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!

    O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
    to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
    O Lord, who could stand?
 But with you there is forgiveness,
    that you may be feared.
 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
 my soul waits for the Lord
    more than watchmen for the morning,
    more than watchmen for the morning.

Psalm 130 ESV

As I write this our English skies are darkened as November descends into December our days are but little brightened by a sun which, if ever visible, lies low in the sky.

Our Church year draws to a close and on Sunday we enter the season of Advent one of the holy fasts of the church. Barely palpable behind the massive festive build up of a commercialised winter festival.

Now is the time for Christian souls to shun the commercial hubbub and spend time waiting for the coming light which will break into our winter gloom.   So we wait for the tiny infant.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

    and in his word I hope;

⁶ my soul waits for the Lord

    more than watchmen for the morning,

    more than watchmen for the morning.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord!

    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

    and with him is plentiful redemption. Psalm 130

So, let us wait as darkness slowly gives way to light

Let us seek out the weak points between worlds,

those membranes that give way, to strange meetings

to hear the flutter of angel wings in the silence

As we wait for the coming of the king into our hearts and lives

How beautiful upon the mountains

    are the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,

    who publishes salvation,

    who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

⁸ The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;

    together they sing for joy;

for eye to eye they see

    the return of the Lord to Zion.

⁹ Break forth together into singing,

    you waste places of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted his people;

    he has redeemed Jerusalem. Isiaiah 52

Advent Sunday Christina Rossetti

  Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out with lighted lamps and garlands round about to meet Him in a rapture with a shout.

 It may be at the midnight, black as pitch, Earth shall cast up her poor, cast up her rich.

 It may be at the crowing of the cock Earth shall upheave her depth, uproot her rock.

For lo, the Bridegroom fetcheth home the Bride: His Hands are Hands she knows, she knows His Side.

 Like pure Rebekah at the appointed place, Veiled, she unveils her face to meet His Face. Like great Queen Esther in her triumphing,

 She triumphs in the Presence of her King. His Eyes are as a Dove’s, and she’s Dove-eyed;

He knows His lovely mirror, sister, Bride. He speaks with Dove-voice of exceeding love, And she with love-voice of an answering Dove. Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go we out with lamps ablaze and garlands round about to meet Him in a rapture with a shout.

As the message version of John 1:14 says: “the word became flesh and moved into our neighbourhood.” So, the same God who got His hands dirty tenderly kneading clay and forming humankind, played in the mud around the well, making mud-pies with His little friends. The same hands that were engrained with the toil of the carpenter’s shop, made soil into mud to open the eyes of a blind man.  The same hands which broke bread and blessed wine, were blooded and marred by cruel nails which tore into them.   As we contemplate the two advents of Jesus we see a person who is fully human as well as fully God. Someone who gets His hands dirty in the messiness of our lives and problems. Someone who is always present, always loving, always ready to accept us as we are always ready to come into the middle of our lives, to save and heal us. He doesn’t just want to come and live in our neighbourhoods; He wants to come as our intimate friend.  We do not just celebrate Jesus as a little baby who came in some distant past or a coming glorious king who comes in some undisclosed future; but a king who is here now, wanting to bring his loving burning presence into the very centre of our hearts and lives as our Saviour and King.