Advent 1, Year A - 2019
“Keep awake” - Jesus (Matthew 24:42)
“The Christian hope is to live with confidence in newness
and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in
glory, and the completion of God's purpose for the
world...By the coming of Christ in glory, we mean that Christ
will come, not in weakness but in power, and will make
all things new.” - Catechism (Book of Common Prayer, pg. 861-62)
The advent cry, “Come, Lord Jesus,” means that we live in the purposeful awareness of a present non-fulfillment. We await a future that is not our own, nor of our own making. Staying awake, therefore, moves us from the illusion that we are at the center of a world defined by our desires and expectations. When we reduce our experience to what we would demand of others or the events of our world, then we refuse to acknowledge the full picture that is a gift from God. The advent discipline of waiting, of crying out with the generations that preceded us, “Maranatha,” is a relinquishment of our control, and an embrace of the freedom and surrender that is constituent to the Christian practice of hope.
“The Christian hope is to live with confidence in newness
and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in
glory, and the completion of God's purpose for the
world...By the coming of Christ in glory, we mean that Christ
will come, not in weakness but in power, and will make
all things new.” - Catechism (Book of Common Prayer, pg. 861-62)
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The advent cry, “Come, Lord Jesus,” means that we live in the purposeful awareness of a present non-fulfillment. We await a future that is not our own, nor of our own making. Staying awake, therefore, moves us from the illusion that we are at the center of a world defined by our desires and expectations. When we reduce our experience to what we would demand of others or the events of our world, then we refuse to acknowledge the full picture that is a gift from God. The advent discipline of waiting, of crying out with the generations that preceded us, “Maranatha,” is a relinquishment of our control, and an embrace of the freedom and surrender that is constituent to the Christian practice of hope.
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