There are two faces of expectation on this first Sunday of Advent. The first is a look to the past, a way of seeing backward in time to when a savior was hoped for. Advent also looks to the future in an attitude of expectancy over what God has yet to do in history.
It’s Advent’s face toward the past we usually seek. Four Sundays are set aside for the expectation of Christ’s birth and we have a wonderful Christmas Eve service that helps us center our thoughts on what the wonder of that night might have been like.
We have the beautiful songbook of hymns and Christmas songs that celebrate Christ’s birth. The expectation of Christ’s birth is full of sweetness and grace. Even the most hardened skeptic can feel the pulse of the season and celebrate that magical night.
The first Sunday of Advent is given over to consider the world’s chaos that bubbles just beneath the surface. It’s like the molten core that steams and liquifies unobserved until it explodes and spills over the quiet world above. The first Sunday of Advent forces us to reflect upon that hidden chaos, the world the Redeemer was sent to enter.
Advent is the season of expectation.
Pastor Keith Herron
