Advent and Joy-filled Waiting

Philippians 4.4-5: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all people. The Lord is near.”

I have vivid memories of the births of our two children, Micah and Georgia. These were truly amazing moments in my life. And the only word Julie and I can find to describe the experience and feeling we had after the birth of our children is “joy.” In those moments, intense feelings of joy welled up from deep within our souls and overflowed in tears and laughter and embracing. The miraculous birth of a newborn and the amazing joy that brings, what a wonderful gift from God!

Joy and rejoicing is a hugely important theme in Scripture. In the New Testament alone, the words for joy occur some 326 times.

It’s no wonder that joyous celebration characterizes the birth and infancy narratives in the Gospels. The angel of the Yahweh tells Zechariah that he “will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice” at the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1.14). The angel Gabriel tells Mary that her response to Jesus’ birth will be one of joy, thanksgiving, and worship (Luke 1.46-49). The angel of Yahweh comes to the shepherds bringing “good tidings of great joy for all people,” for born that day in the city of David is the Savior, Christ the Lord (Luke 2.10-11). And when the magi find the house where Mary and Jesus are staying they “rejoice exceedingly with great joy” and “fall to the ground and worship Jesus” (Matthew 2.9-11).

For Christ’s church, the season of Advent is a time of joyful anticipation. Advent is a time of rejoicing and celebration at the coming of Jesus the Messiah. “Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 12.12).

Joy-filled waiting. In Advent we wait. We wait in joy and in hope, not only for the celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, but also for the coming again of the Prince of Peace and the Liberator of the Oppressed. We wait in joy and in hope for God to relieve the pain and suffering of our bodies, of our communities, and of all creation.

The time of Advent is God’s gift to us, wherein we’re encouraged to slow down; meditate on the life and death of Jesus; discern the voice of the Holy Spirit; focus on walking the path of discipleship; and consider our call to pick up our cross, to suffer for the gospel’s sake.

But we do all of this in an attitude of patient, joyful expectation of the coming of God’s good future, the renewal of all creation!

In Advent and beyond, we wait for, we long for, we anticipate the time of full redemption. As the apostle Paul says in 1 Cor. 15.24, we wait for the time when Jesus “delivers the kingdom to God the Father and when he abolishes all rule and all authority and power.”

Until that time what characterizes our joy-filled waiting is nothing less than our “labor in the Lord.” It may sound like a contradiction but Christian waiting is active. We wait for Christ to come as we move out into the world and serve God.

In 1 Cor. 15.58, Paul says, “Stand firm! Let nothing move you! Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” As we wait for the time of resurrection and new creation, we are to joyfully practice resurrection and new creation. Active, joy-filled waiting is a distinctive mark of the Christian life. God’s Spirit equips us to joyfully engage the world and to work in hope toward that time of complete renewal. In this we create foretastes of what the world to come looks like.

It’s kind of like when you go to the movies and watch the “trailers” before the main feature. The point of the trailer is what? It has some of the funniest lines, the best scenes, and the biggest explosions...Sometimes the only funny lines and good scenes, but whatever! The whole point of a good trailer is to make you elbow the person next to you and say, “Hey, we gotta see that movie when it comes out! It looks awesome!”

We ought to see our lives as a trailer for God’s kingdom still to come. Begin to imagine that the world to come is the biggest and most spectacular blockbuster movie you could possibly imagine and your life is a trailer to it. So that when people see the justice we do, the help we give, the joy and love we express, their meant to say, “Hey, I want to see the real thing!”

It’s out of that foretaste of the kingdom that people come to know Christ, they are set free, and they go out to serve God in the world. So let us wait in hope for Christ to come as we move out into the world and serve God.