Richard John Neuhaus

Note: I wrote this on Sunday, November 29, but didn’t publish it because I thought it needed something else. Here we are three weeks later, and I’m just now returning to it—and for all the reasons I cite below as my obstacles to observing Advent. Oh well. Reading it now, I find it seems complete and all the more relevant as we enter the final days before Christmas.

Over the past few years, I’ve done fairly well in making some sort of observance of Lent, but Advent has generally escaped me—undoubtedly because the weeks leading up to Christmas are always incredibly busy in ways that the Lenten season never is.

Advent, as those in liturgical churches know, starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas; Advent Sunday (today), not only starts the Advent season but also marks the beginning of the liturgical year. For much of the Christian world, this day signals changes in prayer, ritual, and family practices leading up to the celebration of Christ’s birth. For the rest of us in low-church settings, Advent passes right on by without so much as a mention, though Christmas will likely get some attention in the December services.

For me, the end of November signals the end of the semester, hurtling full-speed ahead through final classes and final exams toward final grades—and then on to the frenzy of preparing for a Christmas celebration with family. Between the stacks of papers to grade and stacks of gifts to buy and wrap, I have make little time to consider the spiritual significance of the season.

This year, I’m trying to change that; a month ago I decided that, come hell or high water, I would “get” Advent.

Perhaps that’s why today’s reading in God with Us provoked a far deeper response than I would have expected. Richard John Neuhaus reminds us of Matthew 24:37–39, saying,

As in the days of Noah before that great flood, we were lost in eating and drinking, in marrying and giving in marriage. In a word, we were lost in living what we told ourselves was the good life. We wanted more and more of it, and the more we had of it the more we longed for what was beyond the reach of our longing or the grasp of our possessing.

Does that sound just a little bit like Christmas at your house? Or if not your house, your neighborhood and town? Neuhaus continues:

In our longing and our searching, we were blind to the gift already given, Emmanuel: God with us.

Ponder that for a while: the gift already given.

As with so many aspects of life in Christ, the having isn’t in the getting—it’s in the receiving. I was going to “get” Advent, when it’s already here to receive.

Consider the implications; Neuhaus writes:

This season of the Church’s calendar is called Advent, which means “coming.” Christ came, Christ comes, Christ will come again. There is no time—past, present, or future—in which Jesus the Christ is not God with us. He was with you yesterday, is with you today, and will be with you tomorrow.

I feel such comfort, such relief in reading these words, though they tell me nothing I don’t already know–rather, nothing I haven’t already heard. Apparently, I don’t know it, or don’t know it very well, if I find it such a blessing to encounter the truth that Jesus Christ is God with us, with me, all the time.

Thank goodness the Spirit doesn’t treat us as we sometimes treat ourselves! While many of us tend to berate ourselves for failing what we should already know about God, the Spirit simply, gently reminds us of that which we have heard and need to believe more deeply.

As I start Advent, I start with the knowledge that what I’m looking for has already been given; I simply need to receive.

photo credit: Everblooming1

Tagged as: Advent, Christmas, Emmanuel, God with Us, Richard John Neuhaus