Below is my column from today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.
Part of the reason for that is that our family leaves our tree up for the entire Christmas season—which actually only begins on December 25 and lasts until the Twelfth Day of Christmas, January 5. I know not everyone is familiar with the roots of Advent traditions, so I’d like to invite you to learn some about the gifts of this holy season.
Advent always begins four Sundays before the Christmas holiday. In some churches, Advent is kind of an extended experience of the Christmas season. There are candles on a wreath named for such gentle and heartwarming concepts as hope, peace, joy, and love.
But traditionally, that’s not what the Advent season is like. Instead, Advent is a darker season, a season that is meant to prepare us for the celebrations of Christmas, one in which we are invited to cast off our sins and prepare for the coming of Christ. In fact, traditionally the themes for the four Sunday of Advent are known as the Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell.
In Advent, however, the darkness of our world is met with the light and power of the Gospel, and that means the Four Last Things are profoundly important opportunities to see how the good news of God interacts with the Last Things of Christian theology.
We believe in death. Which is to say, we believe we will all die someday. True, for the Christian we believe life is changed, not ended, but in a world where we seem to deny the reality of our mortality, a reminder that we are all indeed mortal is important. That doesn’t mean we chase death (get that vaccine, folks!), but it also means we do not look at death as the end. It also means that we take very seriously our responsibility not to hasten someone else’s death through our own choices (once more, get the vaccine, Christians killing people by not being vaccinated during a pandemic is the antithesis of the Christian faith!).
As Christians we also believe in judgment. Don’t get me wrong, we believe God’s judgment is always tempered by God’s mercy. I know I believe that in the end, all those who chose God will find God, that God’s love will heal all things. But when we acknowledge the brokenness of this world, we must also acknowledge the importance of believing in God’s judgment, believing that God’s justice will make right those things in this world that have been broken by sin, selfishness, violence, hate, and systems of oppression. Salvation means nothing—particularly to those who are marginalized and powerless—if it doesn’t also involve God’s justice being made manifest in people’s real lives.
Heaven, the third of the Last Things, is a bit easier for people to believe in. But heaven is not about pearly gates and mansions. It’s not the place where good people get to go when they die. Heaven is about the final healing of all things, of finally being in new and perfect relationship with God and all creation. Heaven is about all things being made new, all things being brought to their perfection through God’s love. And in the end, you don’t go to heaven because you earned it, you go because you’ve been willing to be embraced by God’s love and forgiveness.
And just like belief in Judgment and the justice of God is essential, the fourth Last Thing, Hell, is also an important part of Christian theology. I often say that Hell has to exist to preserve free choice. People must have the freedom to choose an eternity with God (also known as heaven) or an eternity without God (best understood as hell). However, the early Church, along with my own Anglican tradition, has taught that even in hell we do not lose the ability to change that choice and so even those who reject God in this life can still choose God in the life to come. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce, for people like that hell was actually purgatory, the difficult place where they finally learned to choose God.
Which is why I know I believe that, at the end of eternity, given the power of God’s love, hell will find itself empty as all things are brought together in Christ.
This is what the season of Advent is about: God’s light entering the real and difficult places of our world, of our mortal existence, in small and yet powerful ways.
So, don’t just celebrate Christmas early these next few weeks. Instead, look into the darkness of this world but find yourself held by God’s love. That’s an Advent that will truly prepare you for the real joy of Christmas.
The Rev. Dr. Jared C. Cramer, Tribune community columnist, serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Grand Haven. Information about his parish can be found at www.sjegh.com.
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