Knowtown…

Being a good non-denominational guy I have never followed a liturgical calendar but I have wanted to for a while. There is something deeply spiritual about allowing the rhythms of the year to connect to transcendent spiritual themes. I picked up a great book last year at the library about following a liturgical year and it reinforced this desire for me. So this year, as Advent arrives upon us I am more aware of spiritual things around me than I have been in the past. One theme that I feel emerging for me is this shared sense of waiting. The gospels begin with a certain anxious expectation—a looking forward to the coming of a savior. This year, I am waiting with great expectation for something huge and wonderful—for something divine to penetrate into the mundane surface things of life.

I am anticipating the Christmas season in a new way this year. I fully intend to celebrate the miracle of the incarnation but this year my mind is also aware of another miraculous birth. John’s gospel begins by telling the Christmas story and, like Matthew and Luke, he tells us about a wonderful birth. He talks of the eternal Word becoming flesh and living among us, but that is not the birth I am referring to. John talks of the birth of those who have come to follow the Word made flesh. Followers of Jesus born of God.

“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God..” –John 1:9-13

Traditionally, Christmas is a Sunday where people make the effort to go to church even though they do not participate in a community of faith the rest of the year. Churches gear up for the larger crowds and prepare great cantatas or special services. But it seems to me that Christmas is more about God coming to meet us where we are than it is about us attracting a crowd. I wonder why more churches don’t shut down on that Sunday and instead send all their members into the communities in which they live to share the good news that God dwells among us? Maybe instead of celebrating a birth 2000 years ago we can initiate the birth that John tells us about by being Christ to people who are waiting. Waiting for someone to realize that they are broken people in a broken world with broken dreams. People who are hoping against hope for someone to tell them the good news that there is one who can redeem them in all of their brokenness. Looking for a community of faith who will love them, lead them and dwell among them on their journey towards faith. Christ can be born today, tomorrow or any day in the hearts of those who believe in Him and are given the right to be called children of God.

This Advent season I find myself in a small community of faithful people who are encouraging and empowering me to see the mission of God in a new way. So while many are caught up in the hustle and bustle of this season, you will find me waiting with great expectation. Something wonderful is about to be born.