This year, approaching the season of Advent, I had this strange thought: Advent is not about Christmas! Advent is about Advent. Yes, it’s placed liturgically around four weeks before Christmas, but Advent is its own spiritual opportunity. If we live Advent well, there’s a good chance we’ll be ready to celebrate Christmas with all the depth it deserves, when that amazing feast arrives.
The readings of the First Sunday of Advent don’t give any hint about Jesus’ birth. They’re all about being ready for the End Times. Then during the First Week of Advent, we have a series of readings from the prophet Isaiah. The first part of the Book of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, was written when everything was fine and dandy in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The people were prospering and patting themselves on the back for their staunch fidelity (as they understood it) to God. And they were comparing themselves to their kin of the Northern Kingdom who had been dragged off to Assyria after they had been defeated and their main city, Samaria, had been overrun and destroyed. Those idiots in the North (obviously) hadn’t been faithful to God (like us). And the vibe at the time was that their grand, high, and fortified city, Jerusalem (God’s preferred spot in the whole world), would serve as center of welcome when God decided those Northerners had suffered enough in exile. Then they would be one, great people again. Optimism reigned – for a time.
On Monday of Week One, Isaiah (Isaiah 2:1-5) rolls out a vision of the whole world streaming to Jerusalem, from which God’s Law would come forth. God will judge all peoples there, and settle any disputes between nations. (There’s a terrible, painful irony in this.) They will melt down and forge their swords into plows, and they will rework their spears into instruments to prune branches of fruit. This will mark the end of the ongoing bitter conflicts among peoples. Weapons will no longer have any use. And in an astonishing claim, nations will no longer learn how to make war. Nations will forget how to fight one another in mortal combat. At the end (verse 5), the prophet stuck this caveat: Israel come, let’s walk in the light that God gives!
Yes, that’s the missing piece/peace in our world of divisiveness and constant warring. We refuse to walk in the Light of the World, Jesus, sent by God. Millions of people continue to suffer and die because we will not choose or act as God desires. Where is the Ho, Ho, Ho, in that? We have much work to do before Christmas.