A NEW ADVENT APPROACH? PART 4 OF 4 - AN ADVENT OF EVANGELISM AND MISSIONS

A partially live nativity scene at Cincinnati Zoo - the rabbit is live.

You may have seen Advent calendars focus on hope, peace, joy, and love. The first one I paid attention to looked at the Prophets, the angels, the shepherds, and the wise men. Those who have been reading the last four weeks will see a new set of four themes for Advent:

1. An Advent of Gratitude and Encouragement,
2. An Advent of Mercy and Grace,
3. An Advent of Truth and Discernment, and this week,
4. An Advent of Evangelism and Missions.

As an old Malcolm & Alwyn song from '73 points out, "The World Needs Jesus," and if anything, it's a 1,000 times truer today as it was 50 years ago when that song came out. But, as Paul says, "How shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?" (Romans 10:14-15a)

Evangelism and Missions go hand in hand. Evangelism is sharing the Gospel with those you encounter in your day to day life (e.g. Peter and John and the lame man at the temple), while missions is going to those who don't have believers they encounter day to day (e.g. Paul and friends going to Cyprus, Galatia, and Macedonia). 

Now you may say, "I'm grateful for those who are called to serve this way." Ah, but who did Christ call to serve this way? His disciples. Which ones? All of them. Now does that mean we're all to go overseas? No, but we all can evangelize.

This emphasis is fitting for these four weeks of Advent. We started off with gratitude and encouragement. Isn't our gratitude for our salvation best shown by joyfully sharing with others what God has done for us? And isn't the most important thing to do to encourage others is telling them how God can save them from their sins? Not that easy? Again, encouragement comes in play here - we can encourage others to share the Gospel, here and abroad.

Second week was mercy and grace. Isn't that what the Gospel is about? And not only is the message about mercy and grace, but we need to practice it. Jesus said we're being sent as sheep among wolves; Glenn Penner in his excellent book In The Shadow of the Cross: A Biblical Theology of Persecution and Discipleship, points out that we're being sent to the wolves.

Week three, we dealt with truth and discernment. The Gospel is called the truth of God through the New Testament. And with discernment, we need to be discerning in our ministry of evangelism and missions, as we will be dealing with false teaching, false teachers, and false perceptions.

How many think this is a good view of Advent?

By the way, with today being Christmas Eve, have a Merry Christmas (or a Joseph Christmas).

 

A NEW ADVENT APPROACH? PART 3 OF 4: AN ADVENT OF TRUTH AND DISCERNMENT

 

Nativity Scene and sign for '23 Advent Christmas Sermon Series at Northside Baptist Church, Indianapolis. The title is taken from a song on Jonathan & Emily Martin's Advent album "Tell Me The Story."

I have proposed a new set of Advent focuses. Two weeks ago, I introduced an Advent of Gratitude and Encouragement; last week, I suggested an Advent of Mercy and Grace.

Would you agree with me that an appropriate theme of the 3rd week is an Advent of Truth and Discernment? You would agree with me there's a need for it, wouldn't you?

This society, in it's blindness, clinging to the moral absolute that there's no moral absolutes (obviously an irrational - maybe anti-rational - contradiction). We need to build our house on the solid rock of God's Truth, not on the sand of the latest ideas. 

Of course, the problem is sometimes it is hard to tell the truth from an error. The most effective errors consist 1% lie with 99% truth, but that 1% is enough to poison the beverage. That's where discernment comes in.

Many point out the most quoted verse of the Bible is not John 3:16 but rather Matthew 7:1, "Judge not lest you be judged." Of course, the reason for quoting that verse often is "Don't call my wickedness wickedness; better to call it something attractive rather than be honest about my sin." No, the Bible does not tell us not to call out sin.

But too many go the other, equally errant, extreme. They pretend Jesus' command to His disciples in Matthew 7:1 doesn't mean what it says (even the contextual emphasis of not condemning others), and make believe that the real command is "Judge with righteous Judgment" (John 7:24), ignoring that this was actually in context a rebuke to the Pharisees. 

Let me put it another, hopefully clearer way. Some people accuse those who are discerning as being judgmental/condemning, while others break Jesus' commandment not to judge and pat themselves on the back for being discerning.

Let's remember when we're speaking truth and discerning truth from error, we're to at the same time show grace and mercy, that is, God's love.

ALBUM REVIEW - TELL ME THE STORY BY JONATHAN AND EMILY MARTIN

I love the season of Advent (the four weeks preceding Christmas). I grew up without that tradition. As an adult, I've been at churches where they light the advent candles, and where the Pastor has a series looking at Christ's coming. I also became aware of the difference between Advent songs (e.g. "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "Joy to the World") and Christmas songs (e.g. "Hark The Herald Angels Sing," "Away In A Manger"). But I never heard of an Advent album. 

Until now.

"Tell Me The Story," the most recent project by Jonathan and Emily Martin, qualifies as being an Advent album. A couple of songs would be classified more as Christmas songs, but most focus more on the impact of the coming (Advent) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God than on the historic event of His birth. 

There is not a bad song on this album. The songs all are encouraging and upbuilding. My favorites are "God Came Down To Us," "The Impossible," and "The Unexpected Ones."

I'm writing this the evening before Jonathan and Emily minister at my church, which motivated me to listen to the project. I'm glad I did. I highly recommend this product.

 

A NEW ADVENT APPROACH? PART 2 OF 4: AN ADVENT OF MERCY AND GRACE

"All of Creation Worships"

 What's the difference between mercy and grace? I don't recall who deserves the credit for pointing it out, but mercy is not getting what you deserve and grace is getting what you don't deserve.

Two things are evident when you read the Bible: 1) God is merciful, and 2) God is gracious. Micah 7:18 says "He does not retain anger, because He delights in mercy." We deserve His wrath for how each of us rebels against Him, but He is a God who forgives. We definitely DON'T deserve His goodness, yet He joyfully gives it to those who seek Him.

Jesus' first advent was to die for our sins to save us. Christ's coming was for us to be reconciled with God. 

However, we definitely need an advent today of mercy and grace. We need to ourselves be merciful. As it says in Psalm 18:25, "With the merciful, You will show Yourself merciful." Jesus stated in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). 

Likewise, we need to show grace to others. Again on the Mount, Jesus taught, "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12). Other religions put it in the negative sense - "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you," but that's not grace; that's being civil. Only Christ instructs us to love our enemies, to do good to all (1 Thessalonians 5:15).

How are we doing? Are we tearing others down in theological debates, or are we aware God may overlook imperfect theology (who is perfect anyway)? Are we living out the above for verses with those who are in the other major party than us, or even worse, an advocate for a third party?

A NEW ADVENT APPROACH? PART 1 OF 4: AN ADVENT OF GRATITUDE AND ENCOURAGEMENT

An African Nativity Scene, with a frame borrowed from Facebook.

I spent the first 30 years of my life with an absent Advent. In the hymnal I'm most familiar with, I noticed a handful of Advent hymns and designated separately from the Christmas songs, but I still didn't really get it. I was more familiar with Lent (by reputation, not by practice) than I was with Advent. 

Recently, some of the churches I've attended have the advent candles. Also, at Arlington Avenue Baptist Church, I've seen two different breakdowns of the four weeks of Advent: Prophets/Angels/Shepherds/Wise Men and Hope/Peace/Joy/Love. The last couple of years, I've been going through the latter (last year, combining the Advent theme with my Sunday Psalms series). 

This year, I've decided to take a more creative approach, and pick out four themes on my own for this Advent series. I'm picking four topics - okay, each theme has two related topics - that both we have through the First Coming of Christ and desperately need to live out.

Today, I'll start with an Advent of Gratitude (Thanksgiving) and Encouragement. I consider them related: Gratitude is being appreciative of what others do, and encouragement is motivating others to keep it up.

Do we have thankful hearts? Do we have minds trained to encourage? 

And do I need to elaborate more than just asking the two questions? I don't think so, but let me know if you disagree. 

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 20 OF 22: COME, THOU LONG EXPECTED JESUS

Arlington Avenue Baptist Church, Indianapolis. Note at the base of the tree are shoebox gifts. We donate these to the Metropolitan Baptist Center every Christmas, which they take to women's shelters for their children (each box has the gender and age range listed).

Come, Thou long expected Jesus, 

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us, 

Let us find our rest in Thee.

 

Israel's strength and consolation, 

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear desire of every nation, 

Joy of every longing heart.

 

Born Thy people to deliver, 

Born a child and yet a king.

Born to reign in us forever, 

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring. 

By Thine own eternal Spirit 

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit, 

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

NOTES ON HYMN

• This is an Advent hymn. By now, I think you all might know the difference between an Advent song and a Christmas song? I had chose 5 songs I wanted to use for the Advent and Christmas seasons, and putting them with the weeks seemed natural for most of them. This one is not as obvious with the theme "Adevent of Love", but it definitely fits.
  
• The tune of this song is Hyfrydol, written by Rowland Huw Pritchard. Hyfrydol is the only thing Cyberhymnal lists Pritchard writing, which I find hard to believe because of how good that tune is. The Worship & Service Hymnal included three songs besides this one with the tune, the best known of those I'd guess to be "Our Great Savior" (with the chorus, "Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a Friend!"). Additionally, it suggests this tune as an alternate for Charles Wesley's "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," and Elton Trueblood suggested this tune for a song he wrote he called "Baptism By Fire" which is printed in his excellent book "The Incindiery Fellowship." (I learned about the book when the Baptist Hymnal 1991 set the lyrics to a different tune and used the first line "God Whose Purpose Is To Kindle" as the title.
• The lyrics to this song are written by Charles Wesley. It's not unusual to see hymns with Wesley's words have music composed by musicians not yet born when Wesley died. 
• One question I have for Mr. Wesley is how many verses this song has. There are only two verses to this song, but was Wesley's original thought for a pair of verses to be set to a 8,7,8,7 Doubled tune, or a quartet set to 8,7,8,7? Honestly, looking at the words, it gives me an impression it was written with four verses. Yet combining the verses to this tune produces a beautiful song.
• Final comment: I will admit I have questions on whether Christmas trees should be on a church's platform. However, in the case of the one at Arlington Avenue Baptist Church (above photo), it also serves as a reminder of preparing shoe-box gifts for the Baptist Center where they are distributed to the children of mothers in rescue shelters. This fits Advent of Love, does it not?
  

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 19 OF 22: JOY TO THE WORLD (ADVENT OF, YOU GUESSED IT, JOY)

At Arlington Avenue Baptist Church, Indianapolis, IN

Joy to the world! The Lord has come!

Let earth receive her King!

Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room,

And heaven and nature sing!

Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns!

Let men their songs employ!

Let field and flood, rock hill and plain

Repeat the sounding joy!

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The wonders of His righteousness 

And wonders of His love.

NOTES ON THE HYMN

• I know. I didn't do the repetitions of the last line of each verse. Sorry.
• One of the best known songs of the Christmas season, but this actually is an advent hymn. In fact, it's based on Psalm 98 and is focused on the 2nd Advent (Christ's return) rather the 1st Advent (Christ's birth). 
  
• The third week of Advent is the Advent of Joy. So I spent a lot of time trying to decide which song would be most appropriate. A who tenth of a second. 
• I started this series with a Watts song. Time for another one. The only other author I had repeated was Charles Wesley. 
• By the way, did you know the music was written by George Frederick Handel? (I just saw a picture of him; to me, he looks like he'd fit in a hard rock band.) The music was adapted from the Messiah.
• The meter is the common meter (8,6,8,6). By the way, the other Watts song in my series - "Am I a Soldier of the Cross?" - is also common meter. So 
  

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 18 OF 22: O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM (ADVENT OF PEACE)

Cincinnati Zoo Nativity Scene

 

O little town of Bethlehem,
    How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
    The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
    The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
    Are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary,
    And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
    Their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars together,
    Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King,
    And peace to men on earth!

How silently, how silently,
    The wondrous Gift is giv’n;
So God imparts to human hearts
    The blessings of His Heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming,
    But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
    The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
    Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
    Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
    The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
    Our Lord Emmanuel!

 

NOTES:

• This song is being posted on the 2nd Sunday of Advent - Advent of Peace. I mentioned last week about the differences between Advent songs (expecting Christ's coming) and Christmas songs (about Christ's birth). This is definitely a Christmas song, but I thought it would be appropriate looking at God's peace.
• Did you notice anything not completely typical about this nativity scene photo? It was a mild December day, and the person who kept the rabbit decided to let him out while she was cleaning up that area. I thought that the rabbit added to the peaceful look.
  
• You may have noticed, but "sin" is rarely mentioned at Christmas time (and not much if any more the rest of the year). What I like about this carol is it doesn't keep up with that (should I say sinful) tendency. It mentions in the third verse that we're "in this world of sin," and in the last verse it exhorts us to "Cast out our sin." 
• Speaking of verses, I consulted Cyber-hymnal to see if there were any besides the four I'm familiar with. The answer is "yes." The fourth verse is not included in my post, as it isn't in the hymnals I'm familiar with. You can click here to see the missing verse.
• One other bit of info on the Cyber-hymnal page (besides a picture at the bottom of the Church of the Nativity) is this about Phillips Brooks (who wrote the words to this hymn): "Brooks wrote about his horse­back jour­ney from Je­ru­sa­lem to Beth­le­hem, where he as­sist­ed with the mid­night ser­vice on Christ­mas Eve, 1865:
   
  
  'I re­mem­ber stand­ing in the old church in Beth­le­hem, close to the spot where Je­sus was born, when the whole church was ring­ing hour af­ter hour with splen­did hymns of praise to God, how again and again it seemed as if I could hear voic­es I knew well, tell­ing each oth­er of the Won­der­ful Night of the Sav­ior’s birth.'
  
  
  

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 17 OF 22: O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL (ADVENT OF HOPE)

Angels, live nativity scene, Castleton United Methodist Church, Indianapolis

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
 

NOTES ON HYMN 

• Raise your hands if you realize we're in Advent season? The last 16 weeks I've shared songs in, with one exception, alphabetic order. For the next four weeks, I'll be dealing with the four weeks of Advent, which will be followed by Christmas and New Year's Day.
• What is the difference between an Advent Hymn like this and a Christmas Hymn like "Silent Night?" The former anticipates the coming of the Promised Messiah, the latter focuses on the event of Christ's birth.
• There are different ways of looking at Advent. Some break it up into various actors in the Christmas story (e.g. Prophets, Angels). Others look at various things Christ has brought into our lives. This week, I chose "O Come O Come Emmanuel" for the Sunday that's the Advent of Hope.
  
• How many hymnals have eight verses to any hymn? Not many. Most hymns are trimmed to four or at the most five, and what gets trimmed is fairly uniform. But not always. This hymn, as well as "Crown Him With Many Crowns," "Anywhere With Jesus," and to a lesser extent "Take My Life And Let It Be" often have varying verses, with different hymnals having a different list of verses. So I went to Cyberhymnal and posted all eight verses (which was more than I thought - for some reason, I thought it was seven!) By the way, there are other hymns that have that many verses - "Soldiers of Christ Arise" have 16 long verses.
• This song is what's called plainsong. In those days, a lot of music was sung in unison aca pella without large jumps in the melody.
• Anybody start trying to figure out the meters after I talked about them? If you have, you'd notice the verses are long meter (8,8,8,8). You can take another long meter song (e.g. "All Creatures of Our God and King", "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross", or the Doxology), and sing it to this tune, adding the chorus.
  

THE COMING KINGDOM OF LOVE - FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2021

 

Nativity Scene we received from a friend; "Frame" by Sandra T. Monte

Once again, I'll mention that I connect Advent with the revolutionary concept in the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In the previous three weeks, I've looked at the advent of hope, peace, and joy, and how radical those aspects are. This week, I'll be looking at an Advent of Love.

I'm going to date myself (and may date the readers of this blog) by mentioning Jackie DeShannon's 1965 hit "What The World Needs Now Is Love" (written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Of course, I doubt many people would disagree, including those whose parents and maybe even grandparents weren't around when the song came out. But what do you mean by "love"? 

Maybe someone at this point has picked up their Bible and turned to 1 Corinthians 13, which gives a description of love. For those haven't done so, let me share verses 4-7: "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no eveil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (NKJV)

Jesus said "By this the world will know you're My disciples, in that you love one another." He gave characteristics of what being a disciple looked like, but how many have the description, "By THIS, they world will know you're My disciples?" Just this one. I've actually heard a couple of people in more exclusive churches disagree with this. Why? Because there are people outside their little group that would qualify as Jesus' Disciples. God forbid that should happen!

We also need to remember God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). Note - don't try to reverse the word order or you're idolizing love. Also, don't make the mistake of separating love from God's attributes. When God calls us to be holy and when He gives the wicked what they deserve, He is doing that as a loving God. 

Too often, we want to have enemies to hate. We subconsciously realize that loving one another is a tough task, so we try to make "one another" as small a group as we can to make it manageable. But I consider love to be desiring others to turn to righteousness, to look for the good to encourage (anybody can find the bad to discourage, sometimes when it only appears to be bad). Love is sharing the gospel, not wanting anybody to go to hell but knowing everybody deserves it.

THE COMING KINGDOM OF JOY - THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2021

 

At Arlington Avenue Baptist Church, photo by Trish Walton

 

"It's beginning to look a lot like Advent."

I have mentioned before the connection I see between Advent and the radical petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven."  You might not think an Advent of Joy is revolutionary. Or is it?

The pursuit of happiness is quite different from joy. Happiness is fleeting. It doesn't last. Joy is a different story. Plus, there are times the world at the least accepts and laughs at wickedness if not outright applauding and celebrating it.

But does Christ coming back and establishing His Kingdom give us joy? Before you quickly say "Of course," does it fit with how you live? Would you rather be at church with fellow believers even if you miss the football game? Does reading the Scripture excite you more than your favorite TV series?

I remembered a skit by a group called "The Lamb's Players." In it, there were two guys sitting at a table in a restaurant. The first guy was telling the other about the football game, with lots of energy and excitement, while the second nodded. Then, the second started telling about the worship service Sunday ... with the same exuberance as the other guy described the sporting event, and with the first guy looking nervous and urging his friend to tone it down.

Are you excited about the coming Second Advent, spending eternity with Jesus Christ? And does that thrill accompany your relationship with Him now between the Advents?

THE COMING KINGDOM OF PEACE - SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, 2021

Peace Garden at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Park

 

"It's beginning to look a lot like Advent."

Last week, in the first part of this series, I started with that quote, questioning where I picked that line up from. Actually, it was a frame that can could be added to your Facebook profile picture.

Also, last week I mentioned that the concept of Advent can be tied to the line in the Lord's prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." After all, Advent means coming, and Christians often refer to the Incarnation as the First Advent and Jesus' future returning to earth to reign as the Second Advent.

 There are different ways of referring to the four Sundays of Advent. The first variation dealt with different players in the first Christmas: Prophets, Angels, Shepherds, and Magi. A way I like better deals with important characteristics in our Christian life:
Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. If you weren't paying attention, I dealt with Hope last week.

I'll admit something that had me confused. The photos I'm using on the top of these blogs are also being used as my Facebook profile photo, and I've added a frame indicating the week of the post. I've seen two primary sources - Good News TV and Christy Gallinger. However, Good News TV had frames with the second week being Peace and the 2nd week as Love. What's more Christmassy than a bit of confusion?

Returning to my theme of the controversial and radical concept of God's Kingdom coming, we are looking for a Kingdom of peace, and there isn't much peace here. Everybody wants peace, as long as they get to define what peace looks like. For many, it's when their side wins that they  want peace, with their opponents throwing the white flag. For example, you notice how it's the winning party after an election that calls for the people to unify? 

Should we expect peace among unregenerate people? Of course not. But sometimes the place with the least peace are the Christians. Pick a topic: Sovereign Predestination vs. Free Will, whether we can lose our salvation, almost any element concerning the end times, style of music, Bible translations, and of course politics. In fact, I heard of a church that split over the question whether having a hat rack was Biblical or not.

One of the beatitudes is "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." (Matthew 5:9). Note the difference between being a peacekeeper and a peacemaker. The former basically is a referee, trying to make sure the opponents behave themselves. The latter does his work when the opponents are not on good terms and labors to create a peace between the two that is presently non-existent.

What are we doing to establish God's Kingdom of Peace? It calls for peacemakers, because there's none in the world to keep.

THE COMING KINGDOM OF HOPE: FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2021

 

Hope in a Prison of Despair by Evelyn De Morgan

 

Was it a meme? Or was it just a post by someone or even a comment? Regardless, what it read was "It's beginning to look a lot like Advent."

As I've probably mentioned before in this blog, I've grown up in Anabaptistic churches. Christmas and Easter are remembered, as well as the other essential holidays of our Christian faith: Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Independence Day. No mention of Lent. Pentecost may get mentioned, though that's not the norm. If there's anything around the end of October, it's more likely a Halloween alternative and less likely Reformation Day or All Saints Day. Advent is an exception, though I was old enough to run for Senate when I first observed Advent candles being lit at church. 

I  was fairly young when I noticed a division in the hymnal (knowing what a hymnal is dates me, doesn't it?) between Advent and Christmas songs. Eventually, I learned the difference: Christmas songs focus on Christ's birth, while Advent songs deal with Christ's coming to earth. "Joy To The World," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" and "Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne" are the better known Advent songs.

In reality, though, the concept mirrors the radical request in the heart of the Lord's prayer: "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Think about it. Christ is a King. Not a President. Not an Anchorman. Not a Moderator. But a Monarch who will reign. A Ruler who will one day have His enemies under His feet, who will break the nations with a rod of iron. 

The first Sunday of Advent focuses on the Advent of Hope. Is hope a common commodity in this world? "Change/Hope" was used as a slogan for President Obama's 2008 campaign. How much hope was there during that period of time?

Our hope is not in this world. Rather, we need to rest our hope in Christ alone. We need to hope for His sovereignty in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our cities, and in the world. As it says in Psalm 60:11, the help of man is useless. We need to put our trust in God.