The Expectant Waiting in Advent

On the church calendar, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are what we call Advent, which is the official beginning of the worship year. It is a season of hope, of expectation, and of waiting. In Advent we remember the longing for deliverance from evil and oppression experienced by the ancient Jews, and the anticipation of God’s Kingdom breaking in on their behalf. At Christmas, we remember God’s inbreaking into our human story, freeing us from sin and crushing the works of the evil one.

Each Monday during Advent, I will post a short writing. Typically, this kind of reading would be used during the lighting of an Advent candle. Since we are not lighting candles, I encourage you to meditate on each reading throughout the week, quietly listening for what God might want to say to you.

Below is the first writing.

The word Advent comes from the Latin word “adventus,” meaning “coming.” It is during this season leading up to Christmas that we expectantly wait for the coming of the Messiah. 

This week let us meditate upon the hope of the prophets, especially Isaiah, who waited in hope for the Messiah’s coming. We read these words in Isaiah 7:14, written some 700 years before the birth of the Messiah – “Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

It is in that expectant waiting, that hope of a better tomorrow, that we can be thankful, allowing us to sing out the words found in Psalm 100:4 – “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!”

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