Advent: We're Not the Only Ones Who Wait

Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. (Revelation 3:20 NRSV)

Christians are quite familiar with the concept of "waiting" during Advent, that's what the season is for, after all.  We wait in hope not only to celebrate the first Advent, the Incarnation of Christ, but the second Advent, when we believe he will return to Earth.  Of course when I was a kid it was about waiting for Christmas morning and presents, if I'm honest with you!  We make a nice show out of our own waiting at Advent, but I wonder, are we the only ones waiting?  I think not.

Think about a time when you got somebody what you might consider the "perfect gift" for Christmas. How do you feel as you wait for Christmas day and the opportunity for that person to open it: excited, nervous, expectant?  One year my wife got me a portable weather station (I'm a weather geek), and she was so excited to see my face light up when I opened it.  I trust that I didn't disappoint her!  

Well in the Advent study that Pastor Gary is presenting at our Church this Advent, he portrays God that way.  God has procured for us this great gift, and he's just waiting to see how we respond once the gift is no longer "under wraps," so to speak.  Of course the gift was originally given some 2000 years ago, and it was the gift of his son, indeed the gift of himself, Jesus Christ. God waits in excited anticipation to see how each and everyone of us responds to this special gift.

Which brings us to the matter of Christ himself.  In the book of Revelation Christ says that he is standing at the door knocking, waiting for us to open the door to him.  This is also a familiar image in Christianity, so much so that it has often become cliche, but make no mistake, Christ is waiting, and he is expectant of us everyday of our lives.  Consider this:

"Jesus stands at the door knocking.  In total reality, he comes in the form of the beggar, of the dissolute human child in ragged clothes, asking for help.  He confronts you in every person that you meet.  As long as there are people, Christ will walk the earth as your neighbor, as the one through whom God calls you, speaks to you, makes demands on you.  That is the great seriousness and great blessedness of the Advent message. Christ is standing at the door; he lives in the form of a human being among us.  Do you want to close the door or open it?"

                                                                                             --Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Does those words give any of us pause?  Do they convict any of us in the slightest?  Here Pastor Bonhoeffer ties in the meaning of Advent to the seminal message of Christianity.  For so many of us, accepting Christ means "opening the door to hearts" so to speak, and inviting him into our lives. That is indeed the first step, but the journey ahead for those who would truly follow Christ is long indeed.  

Christ is there, confronting us in everyone we meet, everyone we hear about.  He waits, and how do we respond?  Christ is present in a young African American man who has been killed by a police officer and left on the street in the open for four hours.  Christ is present in a man who was strangled to death by a New York City officer.  Does that tie this is to everything that's going on around us? Christ presents himself to us in everyone, no matter race, creed, gender, disability status, sexual orientation, or any other qualifier.  He waits to see how we react to him, to see if we will truly continue to open up our lives to him, again and again. It is a constant, active process, where we must remember that an injustice done to anyone is an injustice done to Christ.

So what do we do?  How do we open the door?  It starts by recognizing the validity of each and every human life.    Once we have done this, this fundamental belief should invade every aspect of our lives.  It should inform how we talk to others and treat others around us. It should govern the way we give of our time and resources.  Even just dropping a few coins in the Salvation Army bucket helps, and that's a great way to start, but I encourage all of us to look for other ways that we can reach out to our community.

Finally it should also inform how we vote and how we interact in the political life of our nation.  We should be holding candidates' feet to the fire on these issues, trying to get meaningful change that can help all of us.  We need to be asking the questions:  What do we do about the poor?  What do we do to erase the blight of racism in our country?  How do we confront and change this culture of violence?  

I truly believe that Christ calls us to be active in the lives of those around us everyday and in the life of our country.  I invite you to use this Advent/Christmas season as a springboard to do both in your life.  Christ is knocking, waiting.