The Fourth Candle of Advent

One of the really big hurdles in my seminary training was our oral comprehensive examination.  I sat at a big table with five of my seminary professors.  They took turns asking me questions.  “What year was the Council of Nicea?”  “What is the difference between infralapsarianism and supralapsarianism?”  “List all the covenants found in the Old Testament.”  It was brutal.  We spent hours reviewing lecture notes and receiving tips from those who had gone before us.  One of my classmates was asked a most interesting question by one of our professors: “Sum up the Bible in one sentence.”  How does one even begin to do that?  Well, this classmate must have been living clean, because he came up with a wonderful answer.  John 3:16.  “For God so loved the world that he sent his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Yesterday we lit the final candle of Advent.  It is the candle of love.  As my classmate so insightfully noted, the whole reason Jesus came to earth was love.  Jesus didn’t come for any other reason than because God so loved the world.  Christmas is a celebration of God’s amazing love for us.  Let’s remember how deeply we are loved by God.  So deeply that He sent His own Son for us.

The Third Candle of Advent: Joy

The desert and the parched land will be glad;

    the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;

    it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. (Isaiah 35:1-2)

The desert and the parched land will be glad.  Not because the rains have come.  But because the Lord has come.  Not because there is escape from the blazing sun.  But because there is no escape from the glory and salvation and healing power of God.

The desert can rejoice and be parched.  For joy isn’t based on circumstances but on promises.  Hands can be feeble and strong.  For a day is coming when even those that cannot walk will leap like deer.

The glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.  We light this candle in great joy.  Our God is faithful.

The Second Candle of Advent: Peace

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Who would have thought that peace would come from such an unlikely place?  Who knew peace would come not from a palace, but from a stable?  Who guessed that peace would be born to a couple just a few months after a shotgun wedding?  How could peace come through a man of sorrows?  How could peace arrive from someone who was despised?

But Christmas teaches us to look for peace in the most unlikely places: in eyes swollen from a crown of thorns, in a teardrop falling from those eyes. In unlikely circumstances, in a stable, lying in a manger. Christmas shows us that God is capable of bringing peace in and through all situations. Peace can come from the most unlikely place. In fact, it most often does.

The First Candle of Advent

There’s a lady I‘ve visited who would sometimes ask me about hope.  To her this word had come to mean “wishful thinking.”  We hope that things will turn out a certain way, but they may or may not actually work out according to our preferences.  But the hope that we have in Jesus is more than just wishful thinking.  Wishful thinking cannot bear the weight of Covid and hardship and broken relationships.  So what’s the difference between our stated preferences and the hope Jesus offers?

The difference is in who is making the promises. Wishful thinking begins with me - in my imagination and desires and solutions. Christian hope begins with God - His desires and solutions and vision for the future. When we light the first advent candle of hope, we aren’t just making a wish. We are claiming something that is as good as done. God has made a promise. And even when we can’t see it being fulfilled yet in our lives, we can live in the certainty that it will indeed be fulfilled. Hope can survive the hard times because it knows who has made the promise. One of the most beautiful expressions of our hope comes from the prophet Habakkuk: Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (3:17-18)\

The Candle of Love

Yesterday we began our service by lighting the fourth candle of Advent - the candle of love.  Love is the most written about, sung about, talked about thing in the world. The word itself could refer to hundreds of different realities, feelings, or actions.  Even the Bible talks about love from several different perspectives. One biblical angle that has struck me recently is from 1 John 4: 18: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”  

I think what John is saying is that when we live in God’s love, there is really nothing to be afraid of.  If you are fired from your job, you don’t have to be afraid of losing your job anymore. If you’ve died to yourself and Christ lives in you, you don’t have to be afraid of dying anymore.  When you’ve got all the love you need in Christ, you don’t have to fear losing it in your relationships with others. It’s hard for us to understand how perfectly and completely Jesus loves us.  It is not just a love that we hold. It is a love that holds us, body and soul, in life and in death. The more we understand that love, the less afraid we become.

The Candle of Joy

Yesterday we lit the third candle of Advent - the candle of joy.  Joy is a word that gets thrown around a lot. Yet I think we miss the great weight of this word.  We easily mistake joy for happiness. If we feel happy or are excited about something, we call it joy.  If there are some things happening that feel positive to us, we call our response joy. But what we are really talking about is happiness.  Happiness rests on the circumstances and situations in our lives. Joy is anchored in something much deeper and much more solid.

It might help to think of this as two tracks that our lives run on.  The first track runs according to what happens to us. It is made up of our health, the state of our marriage, the grades on our finals, and the speeding ticket we got.  But the second track is not so much what happens to us, but rather what is true of us. This track is about who we are and to whom we belong. Joy is based on this second track.  So while our circumstances will change, sometimes dramatically, our God and our identity do not. Happiness is fleeting. Joy is permanent. Happiness changes with the circumstances of our lives.  Joy runs straight and true right through those circumstances. Joy is based on a Son who was born to us, a Son who died for us, a Son to whom we belong.

The Candle of Peace

Sometimes a word gets watered down to the point of losing its meaning.  I think the word “peace” is a classic example of this. Maybe it got co-opted by the flower children in the 1960s.  Maybe Ryan Seacrest stripped it of meaning by ending American Idol with “Peace out.”  This word has come to mean something pretty ordinary.  It means, “I hope things go well for you.” It means, “Our countries aren’t shooting at each other right now.”  This is the peace that we’ve settled for: a decent set of personal circumstances or the absence of active combat.

But when the Bible talks about peace it means something totally different.  On a personal level, it is a rock solid assurance that nothing can ever change the most important things in our lives.  On a broader scale it refers to something greater than a cease-fire. It speaks of nations working together in trust and friendship and respect.  This kind of peace is very rare. This is a peace only Jesus can bring. As we light the candle of peace, consider what a precious commodity peace is.  Remember that it has a single source: the baby that was born on Christmas.

The Candle of Hope

It’s been a busy week!  We gave thanks Wednesday night in church and on Thursday with our families.  If you get into the Black Friday thing, you were up early on Friday for that.  After all of those festivities we began the Advent season on Sunday by lighting the candle of hope.  Hope is a powerful thing. Hope will drive people to cross oceans to unknown worlds. Hope will pick a person back up after being knocked down for the hundredth time.  Because of hope, people will put themselves and their bodies through excruciating pain. Hope sees past current struggles to a glorious day that lies in the future.

As we light this first candle of hope, we are connecting with God’s Old Testament people who longed for the coming of the Messiah.  We connect with those who were in exile, away from their homeland. We connect with those longing for redemption, for a change of fortunes.  As we light this candle, let’s call to mind all that we deeply long for. Let’s remember that we now have what so many hoped for. A day is coming for us when every longing will be met, a day when we will finally be home.

Advent Fasting

It’s a longstanding Christian tradition to give up something during the season of Lent.  It might be meat on Fridays. It could be TV or other forms of entertainment. The options are endless.  Christians who choose to fast during Lent are making an effort to prepare themselves for a celebration of the resurrection.  For most of Christian history Advent was to Christmas what Lent is to Easter. Advent has traditionally also been a season of preparation.  People would fast in order to focus on the wonder of the incarnation. In recent years this Advent emphasis has been lost in a festive season that begins on November 1.

I’ve decided that this year I am going to fast during Advent.  I would encourage you to consider this as well. With all the things that tug at our attention during this season, with all the distractions of the holidays, an intentional fast can help us refocus on what’s really important.  I have decided that I am going to fast from the news. I’m not making that a recommendation, but rather an example of one way to fast. What can you remove from (or add to) your life this Advent that will help you stay focused on The Reason?