What's So Amazing About Advent? An Advent Wreath Liturgy (Week 3)

Last week we lit this candle as a challenge
for us to be a people who accept the Father’s will for us.

[light second candle]

And before that we lit this candle,
to remind us to be amazed
at the announcements of the advent season.

[light first candle]

But there’s still more to be amazed at in advent.

What else is amazing about advent?

Asks the curious in the crowd.
What about the amazing anticipation that happens this season?

Christmas, of course,
Is one of those few seasons where the waiting
Is perhaps more fun than the arrival.
Where the hustle and the bustle of preparing for the celebration
Rivals, almost, the dawning of the big day itself.

In this it takes its cue from the Christian story.

After all, hadn’t the people of Israel waited millennia
In eager anticipation of their Messiah?
Enthroning their kings and hearing from prophets
Building their temples and watching the signs
For the dawning of Emmanuel?

Amazing anticipation!

And in the days of John the Baptist
Didn’t they head on down to the Jordan River,
To wash away sin and clean up their act
To make straight the paths and get level places ready
In anticipation of his arrival?

Amazing.

And Mary and Joseph,
Knowing that it was none other than
The Son of God, the Maker of Everything
The savior of the world Himself
Kicking in her womb,
Still didn’t they have to wait the normal nine months
Filled with anticipation for the ordinary birth of their
Heaven-Sent Baby Boy?

Absolutely amazing!

Anticipation—the eager act of getting ready,
while we wait for a good thing to arrive—
this is a lost art in our instant-gratification world.

But it is also a serious Christian discipline.

Because whatever else it is,
The Christian life is always lived
In eager anticipation of God’s New Thing
The New Heavens and the New Earth
That he promises to give us when
that same Heavenly Baby Boy
Comes again a second time,
The Heaven-Sent Lord of All.

[light third candle]

And so, in the meantime, we light this,
the third candle of advent
To remind us to stay busy
And to stay amazed
As we anticipate that day.