Tomorrow we will light the second candle in the Advent wreath. Advent is the season in which we await the inbreaking of God in our world. All that we do this time of year--our decorations and card writings, our gift wrapping and cooking--are ways for us to prepare ourselves and our world for the Christmas miracle. As the December darkness grows deeper, we wait for the Light.
Much of our lives are spent waiting: we wait for the water to boil, the mail to arrive, the page to print, the phone to ring, the baby to arrive, the loved one to return, the heart to heal, the rains to come, the storms to cease…but throughout human history, there has been a waiting of epic proportions: a waiting for God.
The Hebrew people knew a great deal about waiting. They were a people too familiar with exile, and the wait of returning to a homeland. Along with this yearning there was a deeper hunger as they waited for God.
Advent is a season for exiles, rooted in the experience of exile described by the Hebrew people. The people were far from their homeland. The people cried out for a savior to deliver them. The Messiah would light their way home. Advent expresses this yearning to return home to a secure place of peace. Every Advent we are invited to get close to these ancient people, to hear their cries. Their longing for home reminds us of our own inner places of exile, which also cries for a place of inner peace, which yearn for a Messiah.
Each of us has our own place of exile. It may be a spiritual or psychological separation, which keeps us from being at home with our true selves. We might be in exile because of who we are, the color of our skin, or who we love. We may be in exile because of our fears, our addictions, or our past wounds.
Where are you experiencing exile? Where are you yearning for home?
To us, like the people of Israel, John the Baptist calls: “Prepare the way of the Lord!” The Messiah is coming to those who are exiled and estranged! God will come to loose the bonds of the captives, to restore sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. The One the world hungered for is coming!
But as history showed us, this Messiah came in the most unremarkable way—people for the most part overlooked him. Instead of swooping down from heaven swinging a sword, Emmanuel, God with us, very God of very God, entered the world in the usual way for a human, the most unusual way for a deity: God became one of us.
God entered our everyday existence. God became acquainted with our sorrows and our griefs. God didn’t keep an arms length distance from our deepest hurts and hates and fears. Through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God came as close to us as humanly possible, to share in our exile, and to lead us home.
As you sink into the waiting of Advent, as you become aware of your own places of exile and your own hunger for a home and for God, hold the love of God close to the exiled places of your heart. God offers us light, consolation and comfort for our homelessness. May this Advent be a time of homecoming, a time of joy and enthusiasm as we hear again God’s promises to be with us and to move close to us in love. For God will break into our world once again, and make our exiled state--our homelessness--God’s home.
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