This
is the beginning of Advent. So what does
Advent mean?
According
to the dictionary it means coming, arrival of an important person, event or
thing.
La llegada de una persona notable, cosa or evento.
Why
did the people in the time of Christ need Him? Why do we need Christ?
The
world had fallen into darkness – the only thing left was rules and laws…there
was no Spirit, no more hope, no more Love…only rules.
Isaiah
says we don’t understand who God is or why He does the things he does. BUT WE
KNOW that we can trust that if we get on the wrong course, God is the One to
whom we must turn to straighten our path, to get us back on the right path.
Advent
is like a reset – What happens when my computer locks up? I kick it/throw it across the room, I get
mad…and then finally I simply restart it… I hit the reset button.
Advent
for the Jewish world in Jesus’ time was the start, I mean it was the beginning
of a brand new world order. It was the
beginning of a new Kingdom…God was hitting the reset button and setting things
right once and for all with the coming of Christ.
God
was saying “the Kingdom of God is coming to Earth – You’ve missed it all these
years, you’re off course and I’m here to set it back on course…to point you in
the right direction again…
This
is NOT Jesus just coming here and fixing everything – This isn’t heaven on
earth in an instant, all sunshine and lollypops…this is a rescue for us. Like a rescue from a desert island. When you get rescued, you aren’t home yet…you
still have a journey to get to where you are going. But thank God, you are on the rescue ship.
Advent
for us is like the ship coming by the island.
Finally we can get back to the start of the journey…and what journey are
we on? We are on our journey to the
Kingdom of God. But not a Kingdom in
some far away land…a Kingdom that is on our earth that starts with a change in
our hearts and grows out of who God makes us to be. It always starts within us…with us.
If
you are like me, you started here last year.
Advent was a time to remember again why we do what we do. It was a time to wake up and realize that the
priorities that were so clear at Christ’s birth in Advent 2010 and Christmas
2010 are now so far and distant from where we wanted our lives to be NOW in
2011. It’s time for us to reboot.
In
the time of Christ…33, 34, 35 AD it must have been so clear to the followers of
Christ that they were in the midst of a big change. It was even clear to the religious leaders of
the day…the Pharisees and Sadducees and even to the Romans because they all
worked so hard to fight against the change that Jesus was calling for.
Even
now, our own hearts cry out NO NO…No more change. STOP…I don’t want to give up my life as it
is. I don’t what to put God first. I don’t want to give up control…not matter if
I feel in control or not…I can’t trust God.
I can’t really give myself over to Christ and HIS ways.
BUT
THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT ADVENT IS ALL ABOUT.
Mark
says it so well at the beginning of his gospel:
“The
beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God…” The beginning…in other words, this is where
it all starts…it starts by us recognizing that a change is coming. But we can’t just recognize that Jesus is
coming and that is it…we are called to more…We are called to begin a journey
with Christ…and that journey starts back at the beginning…when Christ first
comes to earth to show us His love and how we need to live like Him…
Mark
goes on in the gospel to say… “I will send a messenger ahead of you a voice
calling, ‘prepare the way for the Lord, make straight the paths for Him!’”
But
what paths is Mark talking about? The
paths Mark are talking about are here…right here in our hearts. We aren’t preparing the world, or even our
neighborhood, or our cities, or our friends…we are preparing ourselves…we are
asked by God to open the door to Him to give over to HIM our will and to FOLLOW
Him. No matter the plans and the
inventions of our minds, If Christ’s love, Christ’s presence, TRUE LOVE has not
overcome our hearts, then our path is not straight and our journey is NOT on
the right path.
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