The Promise of Advent – Part 2: Redemption

In Part 1 of “The Promise of Advent”, we discussed the idea that Advent offers us deliverance, and the stories of both Samson and John the Baptist illustrate that in different ways. We also said that what Advent offers goes beyond a personal deliverance.

We need this collective deliverance because things happen in the world over which we have no control. We oppress others economically and socially without even knowing we do. That’s actually normal life in the multinational world in which we live. That is an economic reality day in and day out, whether you’re talking about mangoes from Guatemala in the local Publix or anything else. It’s a part of the fabric of our life together that is in fact, inescapable. No matter how clean I try to live, eat and shop, in almost any area, there’s always an underbelly over which I have no control. But by the way, none of us has total control, even our own personal indices for which we’re responsible. No one. “There is no one who is righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10a).

Personal Redemption

And because that’s the case, I am invited to live into this space between a kingdom that is beginning to manifest itself in the redemption we see in Jesus, and my own brokenness in those places where the kingdom has yet to touch my life, as well as in my relationships, as well as in the economy of this nation and every other issue. This is why for Jesus to be the Lord of all means redemption as a new heaven and a new earth. It’s not just an escape of my immaterial soul into an immaterial kingdom where nobody eats.

So Advent is first and foremost, especially in this season, a reminder of how desperately I need the redemption found in Christ Jesus. Because as Paul said. “If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:3).  This, as opposed to resenting the poor in the first place because they need so much, and “Why don’t they get a job?”

Eternal Redemption

Second, Advent reminds us to anticipate that in the midst of our own incomplete redemption, our full redemption is for sure. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). And the redemption is not just personal. It is in fact global; it is interplanetary; it is universal. It is God, in fact, setting all things right.

And that kind of redemption is a great thing to have settled. Otherwise I’m literally playing with a kind of self-preoccupation that’s afraid to do anything because I might get it wrong. That kind of overscrupulousness is, in fact, wicked, because it does not live into the mercy that is ours in the redemption of Jesus.

Third, Advent marks a commitment to be a part of God’s great and eternal kingdom. We know that because a new world is being birthed. And that we are a part of a new creation. And that means I want wherever I can, by the mercy of God, to be an expression of that mercy, of that forgiveness, of that new heaven and that new earth. And this is true whether I am, on the one hand, making things right because I blew it, and I need to say, “I apologize; I’m sorry,” as opposed to saying, “Well, if you hadn’t done so-and-so, I wouldn’t have done thus-and-such.”

The whole world matters to God, all of us, and all of the structures that we create, even the ones that are good, are always still marred by our best efforts. We affirm together, “I will with God’s help,” because that’s what we need.

Empowered Redemption

If we don’t understand that kind of global need that we personally feel, we’ll never pray with passion. “Stir up your power, and with great might, come among us.” That’s the cry of an addict. That’s the cry of someone who sees sin far bigger than anything I can personally try to accomplish.

In some ways, we’re all addicts. But God is setting us free. And to enter fully into the deliverance promised by Advent is to say, “I will be a part of what God is doing.” It’s not quietism so I can just feel better. It is, in fact, a call to arms. As I say to every single confirmation class, the essence of confirmation is a commitment to do something. It is empowerment for service first and foremost.

The commitment or recommitment we make at Advent is about affiliation and a statement of belief. It is both of those things, but in the end, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for service to do something, to perform a service, is the essence of Advent. We commit ourselves to prefigure as far as is possible in these broken lives of ours the joy of a kingdom that is coming, the joy of a presence in our life that is stronger than death, the joy of knowing that even when I’m at my worst, the grip of the Savior is never stronger.

So as we enter the season of Advent together, understand: It is not just personal. It is corporal. It is not just a commitment so I feel better. It is a call to arms. It is an invitation to be a part of something bigger than myself. It gives me eternal purpose which I will live every single day for the rest of my life. “I will, with God’s help.”

May God give us the mercy and grace we need to be the kind of believers who in a small way, reflect the grace and power and kindness of our Savior. Amen.

 

How do you see redemption lived out during Advent? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on Dec. 19, 2019, in the Diocesan Chapel, Orlando.)

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.