By Fr. Matt Woodley
A few decades ago, on the first Sunday of Advent, I played a short clip of John Lennon’s song “Imagine” right before my sermon. I’m certain I won’t ever try that sermonic device again (there were some well-justified complaints), but I did have a point. Lennon’s lyrics are controversial and anti-biblical, but he does have at least one thing in common with followers of Jesus: he longs for a better place where “the world will be as one.”
In my defense, I clearly stated that, contrary to Lennon’s lyrics, I believe in heaven, hell, the blood of Jesus, and things worth dying for. But the Bible is clear that we’re living in a deeply broken and violent world and we should yearn for its healing. Our hearts should ache for a better world.
Sadly, our culture often fosters a complacent, blasé, smug approach to Christianity. In the words of C. S. Lewis, “We are far too easily pleased.” We’re happy to numb and freeze our restless ache for a better world.
Advent is the season of the church year that ignites that longing in our hearts. Before we rush into “Happy Holidays,” we pause and let longing rise up within us. Throughout Advent, in our liturgy and our Bible reading texts, we catch glimpses of the better world that is coming in and through King Jesus.
And as we catch glimpses of this Messiah-healed world, we long for its coming now. All of the best Advent hymns capture this spirit of groaning and longing for Messiah’s better world. When we sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” with its haunting melody, it cracks our hearts open with longing’s wound. And yet, we know Messiah has come, even as we wait for him to come again. Advent is a richly painful mix of joy and anguish.
This Advent-like longing is at the heart of Christian spirituality. St. Augustine’s Latin phrase desiderium sinus cordis-“yearning makes the heart grow deep”-became a central theme in his pilgrimage on earth. He cried out, “Give me one who yearns; …give me one far away in this desert, who is thirsty and sighs for the spring of the Eternal country. Give me that sort of man: he knows what I mean.”
C. S. Lewis claimed that humanity’s Advent-like stab of longing serves as a spiritual homing device, placed deep in our heart by God to lead us back to him. Thus, as Psyche realizes in Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces, “It almost hurt me…like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home….The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing…to find the place where all the beauty came from….The longing for home.”
Advent trains us to ache again. Of all the seasons of the church year, Advent is the time to acknowledge, feel, and even embrace the joyful longing for Messiah’s birth and the world’s rebirth. And yet, we do not ache as those who have no hope. As St. Paul tells us, “For in this hope we were saved….But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom. 8:24, 25). So we sing our aching but hope-charged songs while we light candles and festoon the church with greenery. That is Advent longing, and I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
Looking for devotional resources for Advent? Here are a few I recommend:
Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas – Assortment of devotionals by well-known Christian writers over the years.
Advent and Christmas: Wisdom from St. Francis of Assisi – Daily devotions include a scripture reading, prayer, and simple Advent action. Reflects St. Francis’ embrace of simplicity in poverty, showing gratitude, practicing forgiveness, and reverence for God’s word.
Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ – Dig deep into Advent with this powerful collection of sermons by Fleming Rutledge.
Family Advent Worship – Prayers, Scripture readings and ideas for families by Dcn. Margie Fawcett
Advent Prayer – Short liturgy for groups with prayer, Scripture and song by Dcn. Margie Fawcett
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Top Image: Plummer, Lauren. Advent Candle, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57132 [retrieved November 30, 2023]. Original source: Lauren Plummer, https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-plummer-mts-ma-006738129/.
