For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt
As the season of Advent approaches, I am always reminded of the connection this particular season has with God’s Kingdom breaking in on us, in unusual ways.
Advent is an old latin word meaning “coming” or “visit”and its implied meaning is that there is waiting involved. The waiting involves an expectant hope for God’s Kingdom of light, healing, health, redemption, forgiveness, restoration, reconciliation etc to break in and that’s only a small part of it. We also look forward to Christ’s return – the second coming.
As Advent approaches, certain themes or memories always resurface in my mind. For one, I notice more poignantly the darkness outside: the days seem and are actually shorter and it always seems to feel colder or more dreary than usual.
Within the physical things that I experience there is a metaphor I become aware of more obviously; Advent reminds me of the great darkness and how the light of the world – in the form of a helpless baby – broke into this darkness forever. This is a wonderful mystery and I believe can help us understand how God’s Kingdom can break in on us.
How can a new born, a helpless and vulnerable child, be the one who brings light and is the light of the world?
The other memory that resurfaces as this season approaches is a song I wrote a few years ago during Advent, for Christmas. It has a way of rising up in my soul and it reminds me of what a miracle it is that we have Saviour who came as a vulnerable child. Here are the lyrics:
The King has come
Born in a stable
Born to the poor
The King of heaven came down
Word became flesh
By the Father’s love
The Kingdom of heaven came down
Light in the darkness
Life to the world
The King of heaven came down
Choose to receive Him
Be children of the King
The Kingdom of heaven came down
Let us celebrate, let us lift our hands
Let us shout for joy to God
This baby born to us
Full of truth and love
Prince of peace and righteousness
Hallelujah the King has come
Hallelujah the King has come among us
So what on earth does this theme of light in darkness and a simple song about a baby, have to do with Kingdom expectation? Well for me it is this constant reminder that we are part of a much larger narrative in which anything is possible! It is this very upside down way that the King of the universe came to humankind, that reminds me of having expectation for God’s Kingdom arriving in surprising and unusual ways.
If the God of the universe can send his son as a trusting, weak, innocent and vulnerable child, as an announcement of good news that has changed the world then this same God is also able to change and transform us! Transform our minds, our hearts, our bodies. Anything is possible!
I think sometimes we can have a tendency to over spiritualize this thing we call Kingdom expectation. If things aren’t going well or we don’t feel like our prayers are being answered in the way we want, we can fall into these thinking traps: ‘if only I had more faith , or more spiritual gifts or more zeal or more hope or prayed more or believed more or knew what I was actually doing’, then God’s kingdom would break in.
But I believe (and have often experienced) that God is the small acts of faith, the small risks that we take to usher in His Kingdom rule and reign. These small risks are the places where we exercise and flex our faith muscles. It means two things: listening to what God is asking of us and following in faithful obedience, even if we aren’t too sure of the outcome or even if we don’t feel very experienced.
I believe that if we can try focusing on the fact that that God risked everything to get here, to be amongst us. If we can remember that God entered our story as a baby who grew up to change the world, then it will give us faith to keep on asking for God’s Kingdom to come. If there is one thing we need to be as followers of Christ, it is to be ones who persevere and don’t give up when it is difficult or we feel insecure or we lack confidence or zeal or faith.
I know that when John Wimber, one of the founders of the Vineyard Movement, first began to believe that God could heal the sick, he called the whole church to try it out. They prayed for everyone they knew who was sick for many months and no one was healed! It was more than 9 months before anyone was healed but they kept on praying and they kept on asking! John and his crew kept on hoping and trusting and risking and making fools of themselves because John believed that the light had come into the world and shown a way for people to live differently and experience God differently. The baby had grown up into a man who had shown us by His words and deeds a different way to live that involved radical trust and belief that He was and is who He says He is: The King of the Universe.
This Advent I am reminded that God’s Kingdom can and does break-through in different ways. We just need to remember to fix our eyes on the God who was willing to trust human kind by coming into the world as a vulnerable child and to trust in the God who laid down His crown and entered the world as a child. We need to keep on trusting. We need to keep on risking. We need to keep worship of the Christ-child central to what we do and how we live. We need to keep on expecting and hoping for the unusual, for the surprising, for the Kingdom of God to break in when we least expect it.
