ADVENTure
Let's Go On a Journey
As I write this, we are in early Advent 2025. Advent is a time of patient anticipation. Advent was at one time a sort of “little Lent” in which people fasted. That fast was broken and the twelve day Feast Of Christmas began on Christmas Day. Advent is a time of waiting on hopeful anticipation. It is a dual anticipation. One is an anticipation of remembrance of the birth of Jesus. The second is an anticipation of the return of Jesus. The former looks back on the advent of New Creation and the latter looks forward to the full birth of New Creation. But evangelicals love to skip ahead in impatient expectation disregarding the slow and rhythmic story of God’s people.
You may be thinking this is a complaint about skipping ahead to Christmas. But it is not. I am actually fine with sprinkling Christmas in with Advent if it brings some joy. It would be more meaningful if we embraced the season of Advent full on, but it is not as bad as what tends to happen. You see we cram the entirety of the story of Jesus into a single month. We are not content with the once and future arrival of Christ. Actually I don’t think it is discontent or impatience, but a deeper issue in contemporary evangelical protestantism. We think the Gospel is limited to the cross. Yes, the cross is the climactic moment of kenotic love, but the Gospel begins with the yes of Mary and her song of liberation. The Gospel is a grand story and we might want to allow it to fully breathe and work out a full season. Think of the Gospel as full on television series rather than a six episode limited series.
I have a few thoughts on this trend which has existed for a while. As an example, a church I attended many years ago put on a Christmas musical in which we went from Christmas to the resurrection. I thought then that it seemed a bit much, but there is a trend to make sure we get the cross into Christmas. Here are a few reasons I think we do this as evangelicals.
We see the Gospel as a transactional framework which requires a specific formula to be valid.
We are afraid that people might see the hope of Christmas and think too much on peace and hope.
We think the cross is the totality of the Gospel
We don’t fully understand the Gospel story so we conflate the parts of the story as a whole
We are ignorant of the Church year in which we tell the story over a series of seasons.
We miss the relational nature of the Christmas story inviting us to enter into the broader unfolding story
We think the Gospel is outside time rather than timeless
We are impatient
I get it because I once leaned to heavily on the climax of the Gospel that I missed the wholeness of the story. When we treat the Gospel as a story of transactional legality rather than relational healing we can think the cross is of singular importance and needs to the mentioned at all times. But what if the Gospel story is more than that? What if one does not simply walk into Golgotha and instead we embark on a grand journey toward the healing of creation? I believe the only way we can truly understand the cross is by going on the journey that begins when a young woman sings;
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;
indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever. (Luke 1:46-56 NRSVue)
It is better to foreshadow with the remembrance of prophetic promises of liberating mercy rather than shove the cross into this beginning. I can only imagine how bad The Lord of the Rings would be if we skipped from the gate with “party business” straight to the ring falling into the fires of Mordor. We should be as patient as that journey so we experience the beauty of the journey. The cross is important, but it is not the whole story.
If we skip ahead we may miss the truth of the angel appearing to shepherds;
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”,
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them, and Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them. (Luke 10-20 NRSVue)
Here’s the truth. If Jesus simply needed to die then the rest of the story is superfluous. We make it so when we compress the story into the cross. But there is a deep truth within the story of God being born in a place for animals to a young unwed woman. That truth slowly reveals itself throughout the story of the Gospel It is too easy to see the cross as an act of God rather than an act of essential kenosis when we discount the story leading to the cross. If we allow ourselves to start at the beginning and watch the story unfold, we become witness to the truth of self-sacrifice rather than a transaction of pagan proportions. Perfect loves casts out fear and perfect love is displayed in taking on the violence we humans so very much love.
Maybe keeping Christ in Christmas is allowing the cross to come in its own time. I know I prefer a story that has a beginning which may contain a bit of dread, but doesn’t punch us with the end quite yet.
Well, now we’re off at last!’ said Frodo. They shouldered their packs and took up their sticks, and walked round the corner to the west side of Bag End. ‘Good-bye!’ said Frodo, looking at the dark blank windows. He waved his hand, and then turned and (following Bilbo, if he had known it) hurried after Peregrin down the garden-path. They jumped over the low place in the hedge at the bottom and took to the fields, passing into the darkness like a rustle in the grasses. (Tolkien)
The beginning of the journey of the Hobbits seems quaint when we arrive at the foot of Mount Doom. But, it is a very apt beginning in which we sense coming trouble, but also feel the sense of promise and hope. Without this beginning, the fires of Mordor become pointless. The journey of the Gospel begins in a similar way. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.” (Luke 2:7 NRSVue) Let’s start there. Let’s begin at the beginning and walk the journey that countless others have trod in telling the story of God and God’s people. Peace on earth and glory in the quiet.
Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Lord Of The Rings: One Volume (p. 70).