Troubled Longing and Light Descending

Labor Day. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. These months and holidays seem to pass faster and faster every year. Schedules are full and plans are made. We love the special times they bring with family and friends, but we also feel the crush of the busied life.

However, every year the season of Advent enters this mix. Beginning four Sundays before Christmas Day, Advent signals the beginning of a new Christian year and brings its own set of priorities into the world. The question is, are we willing to entertain these priorities?

The word “advent,” means, “arrival,” or “coming.” It is a historic Christian season that focuses our attention on the perpetual expectation of Israel’s arriving Messiah. Throughout the Hebrew Old Testament, prophets of old looked forward to the day of the Messiah’s arrival. The promised one who would set Israel right freeing it from their many captives, and indeed at many times, from themselves. 

The prophet Isaiah, some 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, said:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. (Isaiah 9:2)

In other words, Israel spent most of its time waiting for the arrival of the Messiah, in darkness. Without the joys and comforts of light, guidance, and joy. Yet, when God the Son descended upon us, born as a baby in the manger in Jesus Christ, light and joy, enter the darkness of the world in the most unexpected way. 

Here is the real challenge of Advent. It’s not meant to be a particularly cheery time. Christmas, and the days afterward are meant to be the time of joy and heralds singing, and light shining. Advent, is a time of desperation.  A waiting for something to give. A time for us to lean into the heaviness and darkness of the world, and even our own lives, longing for light to come. 

Our culture makes Advent really difficult though. And, I fully understand this. I give in to the Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend, the holiday music and parties. Some of these things are absolutely fine. There is no reason to use Advent as another opportunity for strictness or moralism. However, Advent should give us pause. It should perhaps, in the busiest season of the year, when the culture wants to celebrate joy, help us to lean into the lack of joy we often feel, and the lack of true joy often present in the world. Advent leads us to focus primarily on the darkness of the world and the source of true light.

It is only in the arrival of Jesus Christ, God come to earth, Immanuel, that the heaviness of our darkness is lifted. And so, as the year tumbles forward to an end, let this time be juxtaposed by the beginning of a new Christian year. A time that begins not with joy, but with a troubled longing that will only find its permanent resolution in the light of Christmas Day. 

Dr. Phil Letizia, Park Road Presbyterian Church

Phil and his wife Jenny have been at Park Road Pres for almost 4 years. Phil serves as the Associate Pastor of Discipleship here and recently obtained a PhD in Practical Theology from the University of Aberdeen. To contact Phil, email him at phil@parkroadpres.org