Why Advent?

 

Advent is the necessary precursor to Christmas, because Christmas is the joyful announcement of the birth of a Saviour, and Advent must first address the question of why on earth we need a saviour, or, of why a saviour is good news of great joy.

I believe that I am a good person. I believe that you are, too. In fact, I do not believe that there is any such thing as an evil person; for every person is made—created—by God, and in the image of God. God is good, and nothing that God has made is evil. Yet we wrestle with evil, every day of our lives. There is something about evil that is attractive to us—this is why temptation is tempting—and there is something about us that bends away from love towards it—this is sometimes called our ‘fallen nature.’ Good people choose to act in less-than-loving ways, even towards those we desire to love fully and for always, because it is easier, at times, or because we want to—“we have wounded your love and marred your image in us, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault,” as the Confession puts it—and to justify our actions. It is good people whose relationships break down. And it is possible to choose evil so frequently that it becomes habitual, until it becomes all-but-impossible for us to choose love at all: and this is to find ourselves in hell—and drag others there with us. Imagine how bad the state of things would be if there were such a thing as evil people.

So good people find themselves incapable of doing good—of loving their neighbour—at least consistently and permanently. And this is unacceptable to God, for God made us good and for good, and knows that good is good for us. So God sent his Son into the world, to be our Saviour, to be the one who will judge the living and the dead. The nature of that judgement is entirely without condemnation, or punishment. Rather, it is the perfect insight, to know rightly the evil we have done, and to destroy all evil, without destroying us, the good creature, the object of God’s love. For God, possessing by divine nature perfect judgement in all matters, has determined that love is how evil will be destroyed. The warmth of God’s love will, in time, melt the evil that lies heavy upon us, without harming us in any way, as the warmth of the sun eventually melts the ice without damaging the ground beneath. Indeed, as the warmth of the sun transforms the snow, that impairs our movement, into life-giving water, so the warmth of God’s love ultimately transforms even evil, for good.

When we look at the world around us, we might ask, if God is good, and sovereign, then why does evil exist, and so prevalently? And the Church responds, yes, the world is not as it should be; and God has passed judgement, that judgement being transforming love. Were we God, we might choose destruction, to deal with evil by sweeping away evil-doers; but that would include me, you, us all; and, in any case, you cannot deal with the problem of evil using evil as the solution, for that simply perpetuates the problem. Love is slower, painfully slow, for to love is to be present and attentive to pain. Yet, love is what God has chosen, for God is love.

So, Jesus came, long ago, fully human—utterly dependent on love—and fully-God—the source of love. Loving us to the end, even our putting him to death could not banish love: love simply extended its reach to encompass the dead as well as the living. And this Jesus will come again, as love, when love has—finally—won. Then every eye shall see him, and adore him, as he is.

God has acted, is acting, and will complete what has been set in unstoppable motion. This is why Christmas is good news, and not merely a momentary distraction from the darkness. But to welcome the Saviour, we must first recognise our need for salvation—to be transformed, by love, for love.