on Advent

Frederick Buechner, one of my favorite writers, wrote, "Advent means "coming," of course, and the pomise of Advent is that what is coming is an unimaginable invasion. The mythology of our age has to do with flying saucers and invasions of outer space, and that is unimaginable enough. But what is upon us now is even more so---a close encounter not of the third kind but of a different kind altogether. An invasion of holiness. That is what Advent is about."

have you noticed an increase in television dramas dealing with strange encounters---with aliens, the dead, lost survivors...I think the verb that expresses our culture's spiritual hunger is, "to encounter". Making contact with the other through whatever new technology available seems to be the outward sign of the underlying need we all share---to encounter another as fully and transparently as possible, without feeling utterly vulnerable. This, however, is impossible. In the realm of divine encounter, Advent is all about the vulnerability of a direct encounter. Ironically, the encounter with God that people have with Jesus is wholy different than the encounter with God that is recorded in hebrew Scriptures. In Genesis and Exodus the vulnerable one is clearly not the LORD, but Moses or Abraham or Jacob.
But in the Gospel, the human encounter with God is one in which God is the vulnerable party. God is humbled by the flesh.
When we encounter Jesus through faith, we encounter the LORD whose holiness does not destroy us. His holiness, the holiness of the infant savior, is a holiness that embraces us and re-births us a new creation. Advent is the dawning of the new humanity, the enw day, the new way in Christ. No wonder many fear it, ignore it, or reject it. Its life-transforming.