Advent - Do you feel what I feel?

In many ways it’s difficult to find adequate words to describe this year. ‘New normal’ or ‘unprecedented’ have quickly become overused, along with “next slide please” or probably the most used phrase of the year “you’re muted!” Many of us may well have felt muted and all of us are ‘feeling it’ in some way. Taking inspiration from the Christmas classic ‘do you hear what I hear?’, rather than trying to distract ourselves from the reality of this year, this Advent we are seeking to embrace our present reality together so that we can truly receive the gift that God wants to bring us this Christmas, the reality of Emmanuel, God with us. Just as Jesus came into the world 2,000 years ago, his promise is to come again in the future and his desire is to come into our lives today.   

Advent means ‘coming’, the coming of Jesus into the world. And so the season of Advent offers an invitation to remind ourselves of the nature of God which is to come to us.

In many ways our consumer culture works against all of this. December can be a really busy month where we get wrapped up in doing lots of stuff and distracted by the sentiment of the season thus losing sight of the true meaning and magnitude of Christmas. I don’t know about you but there was a moment a couple of weeks ago when it seemed as though someone switched on the Christmas ads on TV really early! The last firework had barely hit the ground before we were bombarded with thoughts of what we should spend our money on to make the perfect Christmas, the seductive power of consumerism is already not so subtly at work in us. Normally the John Lewis ad hits the headlines but this year I thought Tesco captured the mood reassuring us that even though there might be things we haven’t done this year, Santa has no naughty list, phew! 

As we enter Advent, which story are we going to get caught up in this Christmas? 

A couple of years ago some of us went on an Advent prayer trip to the Atlas mountains. As we stepped onto the plane it was as if we stepped out of the swirl of the Christmas preparations. It was quite striking to arrive in a country with no Christmas trees, no decorations, no black Friday bargains, no X-factor Christmas number 1 ringing in our ears and yet when we trekked into the Atlas mountains we had the strange feeling of entering a familiar story ... 

One of our friends who was with us was seven months pregnant so we hired a donkey to help carry her and her unborn child to our destination. As we made our way to the village, we noticed some shepherds were also making their journey alongside us. When we arrived at the house where we were due to stay, we discovered that a baby had been born that very day! We quickly began to make alternative plans to stay elsewhere but the couple were insistent that there was room for us to stay and they wanted to show us their new born baby. Because there were quite a number of us in the group they asked if we could enter the room in threes. A donkey, some shepherds, a baby and three wise men … is this sounding familiar!? Of course, it is traditional to bring a gift and without knowing it one of our team had brought some perfume and another some gold facial wash and so we even managed to present some appropriate gifts! In unfamiliar surroundings, we stumbled upon something of what the nativity scene might have been like some 2,000 years ago.  

This Advent, we want to take some time to find ourselves in God’s story through looking at the early chapters of Matthew’s gospel and as we journey in a different direction to the world around us to let this story speak and allow ourselves to resonate with the different characters who played their part. When we read the nativity narrative, we might have that feeling of ‘this seems a bit familiar’. This isn’t just because of our familiarity with the nativity itself, but because it sounds a lot like other stories in the Old Testament. Matthew’s gospel presents Jesus as a re-enactment of Israel’s story. There are lots of connection points, with the phrase “this is to fulfil what was said …” appearing often, reminding us that this is a realisation of something spoken of before. 

Matthew’s account starts with “Jesus, the Messiah son of David, son of Abraham” which places Jesus in the family album. So, as we’re reading over the next few weeks, allow yourself to think ‘this seems strangely familiar’ and ask ‘where have I come across this before?’ As we do so, we remind ourselves that this is God showing us something about himself. God has certain ways of how he engages in the world, there are consistent patterns to his work. And as we become familiar with his ways by reflecting on them throughout the bible, we can better look for and recognise when he is at work in our lives today as ‘Emmanuel, God with us’.