Advent 1

First Sunday of Advent
27 November 2022

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?"
— Mark 8:27

To Whom It May Concern

We have just travelled through the season of Thanksgiving. To whom have we expressed gratitude? To each other, for being our beloved community? To the universe for providing the warm houses, and the elaborate meals? To an economic system that brings us Black Friday, and tomorrow’s Cyber Monday? To Mother Nature for the glories around us? To God?

We are entering the season of Advent, where we famously say we are waiting for the birth of the Messiah. Who is this Messiah? For whom do we wait? Any kid who’s been through a series of children’s sermons knows you can’t go too wrong by answering, “Jesus!” But who is this Jesus? What do we mean by “God?”

I hope you had this experience over Thanksgiving: sitting at a table with familiar and loving faces, smiling, laughing, maybe singing? Enjoying a meal together, and the gift of each other, remembering how fulfilling it is to belong, to be loved. After dinner our group sat down together and watched The Wizard of Oz which seems to have become a holiday movie.

Is it possible we might think of the image of the wizard’s head, alarmingly projected, with his deep angry voice and the flaming torches blaring, as an image of God? The all-powerful, all-knowing unapproachable wizard?

Does that connect us to the One to whom we feel grateful? For whom do we wait?

What if we were to think of God as the one who is in our midst at the family dinner table, or in the group of friends laughing and enjoying one another. What if the Jesus we await is the one who invites us to the holy table, where the one imperative is to love each other, which is not always easy, but we instinctively know that it’s the way we want to be?

To whom are we grateful?

The essence of Love.

For whom do we wait?

The One who is Love, who brings the presence of Love into our world.

Who do people say that I am?

Not the One defined by capricious power or fearful authority, but we offer gratitude to — and wait in anticipation of — the One who embodies Love and points us to Love as the only thing that matters: both now as we glimpse it around a holiday table, and also to come where Love finally transforms us all completely into people who follow the way of Love, and heals our world from being divided against itself.

Happy Advent, everybody!

Jeff McArn, College Chaplain