A New Advent

Advent begins this Sunday.

I occasionally turn to St. Oscar Romero for inspiration in seasons of transition, and today I wanted to share some quotes from his sermon on December 3, 1978, the first Sunday of Advent:

Advent calls for vigilance and faith, a vigilance that makes the present now, in the middle of today’s world, this Christ who is preparing the new heavens. Christians don’t sit around and wait for everything to come in some future age. Christians know that Christ has already been working among us for twenty centuries. He is recreating humankind, but that means we need a social order that will organize the world according to the heart of God.

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That is one of the spiritual aspects of Advent: we keep watching for the Lord who will come one day. Or even better, we discover that he’s already living among us and we fail to recognize him. Still, he will be revealed: “Whatever you did to one of these poor sisters or brothers of mine, you did it to me.” How close Christ has been to us, and how often we’ve failed to recognize him! Advent should enable us to discover the face of Christ in every sister and brother we greet, in every friend whose hand we shake, in every beggar who asks for bread, in every worker who seeks to exercise his right to organize a union, in every campesino who look for work in the coffee groves. If we recognize Christ in them, then we won’t rob them, deceive them, or deny them their rights. They are Christ, and whatever is done to them Christ will take as done to him. This is what Advent is about, Christ living among us.

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Advent wakes us up to the fact that people can experience extraordinary joy even in a very depraved sort of world like, ours, which so evidently needs social transformation, how can we fail to ask Christians to make the justice of Christianity incarnate in their homes and in their lives? How can we not ask them to become new men and women who are agents of change? Medellin tells us that “it is useless to change structures if we don’t have new women and men to manage the new structures.” Even if the structures change, even if there is agrarian reform and all the rest, but they are run by the same people with the same selfish vices and same egotistic mentality, then all we’ll see is new rich people, new assaults, new reasons for outrage. It’s not enough just to change structures. This is what Christianity is about. I have insisted on this, so please understand me: the change that the church preaches starts with the human heart. We need new women and men who know how to be the leaven of a new society.

Happy Advent everyone!

Peace,

Rev. Jeff Fox-Kline

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As we enter this holy season, you’re invited to journey with us in the spirit of hope, justice, and renewal. Come be part of our community this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. for a meaningful time of worship and togetherness at Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about visiting, we’d be glad to connect—just reach out anytime. All are welcome as we watch, wait, and recognize Christ among us.