I am truly a child of my times. Whenever I hear the word “anticipation” my mind brings up the song by Carly Simon. In it she sings, “Anticipation, anticipation, is makin' me late, is keepin' me waitin'.”
We are in the middle of Advent and this is, after all, the season of anticipation – we anticipate the birth of Christ, we anticipate the coming of God’s kingdom, we anticipate gifts on Christmas morning, we anticipate favorite foods and traditions and time off and visitors. Now, I can hear you, “Not another newsletter column about anticipation, please! Everyone writes about that at this time of year.” Sorry to disappoint you, but I am writing about anticipation.
I am not, however, writing about anticipating something that is to come. I am writing about how what-we-have-been-anticipating has already arrived. For the Fall Charge Conference meditations I used Isaiah 43:19 – “Look! I am doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; Don’t you recognize it? I am making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness.” One thing has come to me over and over when I have read and thought about this verse: it isn’t talking about something in the future, it is talking about something happening right now.
Brothers and sisters, we are no longer anticipating a new thing coming. It is already here! It is happening all around us. The Bishop has us thinking about crossing over this year. You can’t cross over from something to nothing; there must be something on the other side. That is the new thing God is doing. This Advent we aren’t anticipating something we do not see; we are anticipating what this new thing we sense and see will mean.
Advent is a strange time. We kind of pretend that Jesus hasn’t yet been born, while at the same time speaking about the returning Christ. We sing about the Coming One whom we know has already arrived. We pray about what might be when the Promise of God comes, and yet we know that the One sent by God is already active in our lives and world. In the same way, we anticipate that God will do something new, while in fact that new thing is busting out all around us right now.
God asks in Isaiah, “Don’t you recognize it?” Do you see the new thing? Don’t you realize that I am already at work birthing this new thing? What you have awaited is now here. Stop looking ahead to try and see what is coming; instead look around you and notice that what you have been anticipating is already happening.
In "Anticipation," Carly Simon sings, “I'm no prophet and I don't know nature's ways. So I'll try and see into your eyes right now and stay right here, 'cause these are the good old days.”
These are the days which have been anticipated. And so this Advent and Christmas, we don’t wait to see something come, we don’t celebrate what might be. This Advent we cross over to the Way God reveals and we cross over to the new thing God is already doing, because these are the anticipated days!
May your Advent be full of light and life and your Christmas be holy and bright!
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