November 28 SACREDNESS OF ADVENT Psalm 79 Vicky Johnson In years of old, Advent was seen as an Event during the Christmas Holiday Season that included confessing sins and begging God to forgive them. It was a time for soul cleansing. But as time passed away, churches changed, and Advent was modernized from Event to a secular holiday. Instead of the church hanging greens, worshiping, lighting colored candles, praying, listening for the Spirit of the Lord, and lighting of the Christ candle symbolizing the incarnation of Jesus, we avoided the spiritual and embraced the mundane, secular behavior society demands of us. We‘ve made Advent look more like a holiday than an Event. Advent should be a time where we, in community, prepare for the coming of the Lord. It should be a time where we confess, corporately, our sins and shortcomings. It should be a time where we embrace the redemptive quality of God‘s love on humanity. And Psalm 79 can help us make this move back to seeing Advent as an Event. Psalm 79 is about a community struggling for survival and trying desperately to wait upon the LORD. They‘re frustrated and concerned, but are still hopeful and able to say phrases to God like, ―Let your compassion hurry to us,‖ ―help us,‖ and ―deliver us.‖ This Advent season, we need to do the same thing. We need to pray for Jesus to show compassion, to help, and to deliver us from our iniquities. We need to say, ―help us‖ and ―deliver us‖ from our need to embrace the mundane (holiday) story of Christmas so we can embrace a more beautiful, sacred one (Event).
Reflect What attachments in your own life can you let go of to make more room for God? What do you need ―help‖ from in order to get back to the sacred? 6