Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Those are the words of the collect for this Sunday, which capture what Advent is about. These weeks, the beginning of the Christian year, prepare us for the coming of Christ - both the celebration of his incarnation two thousand years ago, and his coming again which will happen some day in the future. Thus Advent casts our mind both backwards and forwards: we ponder the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament and how they awaited the promised Messiah to liberate them from their various states of bondage or occupation; and we look forward to when Jesus returns as he promised, to end the current age and usher in a new eternal age.
However, if we are astute biblical scholars who always put what we are reading into its context, then we know that the prophets like Isaiah in anticipating the Messiah did not expect their Messiah to leave again. The Messianic age the Old Testament foretells is one of immediate earthly change, with the anointed saviour introducing a new order of peace between the nations. We know what Isaiah did not, which is that the Messiah was operating in a very different world to the prophet - no more were the Israelites enthralled to Babylon: instead to Rome; and the Messiah did not seek to overturn the political order he lived under, but did teach us a new way of life based on peace, love, and courage. Isaiah also did not know that the Messiah would only be around for a few years. This is itself a challenge - we know that Jesus ascended into heaven, but fundamental to the Christian faith is that he is still with us. While the promised Emmanuel has left us for a time, he is still on earth in and through us - maybe the Messiah is here through his followers, and the Messianic age ours to enact, acting on Jesus’ promises and teachings. Advent casts our mind back to the roots of the Christian faith, and forward to thinking about how we should shape our world according to those promises.