Advent means waiting. While it’s seemingly cryptic to our ears, it is as simple as that. But what is simple about waiting? Nothing – it’s absolutely painful! That’s why Chasing Justice will be guiding our community through this Advent season. We will equip our community weekly with the following:
- Devotional to your inbox with reflections, practices, and songs
- Scripture post and quotes on Instagram for sharing your journey with friends
- Sunday Instagram Lives inviting you into the week’s theme and lighting of the candle
- We’ll start now with our introduction devotional below – Welcome.
Waiting sucks! There I said it and it doesn’t make me less holy, only more human. Remember election week? The agony, the prayers, the anger, the questions, and all the while with no resolution. An emotional purgatory of ugly crying and cheeto eating is the only way to describe that week. It was a nightmare because you had no idea what was coming and if the results would even stick.
Waiting sucks! When you consider the injustices that impact our communities, the deaths of black bodies, attack on black dignity, and lack of accountability for Breonna Taylor all made clear the acceptance of racial injustice. The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected vulnerable communities both from a health and socioeconomic perspective all over the world and yet individuals were fighting the usage of masks. The children were separated and the refugee numbers depleted and families suffer under our watch as we hope for changes to policies.
Waiting involves expectation and longing
Waiting is active, not passive, as it works towards something.
Waiting implies hope in the midst of suffering.
What else can we do but wait on God’s good promise of justice and deliverance? God made a promise to God’s people to break the oppression not through violence, not through power or might, but through a brown baby boy, born to a young virgin – into a refugee family during a violent regime. And from this humble place, the liberator would reign with mercy and justice.
But that was after 400 years of silence!? So we are in good company with God’s people over centuries. Abraham and Sarah waited to have the child God promised, and even though they committed acts of violence, God in grace fulfilled the promise. The Israelites waited to enter the promised-land and waited for return from exile, and even though they royally failed in so many ways, God in grace fulfilled the promise. We too, in our broken and brilliant humanity wait for Jesus to bring complete renewal and healing to a hurting world, and we too will see glimpses of God’s grace.
Advent allows us to look backward, remembering the mystery that God has already come in Christ. It also invites us to look forward, longing for and expecting Jesus’ return in glory. We know Christ has come, and we long for him to return to restore order to the world—AND we expect him to come in the present! This Advent let’s practice expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of Christ. Together we will be exploring the following themes: Waiting on Hope, Waiting for Peace, Waiting under Love, and Waiting through Joy. Let’s invite longing and hoping. All the while knowing that waiting sucks! I don’t know anyone who is good at it. May this series invite us to consider this spiritual discipline.
Read Psalm 27:13-14
“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
Name your longings to God and write down both what those longing are and how you will participate in seeing those promises fulfilled.
Listen to Awake My Soul, Awake My Tongue on Page CXVI by Latifah.
