Newness Is on Its Way
*A week prior I tested positive to COVID. I tested negative while leading worship, but my voice was not fully recovered.
Luke 3:15-16
As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
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Introduction
You've heard me tell the story of my sister who ran around the house one Christmas season with wrapped presents, thinking that the colorful boxes were the gifts. It wasn't until days passed when my parents peeled back the paper that my sister celebrated a "second Christmas" when she soon realized that these packages contained a hidden surprise. The discovery that something new awaited was enough to shake any discontent or frustration that came with outside forces (aka my parents) trying to change the reality of what she knew. Isn't that a bit (if not the whole) of what we claim to seek during this time of Advent, something new?
I often think that we don't actually want newness but the idea of newness. This is because the concept of something new is easy to manage and simple enough to keep at arm's length. However, welcoming in the newness means inviting in a distributive force that will transform or reconstruct our current reality. I mean, how can something be new if it doesn't leave a transformational impact? Therefore, we are called to choose to embrace newness, whether spiritual or physical, this Advent season. And if we choose to embrace it, how will we allow the Spirit of God to open our hearts to the good word and new things that God is doing in our midst?
What is This Newness?
What is the newness we welcome this Advent season? It's a question we still ask ourselves as the people of old are straining to answer it for themselves. Because John the Baptist was not the newness God intended for the people. Neither were the prophets, the women and men God called to be emissaries of the life way of God. So what are the things we welcome this Advent season, believing it will bring the newness God intends for us? Is it in rulers? In principalities? Or in the latest self-help or self-care trend, we read about while doom scrolling through Facebook at twelve in the morning?
I might be so bold as to say that even Jesus himself was not the final manifestation of the new thing we are awaiting. Because, again, we like to welcome the idea of newness (especially if it comes in the form of an infant), but the practice of newness demands something more. The newness of God we search for this Advent season brings us to the life-giving power of God, which asks that we provide food, shelter, and clothes, that we stop pinching pennies when it comes to caring for our neighbors, and not treat every social interaction as a transaction that we can cash for future favors.
The newness of this Advent season stretches our capacity to feel and experience the life-giving power of God by shaking up the norms of our daily routine. And to some, that is good news; to others, it is a cause to worry and fear that their “normal” habits will be upended.
Resistance to the New
Newness brings about change, whether it is changing ourselves, society, or spiritual practices. And again, there is an allure to newness because it offers us a glimpse of what could be and what should be, but the actual implementation of the new (especially God's newness) can cause quite a stir. The newness coming from God will shake us from our complacency and bring us to a place where the life-giving power of God takes hold as a transformational force. And of course, that means not everything will go our way; we might not sing our favorite songs in worship, we might need to welcome those we've excluded, and the scariest part is that this is only scratching the surface.
We can't say we want the good news of the gospel if we are only willing to go so far and bend that good news to fit our unyielding or uncompromising spirit. How is that good news? How does that make room for the new thing God is preparing? As someone with a now expanded palette for taste (granted, any lingering symptoms of COVID don't take that away), I've missed out on a lot flavor-wise when I closed myself off to certain foods. Now I can say that my mother would have loved that to happen sooner, but just as my palette changed to enjoy a new culinary world, our spirits must adapt to change brought on by the newness that is coming.
Of course, the newness of God was not palatable to everyone. If we expanded our reading for today, we would find that King Herod was not pleased with the message of good news that John the Baptist preached. It was of such significant concern that King Herod threw John in prison out of fear for what he preached. That is the power of the newness that is coming, the new thing we await for this Advent season. It can shake our core and realign our hearts with the heart of God. Will we let that fresh Spirit of God fill our lungs and every bit of our being?
Prepare the Way of the Lord
So what must we do to welcome the newness of God this Advent season? I believe John the Baptist sums it up nicely as he told a crowd that gathered around him, "He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30) John, without hesitation, puts aside the old memories and hopes and dreams and makes way for Jesus, "He must increase, but I must decrease." We make way for the newness of hope, joy, peace, and love this Advent season by taking a stand against enterprising values that take advantage of our bodies and souls. We make way for the hope that Jesus brings into our world.
Decrease our sense of greed so that we can increase the feeling of joy we find in sharing in the heart of God. Decrease our old habits that cling to traditions and customs that aren't life-giving and increase the life way of Christ might grow larger within us. Decrease our fear and defensiveness so that we might increase the touch points of commonality and compassion. Decrease what is hateful and fraudulent so that we might increase the healing and truth-giving power that illuminates the lifeway of God. Preparing the way this Advent season means setting aside the glitz and glamor of the commercial Christmas season to make intentional space for Christ to work.
Conclusion
This Advent season, let us welcome God's outrageous, hopeful, and visionary newness. Let us empty our hearts of the things that keep the Spirit of God from transforming our lives and embrace the things that lean hard into the life-giving power of God. We cannot keep God from ushering in a new something as hard as we might try. So strive this Advent season to be bold and put into action our desire to see God's vision out, not just as an idea we think is nice, but as the Advent hope we have long been waiting for to take root.