I listened to a second "Faith Matters" podcast (distributed by the ELCA). The theme continues on "waiting."
In it, the preacher told a story of an elderly couple who were robbed and
burglarized many times. How they waited in dread in their home for the next robbery. They eventually ended up in a retirement home.
When he went on to another example, and I got that this story was supposed to tell us how hard it was to wait, I stopped listening.
I believe that a theology of waiting for December 25th is not spiritually
edifying. It's an example of what I don't like when I say "High church".
I don't think it's useful to promise something on December 25th. Do we "get" Jesus in a way we don't on other days of the calendar?
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It sounds like a liturgical calendar discomfort dressed in seasonal Advent clothing because of course it's Advent. The value I derive from the liturgical calendar is to be reminded every year, in a very focused way, of the specific, saving deeds of God. Of course there's nothing magic about a year, but that's the cycle we have that's about the right length. On Christmas, one of the events to which Advent points, I am reminded afresh of God's incarnation to defeat sin, death, and the devil, for my sake! Advent of course finds us preparing for the second coming too, as well as remembering that Jesus comes for us over and over in Word and Sacrament.
I do find all of those helpful in my poor walk, as well as other saving events we remember at other times.
Mike Bennett
Mike Bennett