We have a case of Adventia. Don’t try Googling it, you’ll likely end up at a website for a European flight school or a bankrupt internet chatroom company. WebMD, our most trusted online medical resource, doesn’t know a thing about it either. So what is this illness that threatens our holistic health? The short answer: I made the term up.
The longer answer lies in my deeply held belief that our culture has conquered Advent. This defeat at the hands of a consumeristic enemy that we formed and fashioned ourselves has massacred our ability to perform the most simple of adult tasks: waiting.
Adventia is diagnosed by an inability to wait, a desire to seek out instant gratification, and an anxiety that occurs when we’re asked to remember uncomfortable truths. We’ve learned through this slow-onset disease that while it’s hard to pinpoint the cause, we know we’ve been a part of its creation. We tell our children they can be whatever they want when they grow up, while forgetting to mention the painful internships and coffee shop runs that will meet them on the journey. We say we want cheaper prices for gas, while forgetting that cheap oil now means big costs down the road for my children’s generation. We stay away from those we disagree with, finding a new church or building a new home farther outside of town, forgetting how many times we’ve prayed “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me” during our Sunday morning hymnody. We don’t want to wait for problems to be solved through reconciliation: who has time for that? Money needs to be made, kids picked up, sports need watching. Peace and saving the world can wait.
But while waiting shows up in the most visible symptoms, forgetting is the root cause of Adventia: forgetting where we come from, forgetting who we are, and forgetting to whom we belong. Diagnosed victims often believe that fate is in their own hands; while “the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth,” we simply need to read the best book on the topic to solve our problems, since the solution is only one chapter in the psychology section, a verse from Romans, or a “Jesus in my heart” prayer away. We don’t like remembering where our problems come from or that every ounce of creation belongs to the Holy One of Israel. Confronting ourselves nor looking God straight in the eyes make us feel good and tingly inside; let’s choose the quick fix “10 Easy Ways to Find New Life” and go distract ourselves in digital media minutia.
The most difficult part of dealing with Adventia around the holidays, and here is where the Christmas problem lies, is forgetting where Jesus comes from, who he is, and to whom he belongs. When Christmas became a shopping season, those who could benefit from an earlier start to the festivities sought to do so, watching more cash come in as more lights went up during more of November. The church followed suit, moving up the festival celebration of the nativity from Dec. 26 to Epiphany in January to the months and days parallel to the gift-getting, with an obvious kickoff of Black Friday. Consequently, the last season of the liturgical year designated to teach us how to wait was eliminated. We forgot that Jesus came from a Jewish family that sang songs of expectation and waiting; we forgot that Jesus was the Christos, the Anointed One sent to continue and expand the kingdom vision established through God’s work in Israel; we forgot that Advent, which means “coming”, was designed in the 6th century as a season as penitential as Lent with forty days of fasting. We forgot, and now, we cannot WAIT for Jesus to get here!
While this sounds like an incurable illness, the slow throb of Adventia eases in the hearts of people who pivot towards Remembrance: people who remember that they come from Adonai, they are children of the God of Jacob, and they belong to the Creator of the Cosmos. They remember that Jesus has already come, and they look forward, future-tense remembering the promises given in scripture for a new heaven and a new earth at the Advent of Christ’s return. They remember that before the Messiah, people waited, and so they too wait “in lonely exile”, while reaching out in solidarity with those who today feel they must wait for the promises of God to be fulfilled in their lives. They look out at wars and partisan news channels that thrive on fear and communities spread thin by stagnant wages while the wealthy get wealthier and they cry out “We remember! Come, and make all things new, like you promised.” They cry, and like the prophets, they remember the promises.
Check with your doctor or pastor if you think you may be suffering from Adventia to see if Remembering, Longing, and Hoping might be right for you. Side effects include an awareness of God throughout your whole life, as well as rethinking the ways you wait on a daily basis.
Waiting with you with sighs too deep for words,
Eric