By Rev’d Phil Wales
We are now coming to the end of the second week of Advent. For anyone unfamiliar with the Christian life, it may seem puzzling that it begins a month before the turn of the calendar year. Yet because it starts when it does the Church is emphatically proclaiming that our lives, and creation’s purpose, is to respond to Christ’s coming into the world. We are welcomed into a time of focused and joyful preparation to celebrate the moment when God revealed how He would irreversibly change humanity’s relationship with Him.
Each of the four weeks in Advent is marked in different ways. The first week is symbolised by hope, the second by peace, the third by joy, and finally by love. With a new year comes a fresh start and a time to reflect on how we experience these, not only during what is dubbed the “run up to Christmas” but day by day.
Advent also offers a still place where we can reflect more deeply on who it is that we’re getting ready for. This is why John the Baptist’s cry in the Judean wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord is not only compelling but absolutely necessary. We are roused out of our everyday habits of thinking. John’s prophetic message draws us to examine how close God is to us and also how we get set in our ways so that we no longer feel there is a need to look anew at our relationship with Him.
So then this season is also a time of repentance. But, for some, even mentioning the word may evoke guilt and self-criticism as if we’re being asked to mark our own score cards just to confirm that we’ve fallen short in one way or another. But this comes from a lop-sided view of what it means to repent. The word, weighed down by cultural associations, has often been reduced to a negative experience, forgetting that God loves us, and has always loved us, imperfect as we are. Having a lop-sided view of repentance means we don’t experience its liberating power because we aren’t allowing ourselves to fully embrace God’s love for us.
The Greek for repentance is metanoia which means a change of mind. It’s not simply about making different choices but undergoing a profound transformation of our inner selves. To repent is to open ourselves to change, allowing a renewed mind set which will, by God’s grace, outgrow our present one. And repentance is, of course, only possible because we have received God’s forgiving love first.
Advent then is a time for what we might refer to as a journey of the heart. A journey of rediscovering the nearness of God and encountering His presence in new, tangible ways. If the word repentance carries too much baggage then, perhaps instead, simply give space for slow and thoughtful reflection during these Advent days. It may just transform your preparation for the joy of Christmas in unexpected and surprising ways and so transform your relationship with the One who loved us first and gives us life.