Advent… A Season?

SAT., DEC. 6, 1997, 7:09 PM
FARM, STUDY

This is the Advent Season, in your church and in most congregations that call themselves Christian. It is a mystical season, for it is not fully reasonable to focus on the coming birth of Me, as Jesus, now nearly 2,000 years ago. Further, you are quite aware, as are all Christians that I lived a rather short life in a Jewish family, was crucified because of the testimony of My own people, but returned from death to recognizable body form. I ascended to heaven, but through these ages many have testified that I am here and active in their lives. Furthermore, Scripture suggests, at least, that I have been, since the beginning of time in the earth.

Thus, you have to see this all as part of divine mystery… the recollection and celebration of life begun in quite a natural, and yet supernatural way. Your favorite Gospel, that attributed to John, has nothing about a birth. Instead, it trumpets that I was from the beginning, with no need for this birth story. Still, it is the basis for this season, even as it has become over-commercialized in your culture.

Advent commences with Me, as Almighty God, selecting Mary to bear the Child that would be Me, as Jesus. It seems to have been important that this was a young girl and still a virgin… yet betrothed to an older, established man who would marry her, so that I would be born into a family and grow up with a Jewish heritage… which, of course, is of little consequence to you Gentile Christians (except as part of the story).

It would not have been good for “family values” if I had been born to an unwed teenage mother and raised by this single mother… even as the Scriptures offer little evidence for the influence of Joseph. You might ask: where was Joseph when My earth life was close to ending?

As the story is told, in two of the Gospels, with different details in each, I was born in a stable behind an inn, in Bethlehem, and thus I had a humble beginning. But then came angels, proclaiming this as a heavenly event… rather surprising to the shepherds, watching over their sheep. After this, presumably (the time frame is rather mystical) three magi who had been traveling from the East came to pay tribute to Me, led by a traveling star, unexplainable by academic astronomers. Gifts to Me were given, which is somewhat responsible for the gift-giving and receiving which is the central feature of your cultural holiday.

You note that according to the Scriptural story the gifts were not appropriate for a newborn baby, so be not overly concerned, if this story in important, whether gifts given are appropriate or appreciated.

Actually, the Advent season includes not only Mary’s immaculate conception, by Me, but also the pregnancy of her cousin, Elizabeth, whose son, who would be born before Me, responded to Me in the womb (both of us in wombs) and then baptized Me before My ministry, in the Jordan river.

If it were not for your cultural practices it would be difficult to “stretch out” this barely told story for 4 weeks. There’s really not much Scriptural prelude, and the celebration of the birth almost has to have a single day of remembrance. And when you repeat this celebration every year… and you’re now in your 70’s… there is the danger of… oh, boredom?

So, I say: it is a Season, and I want you to appreciate it for its mystical rather than its traditional quality. Read all four Gospel accounts of My Advent… and be pleased that they match only mystically. It is a season of mystery. I came into the earth, but I was already here. I came to the people I had chosen some 2,000 years before and, eventually, their spiritual leaders rejected Me and demanded My early, painful death. But I had preached and taught… influenced enough men and women so that My story and My Presence was taken up by Gentiles. How odd of God…