Dear Rose Park,
Have you ever attended to a theater production and actually felt like you were in the play itself? Ever been transfixed by a movie, television show, or even book that you felt immersed in the context, the struggle, the character development, and the resolution? In a sense, this is exactly what the season of Advent invites us into.
Advent is a season of waiting and preparing for the birth of Jesus. It is a season of paradox because the birth of Christ has already happened and yet each Advent season, we immerse ourselves in the story to prepare yet again. “In Advent” Anglican priest Tish Harrison-Warren writes, “we intentionally join our brothers and sisters in the Old Testament who waited faithfully for the Messiah to come. We seek to enter their perspective and take on their posture.” I know you’ve felt this immersion in a book or movie, but what about the pages of scripture? Have you ever considered the confusion of Joseph? The fear of Mary? The awe and amazement of the wisemen and shepherds? By doing so, we draw closer into an intimate relationship with God Father, Son, & Spirit.
In her book Advent: The Season of Hope, Harrison-Warren goes on to say, “We know that Christ has come, and yet the season of Advent calls us out of our time-bound moment to remember and perform the whole drama of Scripture. Through the liturgical calendar we don’t merely retell the story of the gospel; we enter it. In this way the church calendar is like immersive theater.” It is the invitation of scripture for each of us to refuse the role of spectator and instead join the people of Isreal in Isaiah 9 and the wisemen of Luke 2 in order to see and experience how vast and wide, intimate and local the Word written the bible and the Word made flesh in Jesus truly are.
This is all to say, I’d like to extend this invitation to you as well. We know that the birth of Jesus has already occurred, and yet we prepare for it again. We know that God put on flesh and lived among us, and yet we anticipate His arrival again. We know that the Messiah has already been born from the Virgin Mary, and yet with great excitement we celebrate and shower Him with gifts again. This Advent, I’m encouraging you to immerse yourselves in the story and theater of Scripture. Use your imagination and wonder what it might be like to be a character in Luke 2. Close your eyes if necessary and enter into the greatest story ever told, because when we do, we’ll be drawn closer to each other as we’re drawn closer to Him.
Grace & Peace,