Advent: The Incarnation as Eschatology?

So, I guess it's time for my monthly post. I hope this pattern doesn't continue, but such are the days for me now. I am, at the least, going to try for weekly thoughts during this season of Advent.

As I did with Lent last year (church calendar-wise, earlier in 2006), I'm trying to really take Advent seriously as a devotional exercise this year. The season (and the new church year) officially began yesterday, anda good portion of the readings for this week are primarily prophetic (Isaiah and Jeremiah) of the coming of Christ, or at least of Israel's need for Messiah. That's to be expected, of course, but there's also a heavy emphasis (particularly in the New Testament readings) on Christ's second coming. In fact, the gospel readings come from Luke 20, focusing on Jesus' final teachings in the Temple before Passion Week. Here, Jesus begins to address issues of his authority, and begins to prepare for the task at hand.

Why these passages from towards the end of his ministry, here at the beginning of the season when we begin to anticipate Christ's birth? I'm starting to reflect on this, so these will be sketchy observations at best, but I am struck by the juxtaposition of incarnation (the idea central to Christian thought of God becoming human) and eschatology (the doctrine of last things, specifically the idea that Christ will return to set things right at some unknown point in time). I'm not sure why I haven't considered the obvious link between these concepts until now, but it seems the best way to introduce and frame this season of reflection. In all the haste to decipher the more esoteric, apocalyptic visions of the end contained in scripture, it appears that many miss the point. I certainly have, even in my zeal to expose the "bad theology" of things like the Rapture Theory and the Left Behind books. I still believe that such thinking is dangerous at best, but I waste so much energy declaring the things I'm NOT as a Christ-follower that I end up being just as dogmatic as those I seek to correct.

By placing eschatological thinking front and center during advent, I am confronted with the thought that the "end times" actually began at the Nativity, with the Incarnation. God's kingdom has already come among us, but is also coming again. It's the paradoxical idea of "now and not yet", which is a central concept to an eschatology less concerned with geo-political developments and the rise of the anti-Christ, and more concerned with the immediate business of acting as agents of redemption in the world we live in NOW.

The Incarnation tends to get short shrift in evangelical circles, even within the fairly moderate context in which I was educated. The events of the Passion and the Resurrection are viewed as the events which changed human history, but the Incarnation is what made such grace possible, isn't it? Without even getting into thorny matters like Immaculate Conception and Virgin Birth, Anglicanism has provided me with a fresh outlook on Advent. It's not just waiting around for Christmas and lighting a few more candles than usual, like it was when I was younger. It's a time to consider exactly what God coming among us means. I used to place the beginning of the end at Pentecost, with the coming of the church. But despite whatever grace is given to her, the church is still a human institution. God intervened, and changed history, beginning at the manger and culminating with the empty tomb. It does not fall to us to worry about the last things, only to accept that we've been living with them for at least a couple millennia now. So, may Advent be a time to reflect on these and many other things, but may it also be a time to act as if such things matter, a season of love.

Next week focuses on John the Baptist and the coming of the kingdom, so that should build nicely on what this week has started. I'll bet that I'm led to think of the kingdom of God a lot differently than the Rick Warrens and James Dobsons of the world. We'll see...