Chapter I: Advent – The Candle of Hope

Yesterday marked the beginning of Advent as signified by the lighting of the First Advent Candle in many churches across Western Christianity.

This candle, the Candle of Hope, specifically represents the Prophets and Patriarchs who foretold the coming Messiah. The Promise, about so much more than just whether we live in Heaven or Hell after we die, was first given in Genesis 3 and reads as follows:

Yahweh God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the Woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise His heel.”

To the woman He said,

“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

To Adam He said,

“Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life. It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

[…] Yahweh God made coats of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.

Yahweh God said, 

“Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...” 

Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. - Genesis 3:14-24 (World English Bible)

I love this whole section, not just the Prophecy given to the woman, because it tells us a little of what it's like to live in Hope. It isn't exactly fun, but it also isn't Hell. Hell would be living without the Promise... Or without Death until the Promise comes. I find it fascinating that Yahweh doesn't even finish His sentence (presumably spoken to Jesus or the Holy Spirit or both). It's too horrifying to think of being forced to live on earth for 6,000 years until the First Coming of Christ, and even worse to live beyond that to the Second Coming of Christ.

Death is a means by which we live in Hope. Intuitively, we know it is not the end. The wisest of our species make friends with Death and welcome his coming. Not because they have despaired of life but precisely because they live in hope for a much better Life to come.

Childbirth, the growing and harvesting of food, the sweat of our brow... All of these hearken to the same Theme: There is Hope, and we are a People called to live in It.

And perhaps the greatest Prophecy about the Coming Messiah:

But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

     Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.

You have multiplied the nation.

     You have increased their joy.

They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian. For all the armor of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this. - Isaiah 9:1-7 (World English Bible)

I mentioned in one of my initial postings on Advent that Adventtide is a time of living in the Shadow. But this is a sweet and pleasant Shadow – the Shadow cast by the coming Messiah that falls on us as the hot blazing sun of history begins to climb in the sky. Adventtide is living West of the Saviour for awhile. You will not find as much gloom and despair there as we Christians might think. In fact, Judaism knows how to celebrate in ways we Christians have forgotten.

The reason they celebrate while we Christians hardly remember what a real celebration is anymore is the idea of Hope. Hope is, inherently, the absence of something good, but it is the reality of living with the yearning, desire, and belief that this Thing will actually come. We Christians who know Jesus has already come miss out on this aspect of Hope.

This Season, this week, give us a chance to Hope again.

For added reading, the Readings for this Sunday from the Common Lectionary are:

• Isaiah 2:1-5
• Psalm 122
• Romans 13:11-14
• Matthew 24:36-44