“Advent”. Do you see that? “Advent”? I’m sorry but the word “advent” is not in the Bible. What is the concept? Legalism?
http://antinomianism-salvation.blogspot.com/
Please do not ping me again. This was put uo for Catholics, but many Protestants also practice Advent — so I did not make it a caucus thread.
Use your imagination. Instead of “Advent,” think “pregnancy.” If all goes well, women (including Jesus’s mother) are pregnant for nine months, give or take a week or so. One of the ladies in my congregation is expecting her first baby on December 15. She’s at what I call the “hippo” state, where you can barely move; being about 5 feet tall makes it even more difficult.
Cristina hasn’t spent the last 8-1/2 months pretending nothing was going to change in her life. She’s been praying. And she’s been sick. And she’s been sleepy. She’s been receiving gifts from her family and friends and church members, because the birth of a first child changes everything in your life and your husband’s life and your parents life ... on out through the community, because we’re all family. I hope to be buying cute pink frocks for Cristina’s daughter years from now.
Jesus was born. Maybe it wasn’t on whatever passed for December 25 in the calendar at the time, but who cares? He was born, and it changed everything. I’m actually in a minority, because I think it was His conception, the moment of His taking on humanity, that really matters. 11 pregnancies ... life changes at *that* moment, even before you begin to feel vaguely unwell and “here we go again.”
But, whatever the calendar date chosen, to every year re-prepare for the way everything changed ... to every year re-start being the person you should be because Emmanu-el ... what could be the problem with that?