The Meaning of Advent

*** Die deutsche Übersetzung zu diesem Text, können Sie morgen hier lesen.

Hugh hat (noch) nichts mit den Bibeldialogen zu tun, sondern wir kennen uns, weil wir beide zum Evensong-Team am Berliner Dom gehören. Diese zweisprachige Abendandacht findet seit beginn des ersten Lockdowns leider gar nicht statt, d.h. Dank Holger, unserem Evensong-Theologen und Hugh dem Übersetzer posten wir auf der Facebookseite, jeden Donnerstag den "Eventext". Ein Bibeltext und ein Gebet und schon das schafft ein bisschen Gemeinschaft. Gestern habe ich Holgers Gebet zum Eventext hier gepostet. Die folgenden Gedanken zur bedeutung von Advent sind allerdings von Hugh. Danke, Hugh, für den Blogbeitrag.

Oh so often we fail to understand the meaning of Advent. What is it? Is it just an imposed delayed Christmas? Is it simply shopping time before the real feast that matters – Christmas? Whatever it is, it means we must wait. As Bonhoeffer sat in his prison cell in 1943 he waited. That was Bonhoeffer’s Advent. Darkness, cold, doubt, but the darkness is good isn’t it since it comes from God: And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth,  to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.[1]

In this year of 2020 we wait too, we wait sometimes alone- too alone because of this virus. Will there ever be an end to it all? For Rilke, waiting ”C’est la vie au ralenti,
C’est le cœur à rebours, C’est une espérance et demie“  - It is life in slow motion, it's the heart in reverse, it's a hope-and-a-half: too much and too little at once.[2]

But remember, God saw that it was good. Wait, hope, trust.

He will come like last leaf’s fall. He will come like frost. He will come like dark. He will come, will come, will come like crying in the night.[3]

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.[4] 

He will come. He comes.

[1] Genesis 1.
[2] Rilke, L’attente, 1926.
[3] Archbishop Rowan Williams, Light Unlocked: Christmas Card Poems, Enitharmon.
[4] Psalm 130:5.