We’ve all heard fishermen wax eloquent on “the fish that got away.” The four-week season of Advent is the liturgical season that for many of us “gets away.” There are many reasons why Advent can disappear from our consciousness. The commercialism of Christmas goes into overdrive even before Thanksgiving and continues to Christmas, encouraging us to dream of gifts we will receive or give. So we leap over Advent – Latin for “coming” – to get to Christmas delights. But if we leap over it, we miss an essential period for reflecting on God’s promise to come to us.
But we can slow things down and “discover” the season anew. Many Christians, however, find the Advent readings confusing and even depressing, for they speak of destruction, not building. Today’s Gospel, Luke 21:25-28, is an example: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” This does not encourage hope What does all this destruction mean?
Today’s Gospel is not unique. The readings for the end of year (in late November) and for the beginning of the year (in December) speak both of destruction even as they speak of a future coming. Why mix the two images – destruction and building? The answer is that the coming of the kingdom of God will mean ultimately the end of earthly kingdoms. Even two centuries before Christ, the Book of Daniel predicted repeatedly that a unique kingdom will arise after the destruction of four earthly kingdoms. That “fifth kingdom” is the Kingdom of God, which will replace those earthly kingdoms. In the Bible’s reckoning, the fifth kingdom has been decreed in heaven, but has not yet appeared in its fullness on earth. A version of it, however, does appear now in the church and wherever humans are fully open and obedient to God. Advent teaches us to yearn for its coming in its fulness.
The kingdom of God, which is the “fifth kingdom”, has this characteristic–it is always coming. In order that we might understand it as powerful and taking hold, it is often portrayed as destruction, i.e., destruction of the kingdoms of this world insofar as they are evil, ineffective, or simply unable to bring about a truly just world.
The destruction predicted in the readings is like the demolition of a useless building to make way for a more beautiful and permanent structure. It leaves us with hope, as Luke tells us in 21:29-31: “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Advent is a school for learning how to wait for fullness and to hope for Christ’s definitive coming at the end of time. Earthly kingdoms will be dismantled to make way for God’s everlasting rule.