Is Jesus the one to bring peace, hope, joy, and love? The people of his time weren’t sure. Are we? What are the signs that point towards him being the one?
It is still Advent…we are not ready because there is yet a mystery-“Among you stands one you do not know.” This is Signs and Season: Who stands before us?” It’s the mystery that John invokes as he preaches a baptism for the forgiveness of sins. It is the root of my question for “Signs and Season”, “Who (or what) stands before us?
Advent is about waiting. Advent is about a journey into the darkness (almost literally as we approach the shortest day of the year) so that we can be ready for the Light of Christ. Advent is about waiting both for eternity, and waiting for the first light that God sent into the world in Jesus. Advent is all about waiting.
Somehow, I wonder if some of this early season hype, some of our desire to have Christmas early, doesn’t have something to do with the deeper longings of our hearts. I wonder it if doesn’t have to do with wanting to claim clear signs of “peace and calm” — Silent Night, Holy Night; all is calm, all is bright”.
In Jesus day, a wedding was a wedding too. After the “engagement” there was a formal religious ceremony in the bride’s home. After that was all over, there was the wedding banquet (feast), generally at night, at the house of the groom. It generally lasted seven days and could take place right after the ceremony or weeks later.