As I sit here and ponder what we have witnessed these past several months it has really touched me how much the affairs of politics have imposed themselves on this particular Advent. Maybe this is our way of rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Sometimes I wonder if I fall short of rendering to God what is God’s and sadly I am forced to say yes.
I was reading an article in the Federalist Papers, normally a political opinion outlet, written by a Mr Lyman Stone entitled Why There Is Never A Flight 93 Election For Faithful Christians. Mr Stone normally writes about migration issues on his blog “In a State of Migration.” He is also an agricultural economist at USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. Yet in this article he delves deeply into the Advent season. Well maybe it is not so unusual in that we can say that the Holy Family were migrants when they fled to Egypt to escape Herod and then returned to settle in Nazareth after Herod’s death (Matthew 2: 13ff).

I do not intend to write something on immigration here, later on that will occur, but for the moment I want to examine where we are in this particular season and place. Unless you have been in a coma or living under the sea you cannot help but know that there was an election and when this is posted the voting is over and in the end what does it really mean. In his article Mr Stone has a subtitle that reads “For a Christian, there are no stakes in a cosmic sense for anything we observe in the news: Christ will come victorious. Our job is to endure in hope, and share that hope with others.” That subtitle alone captured my mind. Given the current political climate with what appears to be a race to the bottom, some of his insights served as a wonderful reminder to me and a source for some prayer and reflection, especially this time of year.

First off, I share the sentiments expressed by Mr Stone that we as Christians too often lose sight of the “reason for the season” and rush headlong into the commercial maelstrom and frenzy that accompanies this time of year.

What is the reason for the season? It certainly not getting the next big Play Station or Xbox game. It is a time looking forward to the greatest present ever given. It is a time of looking forward in expectation.

The Jewish people looked forward in expectation for the Messiah. They did not know when he would arrive and so with the exception of a select few, they missed it. Yet we look forward to celebrating and remembering His arrival. We have a definite date when we are to stop and acknowledge that event.

However, the readings during this Advent season remind us all of something. That the Son of Man will return in glory but as in the days of Noah the Son of Man will come at an hour and a time we least expect it (Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapters 14 & 15, and Luke 17). Only the Father knows the time when this will occur. Mr Stone reminds up that as faithful or faith-filled Christians “there are no stakes in a cosmic sense for anything we observe in the news: Christ will come victorious. Our job is to endure in hope, and share that hope with others.” We have one penultimate duty to carry out amongst the angst and turmoil of the world and that is faithful waiting.

In this period of faithful waiting between now and when ever it is we see the Son of Man we are to be busy about the things of God. During this waiting we are not to sit around with our hands folded. We should “be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace (2 Peter 3:14).”

Christ was born, he lived, he died, he rose, and he will return and there is nothing each of us or the political leaders of our age can do to change that one iota. We take comfort in the fact even if we “should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you.” We are not to be “afraid or terrified with fear of them [temporal powers], but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame.” (1 Peter 3: 13-16)

We may have to endure trials and persecutions. Our brothers and sisters in the Middle East are certainly having to do that and even that is nothing new in the history of the world. Our trials and persecution here are just as real but far subtler. We are strengthened by the sure and certain knowledge that none of this political turmoil matters. The “spiritual warfare” scripture speaks of is not about politics, but your own immortal soul. So, we should not “be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna (Matt hew 10: 28).” It was just this that allowed the Saints to actually embrace death at the hands of the political powers. They knew who was truly in control.