Dear Friends in Christ,
“A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
Isaiah 40:3
Advent is more than just the time before Christmas when we all scramble to buy presents for our loved ones. It is a time of anticipation, in which we wait for our savior. It even isn’t just about waiting for a baby in a manger and enjoying the Christmas program put on by our kids and grandkids (though, that is a great part of the season!) Advent is about standing in the mystery of three comings of Christ: his first in Bethlehem, his ongoing presence in our lives, and his final return.
The ELCA describes Advent as a time shaped by “watchfulness, preparation, and hope.” For the first coming of Christ, we step into the story with Mary and Joseph awaiting their child. For the second, we pay attention to the ways that Christ shows up in our lives today. For the third coming, we prepare and hope Christ’s return, where he will bring the fulfillment of the promise and redeem us and all of creation.
In the first Advent, we remember the humble birth of Jesus: our Immanuel, God with us. This is the heart of the Christmas story. The birth of Christ captures the sense of awe and anticipation that Martin Luther often taught about. He emphasized that Christ’s birth matters not only for its historical wonder, but because it instigated the new creation: God entering our world in the flesh.
But Luther didn’t stop at Jesus’ birth. He also talked about a second Advent. The second Advent is about Christ coming to us now. We believe that when we serve our neighbor and when we gather around the Word and Sacrament, Christ comes to us again in our very midst. In other words, Advent isn’t just about the past. It’s a reminder that God’s presence is real today: in forgiveness, in the church, and in every act of loving service.
Finally, there’s the third Advent, when Christ will come again in glory. Luther looked forward to this third coming with the same wonder as he did the first, believing that God’s final act will redeem creation fully, making “a new heaven and a new earth.” This hope shapes how we live now. Advent isn’t just about remembering or feeling. It’s faithfully moving forward by being grounded in the hope and promise of God’s love a n d salvation.
One of the gifts of Lutheran theology is that we lean into paradox. We can (and should) hold all three Advents together separate but co-equal. It is like the Trinity: three persons, but one God. We live amid Advent tension: we remember the past, we experience God now, and we await what is still to come. So, this advent I encourage you to lean into the tension of the three advents. We light the candles week by week, not just to mark time, but to tell a story. We pray, we reflect, and we act with generosity because we believe Christ comes to us now, just as Christ came some two-thousand years ago, and just as he promises to come in the future. This perspective makes Christmas all the richer of an experience.
Glory be to God! Merry Christmas!
Pastor Dustin Haider