Nature abhors a vacuum. My bedroom at home appears to be no exception to this law.1 Each time I come back for break, my unused room has become a storage closet or staging area for one household project or another. I normally spend the first day or two of vacation cleaning out the accumulated junk, and I find the process of purging and organizing to be therapeutic.2 Each year I get a little closer to goal of the 100 Things Challenge,3 and having things organized makes me feel at home.
I’ve been struck over the past few weeks by how Advent calls us to spiritual housekeeping as well. This is the first winter that I’ve said the Divine Hours,4 and the lectionary passages have been a constant reminder that Christ is coming, and that our job is prepare the way for our Lord. The stories of the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist celebrate the first coming of Christ, the Word that became flesh and moved into the neighborhood long, long ago. Jesus’ own words and the exhortations of the Epistles direct our attention to Christ’s Second Coming. The day and the hour are unknown, but Jesus tells us to watch and wait, because he is coming soon.5
Questions of eschatology aside, the Gospels tell us a story of a God who will not only come again to make all things right, but comes to us in each moment. Standing at the entrance to our hearts, he says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.”6 Sometimes I open the door with joy, but sometimes I can’t get past all the junk that clutters my heart. Advent reminds me that Christ comes to me daily, and forces me to ask the question, “will I let him in?”7
But letting Christ in is not without risk. He hasn’t just stopped by for a visit; he wants to move in. And just like how I have to declutter my room after a semester at school, God has some cleaning to do, if I will only let him.
“Welcome Home” by Shaun Groves paints such a beautiful picture of what it means to see the coming of Christ, and to invite him in.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Welcome to this heart of mine
I’ve buried under prideful vines
Grown to hide the mess I’ve made
Inside of me, come decorate, Lord
Open up the creaking door
And walk upon the dusty floor
Scrape away the guilty stains
Until no sin or shame remain
Spread Your love upon the walls
And occupy the empty halls
Until the man I am has faded
No more doors are barricaded
During Advent we watch and wait for the coming of our Lord. We remember the time that God first made his dwelling place among men, and we look forward to the day when we will live with God again. And we recognize that Christ is coming to us in the present, in each moment. The Cry of the Church during the season of Advent has long been “Come Lord Jesus, come.”
This Advent has helped me see that longing for the coming of our Lord as our response to Christ who stands at the door and knocks. “Come Lord Jesus, come in. Make this heart your home.”
And even as I have been cleaning out my room over the last few days, sorting the debris of another semester, I have returned again and again to the collect for the fourth week of Advent, a prayer not only for our lips, but for our lives.
Purify my conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in me a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
- variously attributed to Aristotle, Descartes, and Spinoza, among others; also a corollary to Parkinson’s Law [↩]
- After a week of final exams during which my thoughts have been consumed with theories of the Immaculate Conception or swing votes on the Supreme Court, putting things in boxes is wonderfully mechanical [↩]
- nowhere close, but less is still more [↩]
- a wonderful collection of fixed-hour prayer from Phyllis Tickle [↩]
- Matthew 24: 36ff [↩]
- Revelation 3:20 [↩]
- Drawn from an Advent sermon by Dietrich Bonheoffer [↩]
No Comments