A Change is Gonna Come
"The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In the Christian calendar, Advent is a season of expectation and preparation leading into Christmas day. It is a clear reminder that seismic change is always possible (and with God, even probable). The word “Advent” itself means “arrival”. However, in looking back, we often get stuck at the manger or become overly sentimental about the nativity, yet so much more is in view than the night of Jesus’ birth. In fact, we are sometimes in danger of losing sight of the main event altogether and of missing the mind-blowing significance of Christ’s incarnation, of God ‘taking on’ our humanity and of the anticipation of his future and final coming (adventus).
We are adopting, A Change is Gonna Come, as our Advent theme for 2022. This soulful rendition of the cover version of Sam Cooke’s protest song, became an anthem for the 1960s civil rights movement and expressed the hope of getting unstuck from the life sapping structural inequities associated with racism. Here, it is sung by singer, songwriter and dedicated community activist Brian Owens and his father Thomas Owens (a Church elder and preacher). This version is a potent reminder that the struggle for change is often multigenerational for the simple reason that the timelines of history, just like biblical timelines, are frequently uncomfortably long. In other words, Advent, took far longer than anyone had expected or desired. The Children of Israel waited through 400 years of slavery in Egypt, the wilderness, Canaan, exile and a further 400 years of silence, into a time of Roman occupation, and then ‘at just the right time’… God fulfilled his promise, and the wait was over.
Today, we wait in hope for many longed-for life-giving changes to occur. We wait in hope for seismic shifts in the environmental fortunes of our shared home, earth, even as degradation progresses, islands sink under the sea, icecaps disappear, floods destroy cities, and wildfires lay waste to forests. We wait in hope for racial justice efforts to transform and not merely inform our leaders, communities and churches into bearing desperately needed fruit. We wait in hope for the poorest two-thirds world to be afforded the same opportunities to thrive as those in the remaining richest third of the world (but this time without destroying our shared home!). We wait in hope for less grand, but still important, life-giving changes in our personal lives as well as in the lives of friends and family members.
Like our biblical ancestors, our wait is not passive but active. We play our part through prayer and action, in eager anticipation that God will play His. We wait in expectant hope because the One who promises is faithful.
In the incarnation, the Son of God took on human nature, a reminder that real people and their challenges, ‘not just the idea of people; as someone put it, are the focus of God’s love and grace. In the words of one writer, ‘Christmas spreads the rumour that God is not done with humanity.’ (Christianity Today)
Over the coming weeks of Advent, we will be including ‘anthems’ that we hope: you’ll enjoy, will move you and that you’ll even sing along to. So, on the count of three (and at the top of your voice, if you dare!), join us in making, A Change is Gonna Come, an Advent prayer, recognition of God’s promised outcome and the call to action it was always intended to be.
Kate & Cham
