Our week is bookended by funerals, one Monday, another Friday, and today the funeral for President George H.W. Bush. How hard these holiday weeks are for people grieving the death of a loved one. Grief is always hard, but the very first Christmas has to be the hardest of all. Cruel death hollowed loving hearts, and the empty place at the table or around the Christmas tree makes the hurt painfully fresh. “Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more,” says Jeremiah 31:15. That captures it well.
So Advent needs to be appreciated in all its depth. There’s plenty of shallowness these days. Shopping, cards, parties, economists wondering if consumer spending will put businesses in the black… Such things are not to be despised but who cares about that when a loved one is gone? For church kids, Advent means getting ready to celebrate Jesus’ birth – along with the presents – but Advent offers adults a deeper spiritual experience because it also focuses on Jesus’ coming now in the Word and Sacraments, and His return on Judgment Day. Both speak to those grieving with faith. There will be a joyous heavenly reunion: “The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Until then, the Spirit of Jesus gives strength and hope.
Jesus comes in joy and sorrow, shares alike our hopes and fears;
Jesus comes, whate’er befalls us, cheers our hearts and dries our tears;
Alleluia! Alleluia! Comforts us in failing years.” (Lutheran Service Book, 353,4)
PS: This Minute is adapted from my book of devotions, “Timely Reflections,” available from Tri-Pillar Publishing.
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