Divine Life
The season of Advent gets everything backwards, at least chronologically. The first Sunday focuses on the future Second Coming of Christ. The second and third Sundays focus on the earthly ministry of the adult Jesus. The fourth Sunday focuses on his birth, the moment of incarnation when God’s presence is embodied in an infant.
This backwards telling of the life and ministry of Jesus invites us to appreciate fully the significance of his birth. By the time we get to Christmas, it is clear that Jesus is not simply a special child whose birth is foretold in Joseph’s dreams (Matthew 1:18-25) and Gabriel’s visit to Mary (Luke 1:26-38). He is the Messiah who came into the world as the ancient prophets foretold. And he is the one who will come, the Son of Man through whom all of God’s purposes for creation will be fulfilled.
Because this Advent Christology starts with the Second Coming, it is easy to imagine Jesus as a powerful king reigning with glory. So, for example, in Charles Wesley’s great hymn, Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending, we lavish Jesus with praise befitting a conquering monarch: “Yea, amen, let all adore thee, high on thine eternal throne; Savior, take the power and glory, claim the kingdom as thine own: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Thou shalt reign, and thou alone.”
I love to sing this hymn, but we need to understand this image as a projection of our earthly understanding of power and glory which we have imposed on Jesus. In the gospels, he does not claim to be a king, not in the earthly understanding of kingship anyway. Instead of kingship, Jesus might more easily claim to be the head of the church, if we understand “church” very broadly to encompass all of God’s people whatever their religious leanings; and if we understand “head” to mean something other than the one at the top who arbitrarily distributes justice and salvation.
In a recent blog post, Diana Butler Bass wrote: “’head’ doesn’t mean ‘head’ as in Caesar holding dominion over people in a pyramid of power. It isn’t about Jesus being ‘head’ as in the CEO of a company. The use of ‘head’ here implies the head of a river, the source. This theological metaphor shifts power away from a top-down structure of dominion toward an organic and interconnected image, strengthening the notion of an Edenic reprise.”
Understood this way, we can reinterpret the story of Advent. It is not about power but about life, the divine life that flows from before time to the end of time. The divine life which was embodied in Jesus. The never-ending flow of grace, love and blessing which God offers us and all of creation.