by Aaron Buttery
One of the more challenging skills every new driver learns is how to look in a direction without turning the wheel. This is hard because where we put our eyes, our body follows. In the same way, where we look and what we give our attention to forms how we move and live.
Advent begs the questions: What are we looking at? Who are we looking to? What holds our gaze? As we journey from Zoom screen to Zoom screen this Advent, we are even more in need of a season that draws our eyes into something true, beautiful and substantive. Your students are ready for an Advent of Beholding.
In these harsh times, so many things steal our gaze, turning our body, mind and spirit from the simple and glorious way of Jesus onto roads of distraction and dismay. I’m not saying that these focal points don’t matter: pandemics matter, elections matter, societal unrest matters, natural disasters matter, education matters, our social media feeds matter. But when we give any (or many) of these our full focus, we begin leaning into a season with a different vision and a very different posture.
Covid-tide may be the best name for our current global season. The vision of Covid-tide is survival and a return to some ill-defined normalcy based on the abilities of doctors and our own wills. The posture of Covid-tide is anxiety, weariness and exasperation. In Covid-tide our eyes, and therefore our whole selves, are turned toward a problem. Perhaps you can recognize other competing seasons we are in, like Vote-ember, Zoom Time, and Hurricane Season. Each focuses our eyes on a problem with no holy horizon. Each places us in a posture of dehumanization, demoralization and depression.
Not Advent.
Advent is not primarily a parade of problems or litany of laments. Advent is seeing our laments in the light of Jesus’ ongoing life and triumphant return. Advent is not reviewing all that seems to be wrong, broken or hurting. Advent is stepping into that which is wrong, broken and hurting while Beholding the Lamb of God. Advent is a call to Behold our lives with a heavenly future, holy hope and kingdom possibilities awakening in our lives.
Our students know this inherently and long for it to be named for them. They live in a season called adolescence, where they are treated as an in-between generation. The power and joy of being a student is that their present reality is an “adventing.” They are exploring their personal futures, hopes and possibilities every day.
Many of us have observed how, when faced with tragedy and trauma, young people search for solutions rather than sinking into the problem. During this year of pandemic and protests, I have seen students respond in the direction of what is true, beautiful, and substantive. As they lost in-person connection, they reached out to friends to build virtual communities of faith and formation. As they observed and were challenged by systemic racism, they found their voice and feet to join peaceful protests and asked questions. As churches and leaders, we must recognize, develop and send our students into Advent to Behold and begin living into the already-not-yet tension of the Kingdom.
It is impossible to read through our Advent scriptures without hearing the prophetic words of Isaiah, the wild voice of John, the angelic tones of Gabriel, or the magnificent response of Mary. In each we hear: Behold. We need a season of Beholding. In Advent, we Behold that Jesus is bringing heaven down as he returns; his kingdom is near; and today our lives are enlivened by his Holy Spirit. We Behold that our problems, false seasons and laments do not fall away, but we live in them differently because of the current life of Christ in us.
When we invite and name a season of Beholding, and our students fix their eyes on Jesus, they become more of what they see—we become what we Behold. This Advent, in the midst of harsh times, Behold the Lamb of God.
Here are some of my favorite Advent resources for 2020.
To set up a conversation about how Advent may look for you or your students this year, contact Aaron.
The Rev. Aaron Buttery leads and facilitates C4SO’s NextGen Leadership team and serves as Director of Student Ministry, Next Generation Leadership, ACNA. As a 20+ year NextGen ministry leader, a two-time church planter, and leadership coach with Spiritual Leadership, Inc., he is the primary contact in C4SO for questions, ideas, and excitement about young people and growing young leaders.