“The depravity of [humankind] is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.” – Malcolm Muggeridge
The themes of the four Sundays of Advent in the medieval church were death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The last Sunday before Christmas Eve, worshipers focused on hell. Bring a friend!
What a strange divergence from today’s hope, peace, joy, and love! Fleming Rutledge, in her new book, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ, points to the logic behind the sombre themes. She writes, “The idea was–and is–to show how the light of the birth of Christ appeared against a backdrop of darkness, depravity, and despair.”
We’d like to believe the world is progressing right along, and in many ways it is. Desperate poverty is at an all-time low in the history of humanity. There've been tremendous advances in medicine. But, in other, more ominous ways, that may have far-reaching and progress-reversing implications, our society, particularly Western Culture, is on a downward spiral. The current political climate with the relentless demonization of the other serves as an example. The violence in the streets of many cities around the U.S. and Europe doesn’t bode well for our overall direction. Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned protest? Now, we’re burning cars, destroying property, and threatening our opponents with physical harm. All the while, a new and virulent form of political correctness is snuffing out free speech, the hallmark of a liberated people.
Against the backdrop of this darkness, we look to the coming of the light. Advent is a season of anticipation, of hopeful expectation, that the current reality can, and is, being undermined by Jesus Christ and his followers. It’s a call to action, that we would follow the way of Jesus and learn to love others, even those with whom we disagree, perhaps especially them.