Show Notes
In this episode of Peaceable and Kind, Derek Vreeland explores the significance of Advent, the Christian calendar, and the importance of waiting in spiritual growth. He emphasizes how Advent prepares us for Christmas by teaching us to slow down and anticipate the coming of Jesus. Through the themes of faith, hope, and love, Derek encourages listeners to embrace the waiting period as a vital part of their spiritual journey.
Scriptures mentioned in this episode:
Psalm 130: 1-5
2 Peter 3: 8-10
Books mentioned in this podcast:
Waiting Isn’t a Waste: The Surprising Comfort of Trusting God in the Uncertainties of Life, Mark Vroegop
Did you find this episode helpful on your spiritual journey? Consider helping us out!
Leave a review
Share it with your friends
Give us a 5-Star rating on your podcast app of choice
Get to know the host: https://derekvreeland.com
Interact with Derek on Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, or Facebook
Transcript
Narrator: Welcome to Peaceable and Kind, the podcast where we explore the transformation. Of living out Jesus’ call to peace and kindness in our everyday lives. Each week your host, Derek Vreeland, will delve into the stories, scriptures, and practical steps that help us embody these essential Christian virtues.
Derek Vreeland: Welcome back to another episode of Peaceable and Kind. I am your host, Derek. Vreeland and winter is here. We are in the month of December and here in northwest Missouri it is cold and it’s supposed to be cold because Christmas is right around the corner. And today on this episode of Peaceable and Kind, I want to talk about. the season that prepares us for Christmas, I want to talk to you about Advent. Before we jump into that discussion, Let me invite you to like and to subscribe and to rate this podcast if you haven’t already. I had the opportunity to look just recently at some of the reviews that are coming in and they’re all positive. I appreciate that. And if you want to reach out to me on social media and let me know what you think about this episode or all of the episodes. You can find me at Derek Vreeland, and I am on Facebook. I’m on the platform formerly known as Twitter. I’m on Instagram and recently I have joined Blue Sky. You can find me there as well. As long as you spell my name correctly, you can find me on social media, but do reach out and let me know what you think about the Peaceable and Kind Podcast. I love your feedback. One of the things I’m committed to is not just to talk to you on episodes like this where it’s just me, but also to bring guests on. where I have interviews with authors or other people that I find interesting. I’m looking forward to next year. I know in January I’m going to have some episodes All lined up with interviews that I think you will really, really enjoy. So reach out to me on social media and let me know what you think about the kind of content. that I’m producing here. Let me know what you think about just me and you on the podcast or what you think about the uh interviews in particular. Well, we’ve reached the season of Advent, and so I thought it would be good to dedicate an entire episode To talk a little bit about what we do during this season. I don’t know about you, but I did not grow up with the liturgical calendar. Also called the Christian calendar, sometimes it’s called the church year. I grew up in a Southern Baptist context where we had the Bible, which was fantastic. I so appreciate my upbringing in the Southern Baptist world because they taught me to love the Bible and to be devoted to Scripture. And that has been such an important part of my spiritual formation, my life as a pastor, just to live within the world that the Bible has created. And I am a Bible nerd, so I enjoy that. I enjoy my time. reading the Bible, studying the Bible, teaching the Bible. But in my upbringing, that is really all that we had I had heard of other Christians talking about things like Lent or Advent, but those words didn’t appear in my Bible You can search the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, and you’re not going to find the word Advent or Lent. And so if you grew up in a context like that, or maybe now you find yourself in a church that is not connected to some of these more traditional church holidays and seasons I thought it would be good to give you a general introduction. Because for me, observing the Christian calendar has been a big part. Of the rhythms of my spiritual life. And the first thing I want to say about the calendar in general, and then we’ll jump into this specific season of Advent. But the first thing I want to say about the church calendar in general is why I love the calendar is because it allows us to tell the story of Jesus. Now, Advent and Lent, they don’t appear in the Bible, but these are seasons that are given to us by the great Christian tradition. In other words, the very early Christians who were compiling, preserving Canonizing the Bible are also the same people who gave us all sorts of traditions And the traditions developed over time, but the two big holidays on the Christian calendar are the holidays that you already know. That is Christmas and that is Easter. And nearly all Christians, not all, but I would say the overwhelming majority of Christians will celebrate Christmas and Easter And guess what? Those two words also don’t appear in our Bibles. They are given to us through the Great Tradition. And because Christmas, the birth of Jesus, and Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, are such important holidays, we have seasons that prepare us for those holidays. Lent is a 40-day season preparing us for Easter. Advent is a season preparing us for Christmas. But if we step back from Advent for a moment and we quickly walk through the Christian calendar, what we see is that In the first six months of the calendar, and the Christian calendar begins with Advent, which is normally the last Sunday in November. Sometimes it’s the first Sunday in December. Advent is marked by the four Sundays before Christmas. And because Christmas is a fixed date on the calendar, both the Christian calendar and our secular calendars, Christmas, of course, is December twenty-fifth. The Sundays before December twenty-fifth sometimes move around So the calendar begins with Advent, end of November, beginning of December, and then it flows into Christmas, which is not one day, but a 12-day celebration. Yes, the 12 days of Christmas, that Christmas carol that you’ve heard is rooted in this great tradition. Christmas is a 12-day celebration. Christmas then leads us into Epiphany, and Epiphany is the revelation, the unveiling that Jesus, the Jewish King, the Jewish Messiah, is indeed the King of all nations. So we go from Advent to Christmas to Epiphany, and then we enter into the season of Lent, which is where we give things up, we’re fasting, we’re drawing back into self examination and prayer and repentance, and all of this is to align ourselves with the sorrow of Jesus, and Lent ends, you know, with Palm Sunday, and then Monday Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and then Lent ends. Because Sunday after the Linton season is the beginning of Easter. And Easter is a seven-week celebration of the resurrection of Jesus The last holiday that’s on this front part of the Christian calendar then is Pentecost, where we recognize the outpouring of the Spirit of Jesus upon the people of Jesus And so for six months, we’re telling the story of Jesus, and then the other six months are what we call ordinary time. But I believe if we are going to become more like Jesus, we need rituals, we need habits, we need a way to focus our life around and on the life of Jesus. And so I’ve just found that the Christian calendar lets me do that as an individual. It lets our family do that. It lets our church family do that. Every year before we get to Christmas, we’re beginning the story of Jesus. So let’s talk then a little bit about Advent. Advent, again, is marked by the four Sundays before Christmas, and there are themes. within the season of Advent, but I would say overall, Advent is about waiting. It is about waiting in anticipation for the coming of Jesus Advent in my mind helps us to slow down and not rush headlong into Christmas joy. I love everything about Christmas. In fact, I have watched my first ever Hallmark Christmas movie. It’s the movie uh about the Kansas City Chiefs. As many people know, I’m a huge Chiefs fan. And so my wife and I just watched Holiday Touchdown, a Chiefs love story. And yes, I loved it because it’s about the Chiefs. I love the Chiefs, and it’s about Christmas. I love Christmas trees and Christmas cookies and Christmas carols. I love everything about the Christmas season. And because I want to rush to Christmas, I appreciate the season of Advent because Advent reminds me to slow down. to wait, to build in anticipation for the coming of Jesus. Traditionally, Advent, and that really just comes from a Latin word that means coming or arrival Advent focuses both on Jesus in his first Advent, his first coming, Christmas, and traditionally the Advent season also forecasts Jesus in his second Advent or His Second Coming. But I like to see Advent as a way of slowing down and preparing for the Christmas season. Advent teaches us to wait. And like it or not, waiting is inevitable. I mean, think about how often we have to wait in our lives. If you are sitting at home on a Friday night and you want pizza, well, back in the day you used to have to call and order your pizza and then wait until it’s delivered. Now you have apps on your phone and you can DoorDash and all of those things. But if you want pizza and you don’t want to go out to get it, you can order it, but then you have to wait. for it to arrive at your house. If you want good coffee, you have to wait for it to brew or drip, or if you’re like me and you French press your coffee, I have to wait for it to steep. In fact, if I want a good cup of coffee, I have an entire process. I have to grind the beans, I get fresh water, I boil that water, I get it to the right temperature. I pour on the grounds in my French press, and then when the water is at the perfect temperature, I pour it in slowly, I stir it. And then I wait four to five minutes. That’s the only way, by the way, to get really good coffee is to wait. If you are still gainfully employed, you are waiting for payday. and we’re all waiting and working for the weekend. And how about going to the doctor? If you have set an appointment, to visit with your doctor, you know you’re gonna have to wait because you get there whether you’re early or on time, you get there, you get checked in, and you sit down and you know what you’re doing next, waiting. and there is no chance of not waiting, that is the name of the room. So waiting is inevitable in our lives, but we do live in an age that is sped up. And I think because of our connectivity to our phones, we are conditioned for instant responses to get things instantaneously. And because we we live in a culture like that, even though there’s these moments that we have to wait, we need spiritual practices that cause our hearts to slow down and to wait. to wait for the Lord. One of the places in Scripture where I see that is the Psalms, particularly Psalm 130. Let me read just the first couple verses of Psalm 130, and this is from the Book of Common Prayers translation of the Psalms. It begins, Out of the depths have I called you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication. If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand? For there is forgiveness with you, therefore you shall be feared I wait for the Lord. My soul waits for him. In his word is my hope My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning, more than watchman for the morning. I love those verses in particular because I don’t necessarily like waiting. I don’t like waiting for my pizza. I don’t like waiting for my coffee. I don’t like waiting for the doctor. I just in general love speed and efficiency. And that’s why I like the season of Advent. And I like these verses from Psalm 130. Because it instructs me, it teaches me that part of the spiritual journey is waiting. I love that line, my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. In ancient Israel, the watchmen were guardians. They were, quite literally, night watchmen that stood at the city walls at night. Peering into the darkness, looking for messengers to come, bringing a good word, or more importantly, waiting on enemies. peering into the darkness for any kind of movement of an enemy that might try to execute a sneak attack under the cover of night These watchmen were under great pressure. They were straining, they were staring out into the dark, remaining alert for anything that moved. And they fought to keep their eyes open. I’m sure many of them would get sleepy as it’s getting later and later into the night, earlier, earlier into the morning. And these watchmen, as I imagine them, they desperately waited for sunrise. They were waiting for the morning sun to arrive and evaporate all the shadows And they are a picture for us in the season of Advent. You know, here in Northwest Missouri, it’s getting darker earlier and earlier by 5 p. m. , it seems like night has arrived. And Advent is a season somewhat of darkness. It’s a waiting in the dark, just like these watchmen. And Psalm 130 says, it is our soul, our hearts, that are waiting for the Lord. Speed and efficiency appeal to my personality. I really thrive in environments of speed, efficiency, getting things done. checking off all of the boxes on my checklist. So speed and efficiency appeal to my personality, but not to my spiritual growth And I more than anything want to grow and become more like Jesus. And what I’ve learned is that there are no quick or easy paths on the road to spiritual formation. There’s no instantaneous growth We grow much more like oak trees than we do dandelions. Now in my front yard in particular, I like in the springtime to fertilize it if it’s not raining enough to water it because I want to cultivate a beautiful lawn And dandelions seem to pop up overnight. Now I do understand that the greens from a dandelion are an edible green. People have told me this. And dandelion, you know, when they bloom, they’re yellow and they have a sort of beauty. But dandelions are weeds. And so I work hard to kill all the weeds so I have this beautiful green lawn. And it’s interesting that it seems like dandelions pop up overnight. I’ll look at my front yard and there’s no dandelions and the next day, boom, they just pop up. And I’d like to see the contrast between dandelions to the large oak trees that are next to my property. My neighbor just to my left, if I walk out of my front door, she’s to my left. She has these beautiful oak trees, two of which are right at the property line between her house and my house. Sometimes I’ll look up at these giant oak trees and they’re massive. I don’t even know how old they are. They’re probably 60, 70, maybe 80 years old. But I’ll look up at these massive oak trees and see how their branches spread so wide. That oak tree did not grow to its magnificent shape overnight. It took years, it took decades to become this big, beautiful oak tree. And so our spiritual formation, our growth in Jesus is much more like oak trees and less like dandelions. We don’t grow overnight. It takes time. And recognizing that means that we need patience. We need to learn how to wait. on the Lord, just like the watchmen were waiting for morning. And waiting is not a waste of time Waiting is baked into this ancient Christian faith that we have received. Instead of a hurry dash through your favorite department store, the Christian life is much more like a slow walk down a wooded trail. The Christian life really is a slow walk that is interrupted by moments of grandeur because most of our days are spent patiently waiting on God. waiting for God to answer our prayers, waiting for a relationship to be healed, waiting for a business entanglement to get untangled, waiting for healing, waiting for a positive diagnosis And so we spend most of our Christian life waiting. And so it’s not a waste at all. In his new book, Waiting Isn’t a Waste, pastor and author Mark Vrogopp writes: Waiting is what you do when you can’t do what you want to do. He calls waiting the spiritual posture of endurance. And in his book, Waiting Isn’t a Waste, he writes, Waiting requires living by what I know to be true about God. when I don’t know what’s true about my life. Isn’t that so true? There are so many times in our lives where we have to cling to what we know to be true about God when we’re not so sure what’s true about our life I’ve often shared this idea with families when they’re in a process of grief. Grief is real. Grief is a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts as we’re processing the loss of someone that we love. And the only way through grief is to feel the feelings when they come. You can’t short circuit or shortcut grief. And while there are stages of grief, there is no exact linear plan. First this happens, and then that happens Often when I’ve been with families in their own grief and processing, they’ll go from sharing a funny story and chuckling to getting quiet to sobbing and and crying and and all that’s the normal process of grief. And often I remind families when they feel emotionally that the world is just crumbling under their feet. that as you’re grieving, hold fast to what you know to be true about God. Because grief will not always give you an accurate picture of reality. I mean the emotions that you’re feeling are real and true, but they’re not always speaking to you truth about who God is. When in the process of grief you feel anger, which is totally normal, sometimes that anger gets directed towards God And as an aside, God is big enough for you to spew forth your complaints. I think one of the ways we process grief, particularly anger, is to pray about it, is to talk to God about it, to express your your anger, your disappointment, your brokenheartedness in the presence of God. But sometimes we can get wrong conceptions about God forgetting that the God whom Jesus made famous is love, pure love. And it sometimes we’ll feel like God is a million miles away. And so it’s good to cling to what we know to be true about God that God is with us, that God is love, that God is going to see us through. And Vrogop, in his book Waiting Isn’t a Waste, identifies three mistakes that we make in our waiting. Sometimes in our waiting, we too quickly move to anger. We try to use force to get what we want. Other times in our waiting, we make the mistake of anxiety, that is, overthinking problems that don’t yet exist. We go through all the what-ifs in our mind. Then finally, Vrogop identifies a third mistake we make, and that is apathy. That is quitting, that is pulling back, that’s erasing all desire, that’s trying to numb out during the waiting And in place of anger, anxiety, and apathy, God gives us faith, hope. and love to empower our souls that we might wait on the Lord. So let’s think about this. In the season of Advent, as we are waiting Let’s think for just a moment how faith, hope, and love empowers us in that waiting. First, think about faith Faith is not being absolutely certain on all matters of life and faith and spirituality Faith is not having all the answers and eliminating all questions, eliminating all doubt. Rather, faith is having enough confidence in God to trust in God, and therefore to relinquish our need for control In periods of waiting, we sometimes try to grasp the handle of control. We want to grasp the rudder to steer the ship where we want it to go. But faith allows us to rest in the waiting, knowing that Jesus is King, that Jesus is Lord, and that we can trust in God. So first we have faith in the waiting. Secondly is hope. And hope is one of the themes of Advent. Hope reframes our vision of the future around what God is doing. That is, God’s work of new creation Hope is not just the feelings of optimism. It’s not a hopeful wish. Well, maybe this will work out Hope is the sustainability in our waiting, waiting for God’s future to come. Second Peter three starting in verse eight says, but do not ignore this one fact, beloved That with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Such a helpful reminder. God is not slow. God is waiting. God is waiting patiently for us to turn in faith to the God who is making all things new. And 2 Peter goes on to say that the old order of things will pass away and be burned up. But until then, this is then 2 Peter 3:10. We wait for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness is at home. Our hope Is confidence in God that God is making all things new and God will make all things new And then finally, love. Love is also a theme during the season of Advent, and God gives us love as power To be like Jesus and to live like Jesus. One of the distinctives of the Christian faith is that Jesus not only gives us commands, But Jesus gives us the power to fulfill and to obey those commands. Every religious leader in every religious system Has their list of commands or principles or proverbs or things you’re supposed to do But what makes Jesus unique is that Jesus is not only the lawgiver, but Jesus is the one who promises to give us the ability to carry out those commands. And Jesus’ commands are all summed up in these, to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. These are the two and the greatest of all commands. But Jesus not only commands us to love God and to love neighbor, Jesus promises to give us the Holy Spirit. And as the Holy Spirit is poured out in our hearts, it is the Spirit who is pouring out the love of God So the love by which we love God, the love by which we love neighbors, is a love given to us by God, and that kind of love empowers us to wait To wait here in the season of Advent in anticipation for Christmas Day, which is right around the corner. Well, hopefully, you found this encouraging and informative. I do want to encourage you to enter fully into the season of Advent as together we prepare ourselves. for the celebration of Christmas. That’s all we have for today. Thank you for joining me for this episode.
Guest: Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.