An Advent Message from Bishop Bruce Ough

KEEPING ADVENT

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator and Christ Jesus whose advent we await.

I greet you in this Season of Expectation on behalf of the West Ohio Conference Center staff, the district superintendents and the pastors and laity of nearly 1,200 congregations in the West Ohio Conference.

The familiar Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (one of my favorites) perfectly captures the spirit of this season. Even though the risen Christ is among us, and we dwell in His presence, still we long for a nearer and greater vision of Jesus and his return among us – the Second Advent.

Bernard of Clairvaux, the great twelfth century Cistercian abbot, once wrote about Advent in his Sermons on the Song of Songs:

“During my frequent ponderings on the burning desire with which the patriarchs longed for the incarnation of Christ, I am stung with sorrow and shame… Very soon now there will be great rejoicing as we celebrate the feast of Christ’s birth. But how I wish it were inspired by his birth! All the more, therefore, do I pray that the intense longing of those men of old, their heartfelt expectation, may be enkindled in me.”Where in all of our seasonal “holiday” celebrations, we might wonder, is Jesus? Confronted with an increasingly secular celebration – a Christless Christmas – it would be easy to sigh along with Bernard: “But how I wish it were inspired by his birth!”

But the abbot points us away from such lamentation and dismay and towards a more positive road – a pathway I encounter in every healthy, vital congregation. For us, even if for no one else, the Advent season is:


•A time when our longing for God can be enkindled in us.
•A time when a restlessness and homelessness is stirred up in our souls and we are reminded that we are “strangers and foreigners on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13), whose only true home is in God.
•A time when the fires of our passion for Christ can be stoked until they blaze.
•A time when we seek nothing other than to “love God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, and with all of your strength…and love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31).
•A time when we are reminded to keep Advent every day of our lives.


I rejoice and give thanks that hundreds of United Methodist congregations in the West Ohio Conference display an intense longing for the incarnation of Christ and enkindle such a spirit within their members and constituents. For it is this spirit of longing for and seeking God that undergirds our mission of making and equipping disciples of Jesus Christ. For it is this spirit of longing for and seeking God that calls us to life in the Kingdom – the radical and transformative reality which Jesus came to inaugurate.

I pray that you will keep Advent in your life during this season and every day of every season.

Bishop Bruce R. Ough