Advent is for Being neither Fish nor Fowl
What do teenagers, newts, TCKs and Advent have in common? They’re neither this nor that.
Teenagers are neither children nor adults. Newts are neither land nor sea creatures. Third Culture Kids are neither this culture nor that. Advent is neither here nor there.
And in being neither here nor there, Advent reminds us of our truest identity. We are amphibious creatures, truly at home on earth but only as sojourners in search of a “better country.” We exist at the juncture of past and future but without losing our sense of time. We face the darkness of this world with hope—yet never denying its devastating effects.
This is what it means to remember Christ’s first and final coming at Advent, which is, of course, easier said than done.
Amassing earthly treasures or despising the treasures of the earth: this is easy. What’s not easy is loving earth for heaven’s sake.
Clinging to the past or pining for the future: this is easy. What’s not easy is living in between the times.
Spiritualizing the darkness or despairing on account of its oppressiveness: this is easy. What’s not easy is finding God in the darkness.
And yet this is precisely what Advent would help us to do.
It also aims to rescue us from the temptation to want to be only one or the other: an escapist or a theocrat, a sentimentalist about the past or a utopian about the future, a pollyanna about our world or a pessimist.
Still, it isn’t easy living in God’s already-not yet economy. Living as in-between creatures is painful, exhausting and disorienting business. All of us, in fact, give up on one front or another. In some cases, entire traditions succumb to an only-already or an only-not-yet spirituality.
But it’s not impossible. Nor has God left us without helps to become a people of Advent. We have the liturgy, we have Holy Scripture, we have the church calendar, we have the witness of faithful saints, and, above all, we have the Holy Spirit.
We also have songs. As Madeleine L'Engle says it in her poem "First Coming":
"We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!"
Let it be so.
