Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/92

Contributor - Joe Veltman

Title - Coming Attractions (Advent)

Topic - Advent

I last witnessed it this August in Vacation Bible School. There was a boy who came late to my class of 3rd and 4th graders. Since I had already started the lesson, I quickly and casually indicated that he was welcome to sit in the seat made available to him. He visibly recoiled, as if he had been asked to sit beside a scorpion.

Fortunately, I soon recognized and solved the problem. The available chair, which was among the girls, was moved so he could sit with the other boys. At that age, boys and girls are often repelled by each other, or at least pretend to be. What I witnessed was a hostile disposition, in this case between the sexes.

We are not unduly alarmed by such reactions. That's because we anticipate the "conversion" that occurs during adolescence. The repulsion is soon, miraculously, replaced by attraction.

A frequent emphasis during the advent season is the idea of repentance as a way to prepare for the celebration of Jesus' coming. The Heidelberg Catechism, reflecting the Scriptures, talks of repentance or conversion as a process involving dying of the old self and the coming to life of the new self. True. But what can we expect of this process? I think we can expect to experience something like the experience of adolescence. Let me explain.

At this point I would invite you to read Colossians 1:15- 23. Notice the transformation described in verses 21-22. We are described as "once... hostile in mind... now reconciled..." In Ephesians 4:23, we similarly learn that the new life in Christ means you must be "renewed in the spirit of your minds..." Repentance is a change of mind. It should be understood that this is not only an intellectual exercise. It is a change of perspective, it is a whole new way of seeing. Repentance is a new attitude, which leads to changed behaviour. Very similar to the changed attitude and behaviour we undergo in the process of becoming men and women. There is a whole set of delights, attractions and behaviours.

We are involved in a life-changing process, then, of becoming mentally reconciled. This has some practical implications. One is that the Christian life, like romantic attraction, is an acquired taste. And acquired tastes take time and cultivation to mature. To be concrete, loving people and loving God are acquired tastes that take time to mature. Expect that it will take time and effort for people to love you, and for you to learn to love people. Likewise, expect that it will take time and effort for people to learn to love God. I was browsing through a study book recently. One observation caught my attention. The author suggested that at the time of their wedding, couples have certain mental pictures of the persons they are marrying. But after they are married awhile, each has to decide whether to tear apart the picture or the person. Boys and girls develop an attraction for each other. In romance, that attraction becomes focused on a specific person. But then, husbands and wives have to constantly renew their attraction if their love is to mature. Their expectations may be unrealistic, their spouses will have shortcomings, and both will change over time. So they need again and again to be mentally reconciled to the person they actually married instead of the imagined ideal.

The call to repentance, the call to the Christian life, addresses such practical matters as our habits of thought in family relations. Thus also the prophet Malachi calls on parents and children to be reconciled in preparation for the coming of the Lord. If we are going to celebrate Christmas meaningfully, we may need to do some re-thinking of our family relationships.

The same may be true of our relationships in the church family. When people join churches, they have a mental picture of the congregation they join. When people call pastors, they have a mental picture of the man or woman they have called. When pastors accept calls, they have mental pictures of the congregations they are going to serve. But we all know the expression about the "honeymoon" being over. Then we have to decide whether to tear apart the picture or the people. As in the biological family, we have to constantly renew our attractions to the church if our love is to mature. We need to be mentally reconciled to the bride of Christ. The tiffs in the family and church family need to undergo the transformation of "once hostile... now reconciled."

I do not suggest that Christianity is like Pollyannity, with a happy ending guaranteed. Loving others can be as turbulent as adolescence itself. But if we can ride it out, the rewards are often tasted. The attractions will come again. At times, of course, love must be tough, and sometimes love can suffer no longer. But even in the worst breakdowns, we should seek the grace at least in our own hearts not to be hostile in mind.

What has this to do with celebrating the coming of Christ? Well, habits of mind are just that... repeating mental patterns. The habit of being reconciled in our minds to our fellow human beings, whom we can see, is good practice for being reconciled in our minds to God, whom we cannot now see.

If we think through the idea that love for God is also an acquired taste, we can be more patient with the Christian growth in ourselves and others. A young person may have very little interest in Bible study, prayer or worship. It is done more out of duty than joy. Or a young adult may have very little taste for Christian music, or people may be repelled by the idea of telling others about their faith because of its unpopularity. Such people may doubt the genuiness of their own faith, and their parents may wonder if they have somehow failed. But if the Spirit of Christ is working, in time and with faithful practice, Christians will discover the transformation of their attitudes, similar to the way they discover the attractiveness of the opposite sex. It will come.

Later in the Christian life people sometimes need to recover their first love. As the Psalms so eloquently testify, God's people sometimes have their lovers' quarrels with God. Our mental pictures of God - our images of God and our experience of God do not always match. If we hang onto the mental images, they become idols of the mind. Instead, we have to tear them down in the process of repentance, of changing our minds. In our relationship to God, our tiffs also need to be resolved by experiencing the renewal of our minds in the transformation from "once... hostile in mind,... now reconciled..." The attraction needs to be renewed.

But lastly, this needs to be said. The conclusion of the story points in the direction of joy. The reward of struggling through adolescence is new attractions, new delights, new joys. Likewise, the positive side of renewal is an increasing capacity to delight in God and His people. In the Lord's time, the Christian practices and relationships we cultivate blossom with more and more attractiveness. In the Lord's time, we discover that our tastes change and new delights open up to us.

The people of Jesus' day had to give up many of their expectations of God's Messiah. Some refused, and tore Him on the cross. But to those who receive Christ as He is, there is celebration of joy to the world.

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