This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent. We usually associate Advent as a period of preparation, a time for us to get ready for Christmas – the infant Jesus laid in a manger, loved by Joseph and Mary, worshiped by wisemen and shepherds. The world around us similarly transitions from Thanksgiving pumpkins to evergreen Christmas wreaths. The Christmas spirit fills the air, and we love to cozy up by the fireplace and listen to “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.”
However, Advent is more than just about the first nativity. Advent (meaning “arrival”) is a season of anticipation, for the first arrival of Jesus at Bethlehem, as well as the second appearance: the return of Christ the King. Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical calendar, and the end of that calendar is on the Sunday before this, the Feast of Christ the King, celebrating the true kingship of Jesus Christ. So, the calendar ends with a proclamation of Christ’s kingship, and subsequently Advent anticipates the consummation of His rule.
Hence the liturgical calendar reminds us of God’s time, that the church lives in Advent, the Time Between, the “Already and Not Yet.” Such a time is a dark time. Just as the first-century Jews looked forward to the coming of the light of Christ from “darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:78), so too the church anticipates the coming of the cosmic King in darkness. War, pandemic, political violence, racial tension, division amongst family, isolation, and loneliness – these are the darkness of our modern world. Nostalgic Christmas sentimentality rings hollow in the face of these grim realities.
Advent, therefore, is precisely the needed remedy for the church, because it orients us toward the promised future glory that is yet to come. As the Anglican preacher Fleming Rutledge wrote, “Promise is a key concept in understanding Advent…The gospel announces the promise of God, which has an entirely different character from human promises because it is anchored in the very nature of the righteous God with whom ‘all things are possible’ (Matt. 19:26). Therefore, the principal defining characteristic of the Christian community, along with faith and love, is hope (I Cor. 13:13).”1 Advent faces the darkness of our days and looks beyond to the coming promise of God making all things right again.
So, we begin at the end. Advent begins with the eschaton: with Christ’s power and glory, His righteous judgment, His ultimate victory and eternal reign.2 Advent is a season of hope, a hope that is firmly anchored in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He who has conquered death, and ascended into the heavens, shall come again to judge the living and the dead. Therefore, with an unshakable hope, we utter the prayer, Maranatha! (meaning “our Lord, come”) (1 Cor 16:22).

Rutledge, Fleming. Advent (p. 22). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/gospel-of-advent-devotional/advent-devotional-begin-at-end.html