Advent 2025 - Our Father | Josh Harrison
Learning to Wait: Advent, Prayer, and the Wonder of God's Arrival
As we begin the season of Advent, it’s worth pausing to reconsider what this time in the Christian calendar is truly about. In this week’s sermon, Josh Harrison led Citizens Church into a new series focused not simply on the countdown to Christmas, but rather on how to wait and prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. Advent, as Josh reminded us, stems from the Latin "adventus," meaning "arrival." It’s a time set aside to make room for the wonder of Christ’s coming—both in history and in our present experience.
We have, it seems, become accustomed to stumbling exhausted into Christmas morning, hoping for some magical transformation of spirit in the midst of chaos. But the purpose of Advent is to create space amid that chaos—to intentionally prepare for Jesus, the King, whose arrival is not only worth remembering, but also anticipating and welcoming daily.
The Church Calendar: An Invitation to a Different Rhythm
Much of the sermon explored why tradition and rhythm matter spiritually. Josh looked back to the roots of the church calendar, emphasizing its function as a countercultural rhythm that shapes Christian identity. In exile—far from home, under pressure to assimilate—the church long ago recognized the need for reminders: “big rocks” in the calendar to ground us in God’s story and keep the narrative of Jesus central.
Christmas, at its core, was intended as one such anchor. But in the secularized West, it often becomes a holiday about itself—a season filled with preparation for “Christmas” in the abstract, rather than preparation for a Person. Advent re-centers us: we are waiting for Jesus, not simply for a busy festival.
Waiting Between Arrivals
Advent doesn’t call us only to look backward to Bethlehem. Rather, it is the season of living “between arrivals”—anchored in the first coming of Christ, longing for his return, and attentive to his presence in our daily lives. Josh Harrison quoted the wisdom of a pastor who notes we celebrate not two, but three arrivals: Christ’s birth, his promised return, and his daily coming by the Spirit in each new morning.
How do we wait well? How do we create space for Jesus—especially in the clutter and commotion that fills December? The answer, simply but deeply, is prayer. Advent invites us to become a people of prayer, cultivating a relationship that makes room for God amid all else.
The Lord’s Prayer: Approaching God in Awe and Intimacy
For the next several weeks, Citizens Church will be reflecting on the Lord’s Prayer—line by line—as a framework for Advent waiting. The inspiration, fittingly, comes from Anna, a woman described in Luke’s Gospel who waited in prayer and fasting in the temple, ready to recognize the arrival of Jesus when he finally came.
This week’s focus landed on the opening address: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” The tension here, according to Josh Harrison, is remarkable. Jesus teaches his followers to approach the holy, awe-inspiring God—the “otherness” and utter majesty that causes Moses to remove his shoes, Isaiah to fall face down, angels to shield their faces—using the intimate, childlike word “Abba.” This was no ordinary religious language; it broke the mold of the Old Testament, where calling God “Father” was almost unheard of.
Jesus gives us his own relationship with the Father. Through Jesus’ work of reconciliation, we are adopted as children—welcomed with bold, loving access to the throne of grace, and called to approach God with both reverence and the confidence of a beloved child.
Learning to Pray Like Sons and Daughters
Josh closed with the practical challenge: let us be like Anna, preparing by prayer so that we are ready when Jesus arrives—at Christmas, in our daily lives, and in his ultimate return. Becoming a people of prayer reshapes not only our church’s Advent season, but the story we write for generations to come.
Four Key Lessons from This Sermon:
Advent is about intentional preparation—not simply marking days or surviving the holiday rush, but making deliberate spiritual space for Jesus to arrive.
Prayer is the heart of waiting—creating room for God in our schedules, hearts, and community, just as Anna did before the arrival of Christ.
True prayer holds a creative tension—approaching the holy, majestic God with both awe and childlike intimacy, confident in our adoption through Jesus.
Our relationship with God redefines our self-worth—if we are invited to enter as children, no earthly measure or voice can diminish that primary identity.
As the church enters into Advent, these are not simply seasonal reminders, but touchstones for a different way of walking through life: with hearts open, spaces prepared, and prayers shaped by Jesus’ own example.
