Little Pascha

The Christian life is a martial life, a life of war, a life of fighting. Advent has traditionally been known as the ‘little Pascha’ or the little Lent. It is a penitential season often including a fast by the faithful leading up to the great Christmas Feast. The periodic seasons of penitence in the Christian calendar are not opportunities for dieting. Nor are they just excuses for pastors to get people to come to weekly services. The regular fasts are scheduled times for war. The war is constant. The battles are as regular as morning and night. This struggle is against the enemies of the flesh, the world, and the devil, wherever sin still stands in opposition to the Word and Work of Christ in our lives. Therefore as you celebrate Advent in your families, as you remember and consider the longing of God’s people both for the coming of Christ of old and the coming of Christ at the end, consider this longing as an act of war, an act of defiance against every godless hope and dream that we are somehow outside of God’s sight or reign. Join this rebellion, this struggle: confess your sins one to another, forgive one another, offer up prayers without ceasing, and come worship the Lord. This is our warfare; this is our battle.