We wait for the coming of Christ to rid the world of evil and to establish the new heavens and new earth. In Advent we wait for the new beginning. And in our lives Advent represents a new beginning, a turning away from sin, and a conversion to Christ. . . . If we would see God, if God is to break in on us, we must see ourselves for what we are. Then, in our moment of honest self-recognition, God will break in upon us and stir up the waters of our spiritual lives. This . . . is [God’s] message to the church today as it lives in Advent waiting.
-Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 40-41.