The calendar says that this is the first Sunday
of Advent. That’s why we lit the first Advent candle today. And of course, that’s something that’s being
done today in Christian churches all over the world. We light the first
Advent candle and celebrate the first Sunday of Advent. And we’ll continue to celebrate the season of
Advent for the next three Sundays, up until Christmas Eve, when we celebrate
the birth of Christ. Then, Advent will be over and we’ll go on to
something else. And so will all the
other Christian churches.
But you know, that’s wrong. Every Sunday should be a
Sunday of Advent. Because after all, what does that word “advent”
mean? It means the arrival of something or someone. Not just any something or someone, of
course. Something or someone really important or special. And if you think about it, that’s what we’re
doing every Sunday, right? Every Sunday, and in fact every Monday and
Tuesday and Wednesday and every other day, we are waiting for the second coming
of Christ.
In the official church season of Advent, of course, we do
all kinds of things to get ready for the celebration of the birth of Christ.
We’ve decorated our sanctuary. We
brought out the Advent hymns, the ones we only sing at this time of year. Soon we’ll bring out the Christmas hymns,
too. We’re planning our Christmas Eve services. And in our personal lives, we’re decorating
our homes and buying presents and planning family gatherings and Christmas
parties and all sorts of things. And a lot of us get really excited about
all that. We pull out all the stops to
get ready to the coming of Christ.
But what about the second coming of Christ? What are
we doing to get ready for that?
I would suggest that, for most of us, the answer is “not
much”. And I include myself in that number. I cannot honestly say that I’m doing much of
anything to prepare for the second coming of Christ.
And maybe you’re thinking, well, why do we have to do
anything? After all, we’re told that we’re saved by our faith in Jesus
Christ as the Savior. Our salvation comes from faith, not from what we
do. So, if I have faith in Jesus Christ
as the Savior, I should not have to do anything to get ready for the second
coming of Christ.
Well, maybe. But let’s look at what Paul says in our
reading from Romans for today. Now, Paul would’ve agreed that we are
saved by faith in Christ and by nothing else. In fact, earlier in Paul’s
letter to the Romans, he writes at length about how it is not our actions, but
our faith from which we get salvation. But he also says that our faith is
revealed by our actions.
Paul uses the example of Abraham, who was willing to
sacrifice his own son, Isaac, to God if that was what God wanted. Maybe
you remember that story--Abraham and his wife, Sarah, had been praying for God
to give them children, but they remained childless for many years.
Finally, God gave them a son, Isaac. But
then, God told Abraham to go and sacrifice his son--to kill him. And Abraham was willing to do it. It was only at the last minute, when God saw
that Abraham really would go through with it, that God called it off and saved
Isaac.
The point is that it was not
the act of sacrifice of Isaac that was going to please God--it was the faith of
Abraham that was behind it. But at the same time, Abraham would not have
been prepared to undertake that action if he had not had faith. The two go hand in hand.
And so, when we say we are
saved by our faith and not by our actions, that’s true. But our actions
reveal our faith. If our actions don’t
show that we have faith, then our faith is at best suspect.
So, I ask again: what are
we doing to get ready for the second coming of Christ? In what way do our
actions reveal our faith in Jesus as the Savior?
Now, I want to make clear that
I don’t believe that the answer is “nothing”. I don’t believe that there
are no ways in which our actions reveal our faith in Jesus. And in fact,
this is not a question I can answer anyway.
Each of us needs to look at our lives and provide our own answer.
And it may not be an answer we can come up with right away. We probably should take some time and really
think about it. And pray about it,
too. Because, ultimately, what we think the answer is does not
matter. What matters is what God thinks
the answer is. But I can tell you this
much--the time to start working on this is now.
We don’t know when the second
coming of Christ will be, of course. And in that way, we’re in the same
situation as the vast majority of people when Christ came the first time.
There was a very small, select group who knew what was going on. Mary and Joseph, of course. Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth. Eventually
the shepherds and the wise men. But
that’s about it.
Now, the rest of the people--at
least, the rest of the Jewish people--knew the Messiah was going to come.
There had been prophecies of it for hundreds of years. And if you look at what most of the people at
that time were doing to get ready for the Messiah’s coming, the answer again
would probably be, “Not much.” Yes, there were people who were attending
the synagogue or the temple regularly.
And there were people who said they believed in God. But to what extent was their faith revealed
by their actions? What were they doing
to get ready for the coming of the Messiah?
Again, I’m not suggesting that
the answer for everybody was “nothing”. I’m sure there were some people
whose faith was certainly revealed by their actions. And again, my answer
to the question does not really matter anyway.
It’s God’s answer that matters.
But I suspect there were a lot
of people who were not too concerned about the coming of the Messiah.
Yes, they knew the prophecies. They knew
he would come sometime. But it had been
hundreds of years, and nothing much had happened. And so, while they
claimed to believe in the Messiah’s coming, that belief did not really affect
their lives to any significant extent.
That’s why Paul’s words that we
read today are so important. Understand the present time. The hour has come for us to wake up.
Our salvation is nearer than ever. The
night is nearly over. The day is almost
here.
Do I know when it’s
coming? No. You’ve heard me say it
could be ten million years from now. But it also could be ten years from
now. It could be ten months from
now. It could be ten days from now.
We don’t know. That’s why it’s
important that we do what we can to be ready for whenever that day comes.
What can we do? Paul
tells us. Love our neighbors as ourselves.
Put aside the deeds of darkness. Behave
decently. Live in a way that we don’t worry about whether people know
what we’re doing. Clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It sounds simple. And in
a lot of ways, it is simple. Sometimes it can get complicated,
though. And you know why? Most of
the time, if it gets complicated, it’s because we’ve complicated it. And
usually, we’ve complicated it because we’re trying to come up with a way to
justify doing what we know we should not do or justify not doing what we know
we should do.
So how do we uncomplicate
it? By clothing ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the best
way I know of to do that is to stay close to Jesus, to try to feel the Lord’s
presence with us. And the best way I know of to do that is through
prayer.
I don’t know how many of us
pray regularly. I know some of us do.
I hope all of us do, and maybe we all do. But I’m not talking here
about a quick prayer before a meal or at bedtime. Those are good things
to do, don’t get me wrong. But if we
really want to stay close to Jesus, if we really want to feel God’s Holy Spirit
with us, if we really want to clothe ourselves with the Lord, we need to take
some time.
At least, that’s how it works
for me. If I have not spent enough time in prayer, I feel it. I
feel it in my attitude. I feel it in my
emotions. And it shows up in my
actions. I’m not as close to the Lord as I should be. And it’s not the Lord who drifted away. It’s me. And the only way I can get
back is to spend that time in prayer again.
Maybe that’s true for you, too.
The calendar says this is the
first Sunday of Advent. But for the Christian, every Sunday is a Sunday
of Advent. We are waiting for the second coming of Christ. We don’t know when it will come. But if
we pray, if we stay close to God, if we clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ, we’ll be ready. And we will able to celebrate that second coming
even more than we celebrate the anniversary of the first coming.
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