A message for Advent
Based on readings from the first Sunday of Advent:
- Isaiah 64:1-9
- 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
- Mark 13:24-37
Live in faith, not fear, as you wait for Jesus
This holiday season is difficult for families. Families want to be together, and the present times are keeping many families at a distance from each other. If you are a parent, you love your children. You want them to be with you. You long to be at home together with your children. You love them dearly, with a love that doesn’t diminish over time or depend on the things your children have done or haven’t done.
Parents, have you ever had a time when you went on a brief outing and left your children at home alone on their own? The children were at that age when they’re old enough to be left on their own … but also maybe not mature enough to always make the best choices. So you came home, and the children had made a mess or gotten into things they shouldn’t have. Or they had responsibilities or chores they were supposed to do, but they’d neglected those duties and played games instead. When you arrived home in such a situation, did you disown your children? Did you banish them from your household? I imagine you did not. You still loved them just as much. Their place as your children isn’t contingent on each instance of their behavior. You may have hoped to find everything in perfect order when you arrived home, but even with all their imperfections, your children are still your children. You’ll love them forever; you’ll like them for always. As long as you’re living, your babies they will be.*
Keep in mind an example like that when you think about Jesus coming back to us at the end of time. In this season of the year, we generally think of preparing to celebrate Christ’s first coming into our world, when he was born at Bethlehem. But the Advent season also reminds us that Christ will be returning to this world at the end of time. The Bible readings for the first Sunday in Advent focused on that. I urge you to focus on the common theme in those readings. We acknowledge that we are not perfect children of God. In fact, as Isaiah’s prophecy noted, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth” (Isaiah 64:6). But Isaiah also prayed (as we do), saying, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father … we are all the work of your hand … we are all your people” (Isaiah 64:8,9). We may not always be faithful, but “God is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:9). And he is the one who will strengthen us to the end, so that we “may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8)–we can’t do that by ourselves. When the day of our Lord Jesus Christ comes, he will be coming to “gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven” (Mark 13:27). That’s the gospel message about Jesus coming back at the end of days. Jesus is coming back to us as his people. We are the children of God, and he is coming to take us home for eternity.
Sometimes Christian people lose sight of that hopeful gospel message and are afraid when they think about Jesus coming back. I once asked a group of students in a church class to write down their instinctive answer to this question: “When you think about Judgment Day, what do you think?” Some of the responses were these:
- Fear of standing before God, answering for everything I have done.
- It scares me if I think about it too much.
- How am I going to face the Judgment Day?
- I’m scared. I hope it goes quickly.
I once heard a preacher in a religious service pressure his hearers, warning sternly against being caught in the midst of a sin when Jesus returns. Many of his hearers went away from that service feeling frightened about their standing with Jesus, not comforted. My own impression was, “When could Jesus come back and not find us in the midst of sin?” We are always struggling with sin in our lives. We do things we shouldn’t do. We omit doing the things we should do (cf. Romans 7:23-25). We have sinful natures embedded in us (cf. Romans 7:14-20). But Jesus is the one who has rescued us from our sinfulness and gave us his righteousness (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). The one who is coming as the judge at the end of time is the same one who came into our world as Savior when “the fullness of time had come” for him to be “born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Galatians 4:4-5). He’s not coming so he can say, “Gotcha!” if he catches us in some indiscretion, or if we happen to be taking a nap when he makes his appearance, rather than being busy helping a neighbor at that specific moment.
So don’t misunderstand the point of Jesus’ story about the man going on a journey who tells his servants to be sure they’re awake when he comes back (Matthew 13:32-37). What does it mean to be “awake”? Yes, we want to be alert. Yes, we want to be attending to what’s important in our daily lives as Christian people. But that’s a positive attitude, not one of fear. We are not constantly worrying, “Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing this right? Am I doing that right? Am I doing enough? Am I living my life perfectly enough for when Jesus comes back?”
The Gospel reading two weeks ago pictured someone who misunderstood the master’s instructions in a fear-filled way. Jesus spoke of a man who had received a talent (an amount of money) from his master. Rather than investing it or using it, he hid it in the ground, afraid that his master was a hard man who would punish him if he did anything wrong or failed to earn a profit (cf. Matthew 25:14-30). Living in fear of our master is not the way Jesus wants us to live. Jesus said that he came to set us free (cf. John 8:36). He said that he came that we might “have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). He does not want fears about what we are supposed to be doing or fears about his return paralyzing us. He wants us living freely by his Spirit.
One way I’ve pictured it is this: Let’s say you’re trying to play a game of basketball. You’re in the game, and all you’re thinking about is whether you’re doing everything correctly–from the rules of the game to every detail of your performance. You’re thinking, “Am I staying in bounds? Am I careful not to double-dribble? Do I have my hands holding the ball in the right way? Do I have proper form when shooting? Do I keep my elbow tucked in? Do I release the ball smoothly at the top of my shot? Did I follow through sufficiently?” You’re fixated on every little detail and fine point, and your focus is on yourself. Will you be much of a basketball player like that in a game situation? Probably not. The details are something you study, things you work on in a practice session. But in the game, a basketball player simply plays. You keep your focus on what’s happening on the court around you and you keep your eyes on the goal. You’re looking at the rim as you aim to make a basket, not analyzing if your hands are in precisely the right position on the ball.
So it is with our Christian life. We gather in church (or connect online) to study, to practice, to get ingrained into our mindset the truths of Christ and the way of life in Christ. But when we’re out there in our daily lives–“in the game,” so to speak–we simply run and do and live. We live in freedom as Christians. If we were standing apart from the ways of God or at odds with the ways of God then, yes, we’d have reason to fear the day he comes back to judge the earth. But we are standing with Christ; we are in Christ. We are God’s children. So we can live each day with confidence and hope, freely going about our activities as members of God’s family. That’s what it means to be “awake.” It means to live with faith always awake in our hearts–the faith, hope and love that God has awakened within us. We live with the constant assurance that our Savior is always with us, because he promised to be with us “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And we live in expectant anticipation of his return to take us home. Remember how Jesus told us to think about signs that the end of this world is drawing near. He said, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).
We are like children who are managing on our own while a parent is away, and when he comes back, we will still be his children even if we have made mistakes. We certainly want to live in such a way that pleases God, who is our Father through Jesus Christ. But the way to do that is not through anxiety over rules to be obeyed moment by moment. We live in freedom as Christians. As people who have been awakened by God’s Spirit, we simply live our lives by that same Spirit. When Christ, our Savior, arrives, he will see the faith which is in our hearts, not just whatever actions are occurring at that moment.
The apostle Paul described our outlook on life in words he originally wrote to Christians in the city of Philippi. His words are an encouragement for all of us to take the same view as we wait for Christ to come to earth once again:
- Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. … I do not consider that I have made it my own, but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. … Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. … Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way (Philippians 3:12-4:1).
May we so stand firm, and anticipate with joy (not fear) the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
* Reference to book Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
