Living Between Christ's First and Second Advent
“ … it is full time now for you to wake up from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11; RSV)
“Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day the Lord is coming. … You also must be ready.” (Matthew 24:42, 44a; RSV)
These words from St. Paul and Jesus, in our Scripture texts for this coming weekend’s worship services (please read Romans 13:11-14 and Matthew 24:36-44), describe a difficult part of our existence in relation to God; that is our experience of waiting. As Christians, we are a people who are waiting between Christ’s first advent among us (i.e. Christmas) AND Christ’s second advent (i.e. when Christ finally and fully ushers in, as we pray, “Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven”). There’s a tension here because waiting means having but also not having at the same time.
But in the meantime … I think the church has laid so much emphasis on Advent as a season of preparation for Christmas (perhaps even equating Advent with Christmas?!) that we’ve forgotten, or even become complacent (blasé?), about what Jesus calls us to remember in “the last verse” of our Gospel text: “Therefore you must be ready; for the Son of man is coming [again] at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44). I mean, how long has it been that you’ve even thought about Christ’s second advent/second coming, say nothing of a sermon or a Bible Study that addresses this teaching of Jesus? Did you know that 1/20th of the New Testament speaks about Jesus’ return? That there are over 300 references to his Second Coming or Second Advent. Twenty-three of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament speak of Jesus’ return. And they speak of it with great confidence.
Finally, waiting – to draw upon this creative tension of having (Christmas) and not having (Christ’s second coming) – causes us to slow down, to pause and reflect, to ponder what is important or is to be truly valued in life … creating some sacred space in taking a deep breath … when we’re otherwise “dashing” and “blitzing” all over the place – not really awake, attending to the fundamental questions and needs of life, for ourselves or others. And so it is, in this Advent Season, that God is going to slowly bring us out into a quiet starry night, to prayerfully pause and ponder God’s Word made flesh in the incarnation, but also God’s Word of promise that is still coming to us from a horizon of hope … So, what are we waiting for? And how does this inform our waiting in-the-meantime?
“O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lowly exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel … shall come to you …” (ELW #257, v.1).
In the enfolding grace of God, in Christ, that is mangered, yet still coming for you … now and forever …
John Christopherson
Senior Pastor
Jesus, Remember Me (Luke 23:42)
First, read our Gospel Lesson for this coming “Christ the King Sunday” (Luke 23:33-43), that marks the end of the church year. And imagine the following with me …
There was nothing he could do. There was nothing left that he could take or steal from life. And one of the two criminals, who was hung-out-to-dry on a cross next to Jesus’ … knew it. There was only wind blowing across his mangled ’n crucified body. Beaten near death, struggling for breath, he turns his face and says to Jesus: “Jesus, remember me. Please remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). And all mortal flesh was silent … But then // out of the silence // breaking the death sentence, comes the voice of him who is the King of all Creation: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43; cf. our Second Lesson from Colossians 1:11-20, esp. v.17).
Now, some 2000 years since Dr. Luke’s account of this event, a day called “Good Friday,” there still remains a deep seated yearning in our hearts for being remembered. Especially in our time, I think it takes its form in a word: “communion” or “community.” From the beginning, God has given us a heart that remains restless until it finds full communion. And we search for it in friendship, marriage, family, success, and all kinds of material stuff. But ten times out of nine, we find such efforts coming up empty, and the tempting voices begin to whisper: “Save yourself.” (Note how this phrase appears three times in our Gospel Lesson—Luke 23:35, 37, 39). This is part of the Self-Help craze in our times: a now $10 billion industry of best-selling books, podcasts, retreats, workshops, and even includes some attempted sophistication on TED Talks. But the truth is we can’t “save ourselves.” Not even our best friends, or Black Friday savings of up to 50%. And cutting to the grave facts of it all: the mortality rate is still 100% even with all of our amazing advances in medicine. So then what? Where do we turn, from our crosses … as fellow criminals/sinners?
So let me ask you: “What difference would it have made if Jesus had come down off the cross, and saved himself?”
Come join our communion of First Lutheran Church as we gather around God’s Word for us this coming “Christ the King Sunday.” Hear again the strikingly different voices from the two criminals who were crucified on either side of Jesus. And see, perhaps for the first time, how one cross makes a crucifix and three make a church. In the meantime … Christ the King at his birth: “For to you is born this day a Savior …” (Luke 2:11). Christ the King at his inaugural address of public ministry: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). And finally, fully, Christ the King as he is about to usher in God’s kingdom come, who reigns even from a cross … for you: “Today, you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
I’ll see you this coming weekend at worship, where the three crosses meet …
In Christ,
John Christopherson
Senior Pastor
Children of the Resurrection
The Great Cloud of Witnesses
“The Great Cloud of Witnesses”
(Hebrews 12:1-2)
As we approach All Saints Sunday this coming weekend, my remembrance takes me back to a little classic entitled The Table of the Lord (Augsburg Press, 1982). Former President of Luther Seminary and well-beloved pastor here at First Lutheran in the early ‘50s, Dr. Al Rogness, wrote it. Midway through the book, Al gets at the heart of the matter for this coming Sunday when he writes (and please ponder this carefully):
“There is no point in the Communion Service that so effectively vaults me into the company that awaits me on the other side of death, as when the pastor prays, ‘And so, with the church on earth and the hosts of heaven, we praise your holy name and join their unending hymn.’ It is as if I join them in the feast of victory where the Lord himself shall come and serve [us all together] … When our young son, [Paul, an Augie grad] was killed, there was no Scripture that so lifted my spirits as that magnificent picture of the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ in Hebrews 12. I pictured Paul in a vast cheering section, encouraging me to lay aside the weight of grief and return with zest to the joys and tasks of our common life. We who are still running the race of life need [to be reminded of such cheering that echoes from the celestial bleachers of God’s coming kingdom, for us.] (p. 61-62; emphasis added).
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In our Bible Study this past Wednesday morning, we discussed how the church is impoverished if it is not constantly aware of its counterpart in heaven: as our 4th graders will be leading us this coming Sunday, at the eleven o’clock service, in confessing the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting” (Article III; emphasis added). A few short years and our pilgrimage on earth is over. And we go to join the great host of heaven: “I go to prepare a place for you,” assures Jesus. “And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you [and all my saints] will be also” (John 14:1-2; RSV). Now, that’s sheer gospel!!!
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Dear saints of First Lutheran Church and beyond … know that you are not alone. You have all this company—all those saints sitting right next to you whom you can see … still wringing wet from their baptism … as well as the “great cloud of witnesses” now robed in white, who are still cheering you on, calling your name and shouting themselves hoarse with encouragement. Can you see your brother or sister there … your father, mother, grandfather, grandmother … your beloved spouse or child or cherished friend? Because you are part of them, and they a part of you—all related in the blood of Christ that courses through his body of believers still today.
Come and “join in that number” this weekend as we gather together around God’s Holy Word and Sacrament of Communion for you this weekend—celebrating All Saints Sunday. “Do this in remembrance,” says He.
For All the Saints, in Christ Jesus … our risen Lord and Savior.
John Christopherson
Senior Pastor