Sunday Advent Sermon: The Next Coming of Jesus

I have always had a great deal of appreciation for the season of Advent. This year is no different—you might even say that Advent, with its sense of waiting for Christmas and the building of anticipation that comes with each day, is my favorite time of year. It's something I never outgrew. In addition to Advent being a special time of year to get us ready for Christmas, it also gives us a special time to reflect and remember—not only on the fond memory of past years spent with family and friends, but on the things of our faith that give the season its special significance.

This year we've been reflecting on the theme of being receptive; that is, our parish reflections have been centered on being open to hearing from God and being open to receiving God's actions in our lives. In a special way this year we have an invitation to reflect on how the great figures of our faith were open, and how they heard from God, and how they responded. This week, the second week of Advent, we focus on Isaiah and on his being receptive to speaking the word of God. The flip side of Isaiah's receptivity to speaking the word of God is our willingness to receive it.

In our first reading today God tells Isaiah to speak words of comfort to the people—to speak tenderly and to assure the people that something special, something unlike anything ever before, was going to come into the world. From our Christian perspective we understand that Isaiah was prophesying the coming the coming of Messiah—the first coming of Jesus, which in multiple cultural and familial expressions we celebrate, reenact, and remember each year. The first coming of Christ as an infant at Bethlehem is one of the major themes of Advent. Therefore, on one level, Advent prepares us for the coming of Christmas in which we focus on the birth of Jesus.

By contrast we also consider the Advent theme of Second Coming of Christ: we consider that which deals with last things and which presents an altogether different tone for the season. The reading from second Peter today, with the heavens passing away with a great noise and the elements melting with fervent heat, is a good example. Indeed the Lord will come as a thief in the night—and perhaps it's a little harder to find the comfort that Isaiah was instructed to share in such a passage—yet we have the comfort of the assurance that the Lord is patient and that he doesn't desire for any of us perish. Peter, like Isaiah, invites us to be receptive to world-shaking or foundational change, which ultimately entails personal repentance as preparation for the coming of Christ.

Part of being receptive—even perhaps the biggest part of it—has to do with our being open to the coming of Christ. For us, with our lives somewhere between the first coming of the infant Messiah born in the stable at Bethlehem and the coming day of God when all things will pass, there is still a real-life everyday way to relate to the coming of Christ. In a real way we should expect it today.

Years ago I remember hearing an Advent sermon on television in which a Catholic priest said that we shouldn't consider the first coming of Christ to be the only important appearance of Christ in our faith. He also said that we shouldn't think of the next coming of Christ as the final coming.

It's true that some may tend to relate their Christian faith almost entirely to the biblical or historical past: perhaps they relate to Jesus born at Bethlehem, or Jesus in his Galilean ministry, or perhaps Jesus in his Passion—and of course these are important realities of faith, but is that all? Also consider that just as there are those whose faith experience centers on the historic or biblical Jesus, there are Christians who relate almost entirely to the last things—to prophecies about the end times, the tribulations to come and getting snatched away and others being left—indeed some live their faith as if that particular aspect of it were everything.

Not to diminish the importance of either the First Coming or the Second Coming, I'd like to offer us a third possibility and a great opportunity for being receptive this Advent, namely that we should be receptive to the next coming of Christ that isn't the final coming of Christ. Another way of putting it is that we should be open to Christ coming into our individual lives and concrete existence today in such a way that profoundly impacts everything about who we are and everything about the world in which we live our daily lives.

A truly fitting Advent prayer echoes the final few words of the bible found in the book of Revelation: "Come Lord Jesus." As we consider the important faith figures in salvation history who are prominent in our Advent readings this season, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Joseph, Elizabeth and Mary, we should consider their receptivity and the real possibility that their prayer was, "Come into my life Lord…I invite you to be part of it from now on."

When, in a genuine way, we invite God into our lives and when we are truly receptive, we're sure to be amazed at where we will find the power of Lord—perhaps the Lord himself—showing up. Indeed we may find that our biggest obstacles have disappeared, and that every valley has been filled and every mountain has been laid flat, and so we pray, "Come Lord Jesus."

Comments

[Ann]

Deacon Dan, I'm reading Anam Cara by John O'Donohue at the moment and it was interesting to discover that the first few lines in the book can be likened to the last few lines in the sermon.
You write about every valley being filled and mountain laid flat, John O'D writes: 'On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders, and you stumble,may the clay dance to balance you.'
God has proved beyond doubt that he is prepared to move heaven and earth for us - but what are we prepared to do for him, and to show him how welcome he is. 'Come Lord Jesus.'

[Dan Wright]

Thanks for your comment Ann. One of the things that I personally could be prepared to do is to give a little more time to writing about such things as these. I have been away too long.

Again, thanks for your comment.

[Pia]

Yes, it's been too long, DD. We focus very much on this aspect of Christmas; we speak about it in the present tense, not past or future. But we forget that Jesus comes into our hearts every day, not only at Christmas. Our hearts must be open to receive Him, and to paraphrase from my latest post, we must prepare a dwelling place for Him, in ourselves and others. Always.