The End Is The Beginning

Today marks the beginning of a new year in the Christian calendar.  We enter the season of Advent, a season focused on the “coming,” or the “arrival” of Christ.  As I mentioned in my previous post most people, if they think about this season of the year at all they think about it in terms of the nativity, of baby Jesus in the manger, of his birth, of joy and celebration – in short they think of it as Christmas.  But Christmas is still weeks away.  Right now the focus shouldn’t be on rushing ahead to Christ’s birth, it should be on contemplating his arrival…past, present, and future.  For the season of Advent is not just about remembering his birth 2,000 years ago and celebrating that birth for a month – such a focus denies us a formational opportunity to enter a season of reflection and repentance; it denies us the opportunity to contemplate what it was Jesus was born to do and to let that realization shape who we are and what we will become; it denies us the opportunity to experience waiting as a blessing amidst the mad rush of the world.

The scripture passages of this first week of Advent are our guide and I have listed them below.  Take a moment to read them.  If you don’t have a Bible handy check out this link courtesy of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library - Advent Week 1.  This web page is a great resource where they list all of the lectionary passages for each week of the year in the three year cycle and provide full Scripture texts as well.  The passages are:

Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; and Luke 21:25-36

As you read the passages for this week ponder what they are telling us.  Below are some of my questions as I chew them over today.  These are not meant to offer a deep exegetical study of the passages, but rather a way to begin engaging them, to allow you to chew on them and wrestle with them and then perhaps move on to questions of your own.

Is the passage from Jeremiah about the first or second coming of Christ?  Is it either/or, or both/and?  Has everything Jeremiah mentioned in the passage come to be?  If not, when?

How might we read Psalm 25:1-10 as a prayer?  Not just a prayer of the psalmist over 2000 years ago, but our prayer today.  What does it say about our world today and our place in it?  What does it say about waiting?  What does it ask of God on our behalf?  What does it call us to?

Likewise, what does Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians mean for us?  Was it just a prayer for them or can it be read on our behalf as well?  What does this prayer ask of God?  What is our role and place within this prayer as we wait the coming of the Lord?

Why do we begin Advent – a time typically thought of as a season devoted to remembering Christ’s birth – with Christ’s warning about what will happen when he returns?  Why do we begin this season thinking about the end of history?  What are we to do in the meantime?  What is Christ calling us to remember and do? 

Finally, how might all of these passages together speak into our lives this Advent season?  What are they saying to us about our individual and communal life situations?  What do they have to tell us about how we go about our day and how we move through the holiday season?  Are they calling us to something different?  In light of these passages what should we continue doing, and what should we be doing differently?   Are we waiting on the coming of the Lord?  What will be our reaction and our place when Jesus finally answers the call “come Lord Jesus, come!”?