Discovering Advent

By Mike Glenn

Growing up Southern Baptist, I wasn't familiar with Advent. For us,  the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas were used for telling and retelling the Christmas story and trying to talk our parents into buying more expensive Christmas gifts. We heard about cruel King Herod and how he tried to kill Baby Jesus. We heard about Mary. Although, we had to be careful when we talked about Mary. The Catholics talked a lot about Mary and in Alabama, if you talked too much about Mary you were assumed to be a Catholic. 

We talked about Joseph and again, you had to be careful. After all, Joseph wasn't Jesus' real dad.  We needed Joseph in the story for legal reasons. Joseph provided the ancestral linkage to David. We heard about the shepherds and the wise men.  Sometimes, we would get a creative sermon about what the donkey saw. Everyone assumes there was a donkey standing around in the stall though neither Matthew nor Luke ever mention any animals in the Nativity stories.

We heard a lot of stories about the mean, old innkeeper who made Mary and Joseph sleep in the barn. Imagine my shock when I realized the innkeeper is never mentioned in the story. We've made that part up. For all we know, the innkeeper could have been a perfectly nice guy, but that wouldn't make a very good story, would it?

I was in seminary before I fully experienced the season of Advent.  The lighting of the candles, pink, purple and white and the curious absence of Jesus. Remember, I was told, Jesus hasn't been born yet. The four weeks of Advent are times for the church to prepare for His coming. We don't want to be like Bethlehem and have Jesus show up only to find He has no place to stay. We were encouraged to use the four weeks before Christmas to prepare our own hearts for the coming of Jesus. 

When I finally got the hang of the Advent season, I struggled again to understand why the First Sunday of Advent is focused on the Second Coming. There are no stories about angels or shepherds. Mary and Joseph are never mentioned. How could we, a church still struggling to comprehend His first coming, try to make sense of His second coming? What do these two events have in common?

Not much. The first coming of Jesus was based in grace and mercy. The second coming will be about judgment and the consummation of God's salvation plan. The first coming called for repentance. The second coming calls for worship -- the acknowledgement that God alone is God.  The first coming was quiet. The second coming will be earth shattering loud.

But there are some things we need to remember about the first coming as we consider His second coming. First, most everybody missed His first coming. While there were a few people who were waiting for  Him, for most of the world it was just another Thursday, or Tuesday or whatever day it was.  They went about their normal routines totally oblivious to the fact that God had come into their world in a stall behind an inn in Bethlehem.  

In our world of distractions, we need to  remember like those who missed his first coming, we can miss His second. Well, the second coming is going to be hard to miss, but you get my point. We're going to get up in the morning thinking that today is going to be just another day.  Sadly, most of us will live our lives the same way.  Sure, we think, Jesus is coming back one day...just not today.

Which means we miss the most important lesson of all.  We won't begin to live in obedience to the truths of life Jesus brought to us until later. We have plenty of time. We’re sure of it. Yes, loving your neighbor is important and we fully intend to do it...tomorrow. We'll feed the hungry and offer a cup of cold water to the thirsty....later. After all, it's not like Jesus is coming back tomorrow.

Or is He? Jesus said we can't tell the day or the hour of His return.  Since we couldn't know exactly when to be ready, we'd have to be ready any time. Actually, we’d have to be ready all the time. How do we get ready for the second coming? By doing what Jesus told us to do the first time He came. 

Jesus seems to be pretty serious about what He told us when He came the first time. Jesus had some pretty strong teachings about what matters in life, how we are to treat each other and the consequences of failing to simply obey his teachings.  So, as far as I can understand it, the reason the first Sunday in Advent is about the Second Coming of Jesus is to remind us to pay attention to what Jesus told us the first time He came. So, if we want to be ready when Jesus returns, we ‘d better get serious about what He taught us the first time.

Admittedly, I’m new to this Advent thing, but that’s my take. Focusing on His first coming is the only way to get ready for His Second Coming.