BLOG 12/17/12: THE FORGOTTEN (AND CRITICAL) DIMENSION OF ADVENT

BLOG 12.17.12: THE FORGOTTEN (AND CRITICAL) DIMENSION OF ADVENT

What is all too often forgotten (if indeed it was ever remembered by most) as the church’s Advent celebration has been taken so captive by the consumer culture in which we live … is the fact that when the church established the liturgical year, Advent was not only to be a celebration of Christ’s first coming, but also of his second. Happily, some faithful pastors and worship leaders remember this.

What we need to be reminded of, again and again, is that at one end of Matthew’s gospel is the record of Christ’s birth, the coming of the wise men/scholars from the East, etc. … but at the other end of his gospel, as a conclusion, are two sermons on the end signs (chapter 24) and on the final judgment (chapter 25). Those two sermons are followed by the capstone of the whole document, which we call: The Great Commission. That deserves a second look. That commission is not a casual postscript!

I think it was missiologist Robert Coleman who said to a group of Christians gathered, that if they could not relate their daily lives to the Great Commission then their lives were irrelevant to human history. Sobering. That commission was given to the whole church. It was given to the twelve first of all, but they were to make disciples in every neighborhood and to every people group in the world. That was and is God’s great eschatological purpose in the coming of the Son of God.

But note that the Great Commission goes on to flesh-out what it means to make disciples. Jesus tells his followers that they were to teach those who were discipled to: “ … observe all that I have commanded you.” Christ’s followers are to be the living, breathing incarnations of his new creation. Sound simple? It’s not.

The birth of Jesus is heralded as the inauguration of God’s great search and rescue mission, as this “Jesus” (Yahweh saves) is to save his people from their sins (1:22). Or as the angel said to Mary: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David … and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33).

Paul would frequently refer to this as “the mystery hidden from the ages, now made known.”

But that New Creation, that inaugurated Kingdom, is not some kind of incidental ephemeral spirituality. It is radically earthy and incarnational. Matthew spells out what Jesus commanded by recording at least six discernable sermons in his gospel, the best known of which is the Sermon on the Mount, but is followed by sermons on mission, on the congregation, etc. God’s eschatological purpose is the inauguration of God’s new creation–all things made new, God’s new humanity, the reconciliation of all things in Christ.

That being so, we need to seriously reclaim the other piece of Advent, namely, that we who have received this incredible gift of God’s grace and love in Christ, are also responsible for incarnating it in the totality of our lives … all of the realities, all the tragedies (Newtown, Connecticut for instance), all the “stink and stuff” of our lives. We are accountable for being the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. That is what Christ is doing here and now in our world. His church is to be the dwelling place of God by the Spirit, and his people will stand before the judgment throne at the end to give account.

“Joy to the world, the Lord has come” … and “joy to the world” he is coming again to consummate that which he has begun and has assigned to us as his agents of New Creation.  This season, remember that Advent has two thrilling dimensions. Got it?

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About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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