Comper, Ninian, 1864-1960. Majestas, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54161 [retrieved December 2, 2023]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/17884832@N00/1163690185/.

RCL Year B, Advent 1
Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7 and 16-18, I Corinthians 1:3-9, Saint Mark 13:24-37

I hope you are able to do two things at once. Doing two things at once is what today calls for. Advent Sunday, the First Sunday in Advent, has arrived with its particular perspective. We begin today to prepare to look back to our Lord’s birth, his Nativity, in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. That’s one thing today calls for.

The second thing today calls for is to prepare to look forward to his Second Coming, his Apocalypse, which the Lord describes in today’s Gospel: “then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.”[1]

Looking back to Christ’s birth, with its charm and nostalgia, for some is a lot more appealing than looking forward to the end of time when we meet our Maker. The consolation is, and we should never forget it, that our Maker is our Redeemer. He was born in Bethlehem to make it possible for us to greet him when he comes again. He was born to open our way to find him and to love him, to be overjoyed when we see him coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

I am afraid that this short and beautiful season, the season of Advent, and indeed all of Christianity, will mean very little if anything to you if you do not long to see him, if your heart does not burn to see him.

For the Gospel on which the Church stands is the Good News that Christ has died, Christ is risen from the grave, and Christ, reigning now in glory, will come again. Christ’s glorious return, his Apocalypse, is also a present, strengthening reality that comforts us in the midst of our own trials and struggles, feeds us as we make our way as pilgrims through life. For we are headed for Christ, each one of us. If we are his disciples, every day of our short and uncertain lives takes us a little more deeply into the mystery of Christ and brings us that much closer to completion and fulfillment.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel today that we are not to know the exact times or seasons of the end and of his coming.[2] Only the Father, he said, knows that. Instead, we are to be alert, vigilant, conducting ourselves as though we know the time is short and precious.

The time is short. Christ, the risen Lord, is our future. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever, as the author of Hebrews has written.[3] Our past, our present, and our future are within the province of his grace. To embrace this reality is not to escape from life in the real world; it is to receive a new lease on life in the real world.

He is the Lord whose birth we celebrate this Christmas. He is the Lamb of God prepared for by John the Baptist. And he is the life-giving Lord and Savior, our very food and drink in this Eucharist. He knocks this moment at the door of our souls. Let us invite him in.

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[1] Saint Mark 13:26.

[2] Saint Mark 13:32.

[3] Hebrews 13:8.