Advent is a strange season in some ways because its focus is both looking backwards and looking forwards as we stand in the present. It is a time when we look back to remember that God's people looked with anticipation to the coming of the Messiah (the actual birth of the saviour which we celebrate at Christmas time). But Advent is also the time of year we are to begin life anew with the deep awareness that Jesus Christ will come again in a surprising future to judge the living and the dead as the Apostle's Creed reminds us.
Growing up in an evangelical Presbyterian church we did not often put a lot of emphasis on the church calendar. We seldom spoke of Advent as a season and the four Sundays before Christmas were only prelude to Christmas. (Yes, every Sunday in December we sang good old Christmas carols! There was no holding back until Christmas day!) All through Advent we revelled in the glory of the incarnation oblivious to the scorn of the liturgically correct! The whole focus of the season was celebrating the birth of Jesus and there were few doubts about who he was and why he was coming! But as I recall there was little focus at that time of year on the second coming of Christ.
Today, even in many congregations that do follow the church year more vigorously, the emphasis seems to be on the first coming (the birth of the babe) rather than the second. Yet I think the second Advent (to judge the quick and the dead) is an even more relevant focus. It isn't more important than the message of the incarnation (God coming to us in human form) but it is more relevant in the sense that it is something that not only affects us now but something we still have time to make choices about to help determine our future outcome.
Let me encourage you then to reflect on how ready you will be when Jesus returns. Here is a question we can ask ourselves as Jesus gives it in a parable about the judgement on behalf of the weak: “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)
The question to ask each day in this advent season is this: When Jesus comes will he find faith in me? What faith will he see being lived in my family, my church and my nation? And what can I do to fan the flame of faith? If you meditate each day on these questions, it will drive you to prayer and action and will give you a profound sense of the urgency and meaning of the season that will renew your faith and life.
The son of God is coming! Jesus says: “He that believes on him is not judged; he that doesn't believe has been judged already, because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)
