Worship Sundays at 9 am
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When Moses meets God in the burning bush (Exodus 3) on Mount Horeb, he asks, “When I go to the Israelites, who shall I say has sent me to them?” God answers, “Tell them ‘I am that I am’ has sent you to them.” We say God is the great “I AM!” The Hebrew phrase is difficult to translate. It actually means “I am,” “I have been,” and “I will be.”
This same multi-layered nature of God is alive and active in Christ Jesus. We say in the Communion liturgy, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” It’s as though the past has a present and future expression and together they make up the full meaning of the name of God and the life of Jesus.
As December begins and we move toward Christmas, we celebrate the season of Advent. Advent means coming. So in Advent we celebrate Christ’s coming. But as we celebrate this coming, it would be insufficient to say we are remembering Jesus’ birth only. A part of this “coming” character of Jesus is that Jesus is still coming to us. He comes these days to us personally: redeeming and strengthening us in faith, and he comes to us in community as he builds the church and gathers together those who have received the Holy Spirit. And still this is not all that we mean by the advent of Christ. Jesus has also promised that he will come again in the final days as King and Judge of the living and the dead.
So when we celebrate Advent and Christ’s coming, we almost always mean all three expressions and realities. We remember his coming as a child in Bethlehem, we pray for his entering into our lives today, and we lift up our eyes to watch for the day when he will come again. This is the full meaning of Advent. And where Christ’s advent happens – all three of these realities are alive and present. For how Christ came two thousand years ago is intimately connected to how Christ comes into our lives today. And how Christ has come to us personally today is also intimately connected to how Christ will come in the last days. Happy watching and waiting for the Advent of Christ.
–Pastor Mitch