December 18, 2015 is the date everyone…and I mean everyone…has been waiting on. That’s the date the latest installment of Star Wars will be released. It must be the most anticipated coming attraction of all time. Star Wars: The Force Awakens begins again (or continues, whichever way you look at it) one of the most lucrative film franchises of all time. According to CinemaBlend, in 2005 it looked like the Star Wars saga was officially over. Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox released Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which completed the prequels trilogy and tied the story back to the first film in the series. It was done, finished, kaput, and ended. But then, along came Disney.
In October 2012, the studio brokered a $4.05 billion deal to buy Lucasfilm, and with the deal came the announcement that they would be starting production on a whole new trilogy of Star Wars films that would keep the epic story going for years and years to come. Naturally, fanboys started to foam at the mouth with anticipation. What would the new movies be about? Would they bring back classic characters or merely focus on new ones? Would there be new stories set outside of the trilogy? For three years, fans have been anticipating the return of the Star Wars franchise. Actually, for some it’s been ten years. And, we know Disney is the master marketer, and the trailer and the pre-release marketing has only heightened the anticipation.
May I ask you a question? What if we anticipated the arrival of Jesus Christ the same way? The Advent season begins this morning. Do we enter it with the same expectancy we would if we were in theaters and we saw the preview of a coming attraction we so greatly wanted to see? We should embrace the Advent season as a time of preparation, but also as a season of anticipation. We prepare the sanctuary by hanging the greens, and we adorn the church with decorations and poinsettias and nativity scenes because, after all, the Advent season is the season when we look with anticipation to the coming of the Christ-child.
Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and we focus on his arrival by setting out our prettiest nativity set for all to see. I find the traditions interesting as I have pastored from region to region. Oh, no church I’ve pastored has ever failed to set out the nativity, but what each does with the baby Jesus is interesting. Some churches never think a second think about putting out the baby when the set is put out. Decorate for the season and baby Jesus goes in the manger. Other churches, who consider themselves “liturgically correct” would never consider putting out the baby Jesus until Christmas Eve. I even heard of one church that would move the baby Jesus to a different place each week so the people would have to look to find him. I suppose that’s where someone got the idea for the Elf on the Shelf.
The Advent season is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. Today’s passage reminds us that there is yet a “second” advent looming on the horizon, and as we reflect on the meaning of the first advent we must prepare, we must “get ready” for the dawning of the second.
The doctrine of the second coming of Jesus Christ is one of the central doctrines of the Christian faith. When we come to take the bread and cup, the liturgy reminds us of our confession that “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” This statement of faith echoes both Scripture and the tradition of the early church.
The New Testament writers expressed their deep belief in the second coming as well. Hear the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:4-5:
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! [5] Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
Peter, too, held deeply to the conviction of the Lord’s coming: 2 Peter 3:9-10:
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent. [10] But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and everything in them will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be exposed to judgment.
John, the Revelator, wrote these words: Rev. 1:7:
Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him—even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the earth will weep because of him. Yes! Amen!
And, Luke the historian records in Acts 1 that the angels of heaven proclaimed to the disciples gathered on the Mount of Olives as Jesus ascended to heaven, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here staring at the sky? Jesus has been taken away from you into heaven. And someday, just as you saw him go, he will return!”
The words of Luke’s Gospel today are the words of Jesus, and his words remind us that he is coming again, and his words call us, as they did his disciples, there is a coming attraction for which we are to watch and prepare. Jesus himself is that coming attraction, and in these words he’s giving us a full-on trailer to prepare us for that event.
One reason I think we don’t spend as much time focusing on the second advent is because of the danger of becoming pre-occupied with it. Seriously, many authors and not a few pastors have made their livelihoods by playing the same song over and over again. It becomes for some people an absolute obsession. The fascination with the end times in nothing new, though. Actually, the words of this passage of Scripture is Jesus’ response to the disciples’ “when” question. As the disciples were sitting around Temple, one of the disciples commented, “Teacher, aren’t these buildings awesome?”
Jesus replied, “These awesome buildings are going to be destroyed, and not one stone will be left on top of another.”
Well that got their interest up, just like it does ours, and they could hardly wait to ask Jesus, “When will these things take place.” The disciples were looking for a roadmap for eternity. In our search for that same roadmap we get lost in figuring out the images that Jesus used to communicate truth. There were some strange images that Jesus used: signs in the sun, moon, and stars, nations in turmoil, roaring seas and strange tides. Were we to read back, we’d hear him talk about wars and insurrections, and false messiahs. We could certainly look around at our world today and say, “It must be near!” But, Jesus was simply using images familiar to his Jewish disciples, to their tradition and history. If time permitted I could recount numerous passages from Jewish literature and Scripture that echo the images Jesus shared that day. It was apocalyptic language.
We become so obsessed with the particular that we miss the general truth Jesus wanted to communicate. As one preacher put it, “We are so heavenly minded we are of no earthly good.” Let me say it again: Jesus was neither giving the disciples a roadmap to eternity, nor a timetable to the future. He was giving an imperative to be ready for his coming again.
So how does getting ready for the one advent prepare us for the other? Just how are the two woven together in the Advent season? Theologian William Oden says the second advent is the consummation, the completion of what God began on the first advent. The two are inextricably and intimately woven together, and we get ready for the second by living in faithfulness to the first. What do I mean?
Perhaps we might understand it better if we think about how we live our lives. We live knowing death is inevitable, but we are all uncertain as to when it will come. Most sane people don’t go around lamenting, “Oh, woest me! I’m going to die.” No, we never hasten the day of death even though we live with its certainty. Rather, the prudent person prepares for that day, gets ready if you will, not by obsession, but by faithfulness. Living in faithfulness to the first advent gets us ready for the second advent.
How do we live in faithfulness to the first advent? First, living in faithfulness to the first advent is accepting Christ. To accept Christ is to acknowledge what God was doing in the first advent, namely, sending His Savior into the world to redeem His creation. That is the starting point for all subsequent preparation.
There is a story of a shepherd who was very young that first Christmas night. As an old man, his grandson sits on his knee as he recalls that night, “A long, long time ago, when I was a little boy, I was out on the Judean hills one night with some other shepherds. Suddenly an angel appeared and there was glory all around us. And, we were afraid. But the angel said, ‘fear not... for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord... you shall find the baby in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger’.” When he had said this the old man’s lips quivered and ceased to move and there was silence.
Then the grandson turns and looks with wide, puzzled eyes into his grandfather’s face and says, “But, grandfather is that all? What did you do when you heard the good news? Was what the angel said really true? Was the Christ child ever really born?”
The old shepherd sadly shakes his white head and answers, “I never knew. I never went to see. Some say that it is all a myth. Others say they found in Him, the light of God and the power for life. But for me I could never be quite sure because I never did go to see.”
Accepting Christ means we’ve gone to the manger, and we believe what we have seen.
Secondly, living in faithfulness to the first advent is growing to maturity as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is allowing the awesome power of God through the Holy Spirit to transform us, to remake us, to give us new birth. We grow by opening ourselves to Christ, by preparing for his coming into our own lives through worship, Bible study, prayer, fellowship and so many other spiritual disciplines.
When we grow into maturity as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are able to live as people of hope. Jesus’ words remind us that living in this world is hard. We are “living in the meantime.” Living between the first and second advent challenges us, but the signs are meant to give us hope. Yes, the present is tough. Yes, it is a struggle. Yes, it is painful. And yes, tomorrow may bring even more and greater hardships but, He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He has promised to never allow more to come on us than we can handle by His grace. And His word promises that those who do not quit in spite of all they may endure will one day have every tear wiped from their eyes, death and suffering and pain will be no more, and Jesus will invite them to share the throne of the universe with Him. And the glory of the coming attraction will make the pain of this present time but a faint and fading memory.
Finally, living in faithfulness to the first advent is serving Christ by serving others. When we serve others, the spirit of Christmas, nay, the Spirit of Christ, lives through each of us as we give ourselves in sacrificial, humbling love, which is exactly what Jesus did in that first advent.
The manger was the preview of a greater coming attraction. As we enter this Advent season, are we living in anticipation? Or, would we rather just see Star Wars?
