The First Sunday in Advent
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 19:28-40
With the start of Advent comes a new cycle in the Church year. We seamlessly transition from the Last Sunday of the Church Year to the First Sunday in Advent. They both focusing on the coming of Christ, though the Last Sunday hones in on the Second Coming while Advent, which means ‘coming,’ takes a broader look at all the ways in which Jesus comes to us. Advent, then, helps us prepare to receive Him.
The Three-Fold Advent of Christ
The three-fold ‘coming’ of Christ is the focus of our Advent preparations. Christ is the One who was, and is, and is to come. He came in the prophetic Word and Incarnation. Now He comes in His Word and Sacraments. Finally He will come again on the Last Day.
The tradition for the First Sunday in Advent is to read and preach on the Gospel lesson of Christ’s Triumphal Entry. This text is ideal to discuss the comings of Christ. In it, the incarnate Christ fulfills the prophetic word. He also gives us an image of what happens when Christ comes among us through His Means of Grace. It also gives us a preview of His Second coming.
Unfortunately, with such a compelling theme in the Gospel, the Epistle doesn’t often get the attention it deserves. In the Epistle we see yet another ‘coming’ of Christ. Or rather, we see the effect of Christ’s coming in His Word and Sacraments among His people. In academic circles, we discuss how God’s Word is performative rather than descriptive. This means that God’s Word actually does things rather than simply communicates information. When God’s word comes to us, we are actually transformed by it.
When we are baptized, we were actually made to be children of God. Notice I said children, not just a child. That’s because we don’t come out the other side of Baptism as independent individuals. Rather, Baptism joins us together as one. Baptism forges us into a community, the Body of Christ, the Church. In his Epistle, Paul demonstrates the ‘coming’ of Christ in this community of believers.
The Coming of Christ in Community
Paul writes, “What thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
“Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” -1 Thessalonians 3:9-13, emphasis added.
These verses should catch our attention. In response to Covid-19 we saw an increase in online activity. Churches also took advantage of technology to try and stay connected. Some churches, however, got lost in the digital world and have begun replacing face to face communities with online communities, going so far as to even create ‘Virtual Reality Campuses.’
However, we read from Paul that face to face interaction cannot be replaced. Paul himself is using technology, the written word on paper, to communicate with the Thessalonians. Yet he says that this form of connection is insufficient for a community of faith. “We pray most earnestly…that we may see you face to face.” And why? To “supply what is lacking in your faith.” What would be lacking in their faith that Paul could only supply by seeing them face to face? It is in the fact that our faith, though heavenly, is grounded in the earthly.
Physical Presence Required
God did not create us as disembodied spirits. He created us with bodies to relate to one another and all creation. Our faith even centers around the God who became man to dwell with man. We instinctively know how important physical presence is. There is something about the physical presence of another that gives us comfort a call or a letter simply cannot. And as the Church, we have a tangible reminder of Christ’s love for us in the physical presence of our brothers and sisters in Christ. He comes to serve and care for us in the face of one another. There is an encouragement we can only receive from being around one another.
There is also the matter of our loving one another. In our culture, we mean something by ‘love’ that is completely disconnected from what the authors of Scripture mean. Paul’s prayer that the Lord “make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all” requires a physical nearness. That is because love is not an emotion but an action. The greatest display of love was Christ dying for us on the cross. We continue to love one another with the love of Christ by meeting one another’s need.
You can’t feed or clothe someone through a computer screen. And when we don’t see one another it’s hard to care for, much less know, each others needs. Therefore, it’s impossible to love one another if we do not see each other face to face. It is in the physical community that Christ’s love is made manifest among us. May we then earnestly pray with Paul to have Christ come among us in our love and service to one anther as we live in community face to face.