The season of Advent in an intentional season of waiting. It is designed to cultivate our aware- ness of God’s action – past, present, and future. During Advent we hear the prophecies of the Messiah’s coming as addressed to us – the people of God – who wait for Christ’s second coming. During Advent we long for the ultimate fulfillment of all Old Testament promises, when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, death will be swallowed up, and every tear will be wiped away. In this way Advent highlights for us the larger story of God’s redemptive plan.
A deliberate tension must exist as we mark the season of Advent. Christ has come, yet not all things have reached completion. While we remember Israel’s waiting and hoping and give thanks for Christ’s birth, we also long for his second coming at the end of time. For this reason Advent began as a penitential season, a time for discipline and intentional repentance in the confident expectation and hope of Christ’s coming again.
(The above paragraphs are modified from The Worship Sourcebook)
The Scripture readings for Sunday (the first Sunday of Advent) are: Isaiah 40:1-8 and Matthew 20:20-28.
A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass, and their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8)
Life is impermanent. Short. Fleeting. Moses, the author attributed with writing Psalm 90, agrees. He writes in Psalm 90:3-6, 10:
You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death – they are like the new grass of the morning:
In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered.
… Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
At time, our voices join the choruses of those who note life’s fleeting nature. (The teacher in Ecclesiastes famously notes, “Meaningless, everything is meaningless!”) Opportunities pass us by. We “miss the boat” and, even at that time, we know that we won’t have that opportunity again.
Life is impermanent. Short. Fleeting.
And that’s exactly why we need a Saviour. Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1). He endures forever (Isaiah 40:8) – and he paid the ransom for us (Matthew 20:28). In Him our impermanence is transformed to permanence, we are granted eternal life, and our lives have meaning and purpose through our restored relationship with God.
While we experience something of that permanence and eternity now through the ransom Jesus paid for us – we long for the day when we reign with him forever in glory.