Today is the beginning, the New Year for Christians, the opportunity to start over, to begin again and to prepare for the coming of Jesus into the world. But wait, as we prepare for birth of a son to Mary, the coming of our savior as a child, born of a woman as we all are born, the church and the Christian year throw us a curve ball. That’s right, the first Sunday of Advent does not proclaim John the Baptist “making straight in the desert a highway,” or the Angel Gabriel conversing with Mary and Joseph, challenging them and/or encouraging them to do God’s will. No, we hear words of poetry and metaphor recorded by Jesus proclaiming, yes, the coming of the coming of the Son of Man into the world, but wait, not the first coming as a baby, but his second coming as the Cosmic Christ, the one who will bring all of God’s people together to shout “Halleluiah and Maranatha!” “Praise the Lord and Come Lord!”
“Jesus
said, ‘In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the
moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and
the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man
coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels,
and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the
ends of heaven.’” (Mark 13:24-27)
As the world rushes toward Christmas, with John the
Baptist, Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, Wise Men and Santa Clause, something
quite understandable in the Year of our Lord, and the Year of the Pandemic
2020, the Church points out signs and portents in the heavens, reminding us
that not only does God “have the whole world in his hands,” but also all of
Creation and all people, truly, all people!
To help his listeners, and us, better understand, Jesus
uses an illustration from nature. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon
as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is
near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is
near, at the very gates. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not
pass away”.
Yes, all the stories and songs and hope of the birth
of Jesus will come to us over the next month, but before they do, Jesus and his
church remind us that the end is the foundation of the beginning as well as the
foundation of our hope. Beginning with the Second Coming puts the First Coming
of Christ into Perspective. We are allowed to see the bigger picture, the
hugeness of God and Creation and how it opens life in the Spirit of God up to
all people, for As Isaiah proclaims,
“Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are
the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand…we are all
your people.” (Isaiah 64:8-9)
As Jesus proclaimed to the people then, he proclaims
to us. “What I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” (Mark 13:37)
