I didn’t intend that these Advent musings would become a multi-part project. But, you know what they say about best laid plans.
In the first part I looked at the expectations of ancient Israel. They looked forward to the arrival of a Warrior King molded after King David. He would deliver Israel from her enemies and reign over the Earth with righteousness and justice.
Yesterday we saw who really arrived.
Not a Warrior King. But, a Servant King.
In Jesus, God completely disarmed the powers of that day by subverting the very idea of violence with embodied Love.
Ok. So what?
What does the Advent of Jesus 2,000 years ago have to do with celebrating Advent today?
The Church has believed since its beginning that Jesus would return one day. As Jesus stood on a hill with his disciples he gave them some final instructions. Then, the writer of the book of Act recorded,
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
The early believers thought that Jesus would return soon. That He would descend from the clouds and God’s reign would be realized on earth as it is in heaven.
The anticipated return of Jesus is what we celebrate now at Advent.
And, we wait expectantly for His arrival.
But, what do we expect to see?
There are many who look to the Bible and see the same descriptions of Messiah that the ancient Israelites saw. They recognize that the first Advent of Jesus did not look anything like the Warrior King of Scripture. So, that must mean that at the second Advent Jesus will come as the Warrior King and subdue all of His enemies. He will then establish a New Earth and a New Heaven in which He reigns with an iron scepter.
The Bible is chock full of such imagery.
The Revelation of St. John describes this kind of Return of the King.
Tolkien has nothing on John!
These same people believe that when Jesus returns everyone who has not chosen to follow Jesus will be gathered together and cast into an everlasting lake of fire where they will be eternally tormented and punished for their unbelief.
Is this really what we should expect?
I’m not so sure.
Throughout the Bible God is revealed as Just and Righteous, to be sure.
God is also the friend of the humble, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger.
God is patient and gentle.
The image of a mother hen protecting her young is given to describe God.
Jesus came, not as a warrior to seek vengeance on God’s enemies and win vindication for Israel.
No. He came as a servant to deliver the Cosmos from the sting of Death.
He came to give life abundantly to The. Whole. Cosmos.
Do we really think that at Jesus’ second Advent his character will have changed?
No. I don’t think so.
I think that the expectations of those waiting for a Warrior King will be as far off as they were at Jesus’ first Advent.
I think that if Love reigned as the Kingdom of God approached then.
If Love has reigned ever since Jesus disappeared into the clouds all of those years ago.
Then, Love will continue to reign when Jesus returns.
Let’s put aside any image of God that does not welcome sinner and saint together in the Great Loving Heart of God.
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