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Tag: #Expectation

Advent: A Season of Expectation, Pt. 3

Published by mhelbert on December 12, 2019

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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Advent: A Season of Expectation, Pt. 2

Published by mhelbert on December 11, 2019

Yesterday I shared a little about what people at the time of Jesus’ birth expected from Messiah. This person was supposed to show up and lead the people of Israel just as the warrior king David had a millennia earlier. Messiah would defeat Israel’s enemies and ultimately set up an Empire. This Messiah King, according to the Scriptures, would reign in righteousness, justice, and power. The entire world would come to Jerusalem to worship the Messiah and to receive justice from him.

But, what actually happened?

Well, Jesus showed up.
Born among family and animals and placed in a feeding trough.
Escaped as a refugee to Egypt when the existing empire got wind of His existence.
Returned to Israel and grew up in a small backwater town.
Worked with his hands and learned how to deal with people.

Not the kind of king that was really expected.
In fact, as Jesus began to share what he believed was the truth about God and God’s reign, all of those folks who expected a Warrior Messiah turned on him.
Why?
Because he didn’t live up to their expectations.

If Jesus was truly the Messiah, then what exactly did that mean?
If He was not here to defeat Israel’s enemies and set up a Messianic Empire, then what did he actually do?

In the beginning….

At the very beginning of the Bible there is the story about how God made the heavens and the earth. All things were created and the Cosmos set in motion.
After a while, the humans there decided to think for themselves and deviate from the path that God had set before them.
They hid from God.
Then, the story tells us that in the cool of the afternoon, God came walking through the garden. God called out to the people, “Where are you?” This is told in such a way that we are supposed to think that this was something the God did regularly. God walked through the garden with a desire to spend time with them.
This theme of God coming to people with a desire to spend time with them is found throughout the Bible.

That idea found its completion in the person: Jesus.

The writers of the Gospels tell us about Jesus who came and pitched His tent among us. They write about the Jesus who hangs out at weddings and really likes good wine.
Jesus shows up at parties and hangs out with lepers and cripples and women. He held little children on his lap and told his grown disciples that God’s reign was going to be filled with people just like those children.
Not warriors.
Not politicians.
Certainly not Emperors.

It seems that the expectations that Israel had were off just a tad.
Instead of a Warrior King, they got a Servant King.

That Servant King desires to reign over a kingdom filled with people who are like those children that He held.
Childlike faith.
Childlike wonder.
Childlike…you fill in the blank.

I look around us today and see people who still think that a Warrior King is God’s plan.
They believe that Empire can save them.

But, is that what God has shown us?
No.
God desires to walk with us in the cool of the afternoon.
God’s reign is built on Love and Relationships.
Not power and Empire.

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Advent: A Season of Expectation

Published by mhelbert on December 10, 2019

Advent is that time before Christmas that the Church set aside in order to Prepare for the Arrival of Messiah.
In history, that Messiah is recognized as Jesus of Nazareth.
In our time we prepare for the return of Messiah Jesus in Glory.

The people of ancient Israel had their own expectations about the Messiah.
Their prophets told stories about the coming King of Israel.
The Psalmists sang about how God would restore the fortunes of Israel through a King like David. David, a mighty warrior and leader who fought to deliver God’s people from the perils of their enemies.
The “Idea” of Messiah grew into mythic proportions by the time that Jesus was born.
Messiah would be a great military leader who would rally Israel against her tormentors and enemies from Rome. This would establish Israel as the leading military power in the known world.
The Messiah would judge Israel in all righteousness and justice. The poor would be cared for and succor given to the widow and orphan. Foreigners would flock to Jerusalem to hear the Word of God and receive justice.

This Messiah would be, in fact, a King of Kings.

This concept of a Messiah King was ingrained in the cultural fabric of the people of Israel.
Jesus’ own disciples held tightly to the hope of a military and political Messiah.
Throughout the time that Jesus walked with them they questioned Jesus about such things as, “Who’s the greatest among us?” or, “Who will get to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus when he sits on his throne?” or again, “Shall we now call down fire on these unrepentant Samaritans?”
They asked Jesus when his reign as Messiah King would begin. They queried Jesus about times and events that, to their minds, would easily be recognized as the beginning of Jesus’ reign of power on earth.
I can just imagine the hope that arose in them as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday.
“Yes!” I can hear James and John saying. “It’s happening!!! Finally, the King has returned!”

Expectations of empire.
Expectations of earthly power.
Expectations of God vindicating God’s self on all those “Others” out there who stand against Israel.

You know, it doesn’t seem as though expectations have changed all that much in 2,000 years.

Oh, by the way…
They were wrong then, too.

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