We Light the Advent Candles - The first one remind us that Christ will soon return...

For about last ten years, the Cove congregation sang all or part of "We Light the Advent Candles" during our Advent worship services. As we go through the four weeks, we sing the verses sung during the prior weeks, and we add a new verse recognizing the candles that have been and are being lit on that particular Sunday. During this Advent sermon series, we focused on the meaning of each verse, as expressed in the song. 

The first message dealt with "The first one remind us that Christ will soon return..."

“Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind, should all acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne.” It’s time to bring out the corned beef and cabbage or, if you’re from my part of the country, the black eyed peas, and I’m not talking about the singing group. And with all that in mind, let me be the first to say, “Happy New Year!”

Now before any of y’all think that my trolley is completely off the track or that I’m trying to avoid all the chaos of Christmas by jumping ahead or that “there must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found for when they placed it on [my] head [I] began to dance around,” none of that is true, well, except for that last one but I’d rather not talk about right now. No sir, everything I said is right on point, because today really is the beginning of a new year, at least according to the church calendar. You see, the church year begins on the first of the four Sundays in a season called Advent, the period that leads up to Christmas, a time when we sing special songs and put out special decorations. And along with all the other stuff we do, at the beginning of each of these four services, we light the candles in the Advent wreath. And for the last ten years or so, we’ve done it by signing the song, “We light the Advent candles against the winter night.” Now that’s what we’ve done. And as we go through this season, each Sunday, we add a new verse as the candles are lit. And since this is something we’ll also be doing this year, I thought we could let this song provide a structure for the services between now and Christmas. And so each week we’ll consider the meaning and importance of the new verse we’ll add. And because we lit the first candle this morning, we’ll focus on the verse that begins like this: “The first one reminds us that Christ will soon return...”

And I’ll tell you, the fact that we start this time of year thinking about the return of Jesus, well, that really makes a lot of sense. You see, as we get ourselves ready for the first coming, the first advent of God’s Son, it just seems appropriate to consider his second coming, in other words, his second advent. And I can tell you, according to Scripture, this is something that’s going to happen. I mean, just listen to what the Evangelist Luke wrote in the book of Acts. “While the apostles were still with Jesus, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you now going to give Israel its own king again?’ Jesus said to them, ‘You don’t need to know the time of those events that only the Father controls. But the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power. Then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world.’ After Jesus had said this and while they were watching, he was taken up into a cloud. They could not see him, but as he went up, they kept looking up into the sky. Suddenly two men dressed in white clothes were standing there beside them. They said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here and looking up into the sky? Jesus has been taken to heaven. But he will come back in the same way that you have seen him go.’” [Acts 1:6-11, CEV] Now this is an event Christians call the Ascension, because Jesus ascended into heaven. But I think it’s important that when he left, it was with a clear understanding that he would come back.

And I’ll tell you something else, his return will impact us whether we like it or not. I mean, listen to what Paul wrote to the Corinthians. “But Christ has been raised to life! And he makes us certain that others will also be raised to life. Just as we will die because of Adam, we will be raised to life because of Christ. Adam brought death to all of us, and Christ will bring life to all of us. But we must each wait our turn. Christ was the first to be raised to life, and his people will be raised to life when he returns. Then after Christ has destroyed all powers and forces, the end will come, and he will give the kingdom to God the Father.” [1 Corinthians 15:20-24, CEV] You see, again according to Scripture, when Jesus comes back, it’ll be our time to rise and shine.

Of course, that’s one of those good news, bad news deals, because this is when we’ll have to account for what we done and what we’ve left undone, and that applies to us as both individuals and nations. And this promise comes from Jesus himself. I mean, he said this to his disciples. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all of his angels, he will sit on his royal throne. The people of all nations will be brought before him, and he will separate them, as shepherds separate their sheep from their goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘My father has blessed you! Come and receive the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world was created. When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me.’ Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, ‘When did we give you something to eat or drink? When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear or visit you while you were sick or in jail?’ The king will answer, ‘Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.’ Then the king will say to those on his left, ‘Get away from me! You are under God’s curse. Go into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels! I was hungry, but you did not give me anything to eat, and I was thirsty, but you did not give me anything to drink. I was a stranger, but you did not welcome me, and I was naked, but you did not give me any clothes to wear. I was sick and in jail, but you did not take care of me.’ Then the people will ask, ‘Lord, when did we fail to help you when you were hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in jail?’ The king will say to them, ‘Whenever you failed to help any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you failed to do it for me.’” [Matthew 25:31-45, CEV] Now, for me, that’s both dramatic and really clear. You see, regardless of what we may think, faith isn’t a “Get out of jail free” card. We’re going to have to account for our words and our actions.

And as to when, you know when this will happen, remember Jesus also said this: “No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don’t know, and the Son himself doesn’t know. Only the Father knows. So watch out and be ready! You don’t know when the time will come.” [Mark 13:32-33, CEV] Now that’s what he said.

Now let’s pause here for just a minute so we can take stock of what we know. I mean, if we trust in Scripture, we know that just like Jesus left, he’s going to return; that’s one. And when he returns, the same thing that happened to him is going to happen to us, we’re going to have our own resurrection; that’s two. And after we’ve been raised, we’re going to be held accountable for we’ve done during our lives here on earth; that’s three. And four, since we don’t know the day or the time when this is going to happen, it just makes sense for us to be ready. Now, in a nutshell, that’s what we know about the return of Christ.

What we don’t know, is this: What are we going to do with this knowledge? In other words, starting right now, as we get ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus, how are we going to live believing that his second advent is coming? You see, whether we like it or not, that’s really the question we face.

And I’ll tell you, in my opinion, there are three possible answers we might give. You see, first, we can ignore it as best as we can. In other words, we can choose to believe that all this stuff is just so “out there” it can’t make any difference on how we live. And we can continue to act as though what’s most important is our inner connection with God, you know, that personal relationship with Jesus; therefore, what we actually say about and do to others is really not all that important, just so long as we’ve given God our lives and accepted Jesus as our Savior and asked the Holy Spirit into our hearts. I mean, what you do really doesn’t have to affect how you feel, right? You see, we can simply ignore all this stuff that we know. And if we’re really good at it, we might be able to achieve the same attitude held by the German Christian movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, a group that was so successful in separating their faith from their words and actions and opinions that they could not just tolerate but endorse Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. First, we can choose to ignore what we know.

But second, we can also become obsessed with it, and in particular this whole business about judgement and condemnation. Now that’s sort of on the other extreme. In other words, we can let the return of Christ scare the puddin out of us. I mean, we can dwell on all those images of Hell, you know, the lakes of fire and the demons with pitch folks and all those souls screaming and burning and writhing. And even though focusing on this means we have to disregard other parts of Scripture, you know, like when Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with him and to be his holy and innocent and loving people. God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God’s own adopted children. God was very kind to us because of the Son he dearly loves, and so we should praise God;” [Ephesians 1:4-6, CEV] or what he wrote to the Romans, “In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!” [Roman 8:37-39, CEV], this stuff we can ignore while we focus on the second coming. You see, instead allowing grace to enter the equation, we can focus on the punishment and then obsess on interpreting the signs so that we’ll know when Jesus is going to come back, because even though we can’t know the day and the time, we might be able to nail down the month and the year. And so, on one hand, we can ignore what we know; on the other hand, we can obsess on it.

But of course, there’s a third possible answer to the question, What are we going to do. I mean, rather than choosing to pretend it won’t happen or allow it to control our lives and faith, we can simply choose to do what Jesus said; we can choose to be prepared. In other words, we can accept everything we’ve talked about, you know, that Jesus is going to return and when he does, we’ll experience a new life. And at that time, without negating grace, we’ll be held accountable for our actions and since we can’t know when this is going to happen, we need to be ready. I’m telling you, we can accept this. And if we do, then maybe we can focus on doing the kind of things we know that God has given us the opportunity to do. And even though we’re going to need to break it down to specific actions, I believe they all fall under these simple yet profound words of Jesus Christ. “Jesus answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, ‘Love others as much as you love yourself.’ All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:37-40, CEV] And remember, John wrote, “If you hate each other, you are murderers, and we know that murderers do not have eternal life. We know what love is because Jesus gave his life for us. That’s why we must give our lives for each other. If we have all we need and see one of our own people in need, we must have pity on that person, or else we cannot say we love God. Children, you show love for others by truly helping them, and not merely by talking about it.” [1 John 3:15-19, CEV] You see, instead of ignoring or obsessing, we can simply live the kind of lives Christ wants us to live. And if we do, man, we’ll be ready.

And I’ll tell you, that’s really what this first advent candle is all about. You see, as we start getting ready to celebrate the first coming, the second one is on the horizon. And if we decide to accept it and live as though, right now, God has given us the chance to be the men and women he’s called and equipped us to be, then our preparation for the second advent will involve a lot more than just singing some Christmas songs and putting out some decorations. And next week we’ll look at the next verse of the song, what it means to sing, “We light the second candle, and hear God’s holy Word, it tells us, cling to Jesus, prepare to meet your Lord...”