The Second Sunday of Advent

08 December 2024

Corinne de Klerk

Our theme for this Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent is thinking about the first and second coming of the Lord Jesus, the discomfort this may bring and God’s grace, love and faithfulness through it all.

So let us pray.

Father, as we gather here together, be with us. Help us prepare for Christmas, through the waiting, reflecting and expectancy of this Advent season. Help us to expect You with joy, like Paul and the Philippians even or especially when we may feel the discomfort of living in the already but not yet. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts be acceptable to you, Lord, Our rock and our redeemer. In the name of Christ, Amen.

This morning, we are looking at our New Testament Reading from Pauls letter to the Philippians. Now Paul’s first visit to Philippi is described in Acts 16. You may remember Lydia the business woman. She was a dealer in purple cloth – which means she was well-off. She offered Paul hospitality after she and her household had been baptised.

Then Paul cast a spirit out of a slave girl, who had been earning lots of money for her owners by fortune telling. These owners were most upset, because their money making scheme had just been thwarted. They had Paul and Silas beaten and jailed. Paul and Silas spent their time in jail praying and singing hymns to God.

I have such fun imagining that scene, not everyone could have appreciated the singing, I bet some ears were covered  - hey we are trying to get some sleep here!- but also that some hearts were moved.

After an earthquake had opened up the prison doors and unfastened chains, Paul kept their jailer from killing himself. The jailer and his family converted too. And from there the congregation grew. And grew strong enough to support Paul.

Paul starts his letter by thanking God for the Philippians. They shared in the gospel from the first day. Later Paul thanks the Philippians for their support. Paul’s affection is clear throughout the letter as he encourages the Philippians to live out their faith in joy and unity, the Philippians share God’s grace and Paul longs for them and prays for love, discernment and a harvest of righteousness.

Paul seems joyful and at peace. This is noteworthy for a couple of reasons.

One. Paul is writing from jail, not knowing whether he will live or die. He says in verse 21 that for him to live is Christ and to die is gain. Both are real and possible. He may even slightly prefer the second….

Two. This congregation means something for him. The letter to the Philippians is known as the letter of joy. Paul mentions words like joy or rejoicing give or take every 7 verses.

Three . The reason for Paul’s joy may be found in verse 6 : “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” and verse 10 where The day of Christ is also mentioned. Paul seems to be looking forward to and be finding joy in thinking about the return of Christ Jesus.

Paul knows God’s peace, grace and faithfulness through it all.

 This Sunday is also the Sunday of the prophets in the Advent calendar. The day of the Lord that Paul is looking forward to, as mentioned by the prophets of the Old Testament is a day of wrath, calamity, destruction  and divine judgment.

Amos speaks of it as a day of darkness ( 5:18 ). Joel depicts it as a day of clouds and thick darkness ( 2:2 ). Zephaniah's description ( 1:15-16a ) is vivid:

That day will be a day of wrath, A day of distress and anguish. A day of trouble and ruin, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and blackness.  A day of trumpet and battle cry.

This is a far cry from being joyful.

However, these same prophets also describe the day of the Lord as a day of salvation.

For Joel salvation consists in abundance of grain, new wine, and oil, enough to satisfy  (Joel 2:19, 24, 26) In the words of Zephaniah, God will "restore their [Judah's] fortunes" ( 2:7 ), he says , "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love" ( 3:17 ).

So the Old Testament teaching holds this tension between judgement and salvation. What all the prophets seem to agree on, though, is that God will be faithful through it all.

And then in the New Testament, from our Gospel reading, our prophet is John, who in the words of Isaiah, is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, speaking of preparation.

Advent is the time of preparation for the coming of Jesus. When we reflect on Jesus being born in Bethlehem all those years ago, His presence among us now and his second coming, does that make us feel uneasy? Do we feel that tension? I would imagine we do not have much issue with a little baby boy born in a manger, that idea sells well enough. Shop windows in the High Street have mangers, donkeys, wise men and it can make us feel very “Christmassy”.

There is a real question there whether it feels this way for everyone. I am very aware of how lonely, or charged Christmas can feel. But by and large we do talk of Christmas cheer rather than Christmas gloom.

However, the thought of the end times and Jesus’ second coming often does not quite have that same cheerful effect and rather seems to be influenced by narratives about apocalypse or rapture or annihilation of some sort or other.  Then gloom seems more appropriate as an emotion.

In an inbetween time, inbetween emotions are fitting. Living in a place between Christ who was and is and is to come can feel uncomfortable. Not only are we a work in progress, we live in a broken world, where modern media and life in a city mean conflict and war and hunger and homelessness are not far from our doorstep at any time.

So another tension we hold is of the Advent expectation of the second coming and the new heaven and the new earth and the brokenness of the world we live in. We are called to engage with this messy reality daily and be messengers of God’s faithfulness to the world.

We are expected to be transformed ourselves as we try and live lives of generosity and faithfulness and love in a broken world.  But how are we going to make a difference in the world. Tension.

We can however, feel a sense of peace about that, because in the end it was never about us and how hard we try. It was always about God’s faithfulness and His love for us demonstrated by a baby born in a manger, who will come again in glory.

And I think the brokenness of the world is supposed to hurt a little.  

It is in liminal places that God acts and where we can see his faithfulness – though more often than not in hindsight. My Spiritual Director gave me the Examen as an exercise and I can recommend it for Advent. It teaches you to prayerfully look back at your day and give thanks for what was good, pray about what felt big and then look forward to tomorrow. And whilst doing that prayerful reflection, quite often something clicks and you see that was where God was at work.

When living in Amsterdam, I had this morning when I woke up feeling blue, life was full of burdens and I was not up to the task. As I was cycling down a narrow canal, a garbage truck was coming my way. And that canal was not big enough for the two of us. So it became a game of chicken, where I was racing down the canal to this spot where I could pull to the side and this huge garbage truck was charging towards me. I made it and the truck stopped next to me. And I knew it was a bad day and I would get shouted at. Instead, this tattoo covered sinewy man looked down at me and said in a thick Amsterdam accent : Be careful now, we need you around here, we don’t want to lose you. And he drove off.

And it was only during morning prayer, where I had been headed, that my heart rate finally came down, and I realised I was feeling so much better after that encounter. God has some interesting angels doing his work and showing his love for us. God shows his grace, love and faithfulness when we need it.

When we are feeling the tension is when we most often turn to God and meet Him in our lives. And maybe that way, we can be like Paul and be joyful and at peace through it all.

It is only when we stop and reflect, that we see the Kingdom of God break through in our lives and we can begin to understand the faithfulness of our heavenly Father. So maybe this Advent time is meant to feel uncomfortable, so we are encouraged to stop and reflect. Maybe we can actually rejoice in the discomfort, the tension, because that is when our eyes and ears are more attentive to God.

There will be a day where we stand before God and our lives will be considered. That day will come and I think that too will feel uncomfortable. But when we are there, on our knees, we can look and see Christ Jesus at our side and feel His love for us. And we can know God’s grace, love and faithfulness through it all.

So when we look at the baby in the manger we can marvel at God’s plan. And when we look at the second coming of Christ, we can marvel at God’s faithfulness. In the meantime, this time may be meant to feel uncomfortable, so we are encouraged to stop and reflect and we can actually rejoice in that, because that is when our eyes and ears are more attentive to God.

And we can be transformed into the people God has called us to be. And Christmas is coming.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.