December 7 | Advent 2, Year A
Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
We live like the orphan who has been given the promise of adoption but must wait until the legalities are completed. The adoptive parents have promised to return for us when the adoption is finished. Then we will be taken home and know the reality of being in a family. We may still be at the orphanage now, but it is a new day and life is lived in a new way. Our life has become one of preparation, not just continuing along in the way it has always been.
The word we use for the time between the event that makes a new way possible and that which makes it a present reality is Advent. We live knowing that we have been adopted, but we have not yet been taken home.
The Prophet Isaiah has awakened us to the promise. God’s kingdom will be reestablished. Another King David, not just another Davidic King, will come and sit on the throne of the kingdom. This One will be the death-conquering seed that rescues the human family, as promised by God in Genesis 3:15. And he is not just a Savior born, but a monarch reigning. Through his word, reconciliation between God and man, and even among the animals of the earth, will be established. He will be the king of all the world and the nations will submit to him. As a result of all the nations being united under one ruler, war will end.
The promise given through the patriarchs and prophets became the clear articulation of our intense hunger for God. And this hope has been renewed by the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension he has made our reconciliation with God and ultimate peace possible. We are adopted as his children and are considered members of God’s family, even today.
But the full consummation of our adoption will not be a reality until Jesus returns for us in glory on the last day. Meanwhile, we live in Advent. Life is different for us, even though we still live in this world and are subject to the powers and principalities that exist. But it is a new day and we are to live in a new way. The hope of the promise is renewed. We are to live in expectation of the satisfaction of our hunger and of becoming children of God, no longer his enemies.
When we prepare for an event that involves action, we do more than just wait. In our preparation we rehearse the way we should act when the time comes. In the military, troops not only train through simulated wartime scenarios, but they also rehearse for the ceremonies welcoming dignitaries and for troop reviews. Football teams scrimmage offense against defense using the formations and plays of the future opponent. In each case, the people involved live in the moment as they anticipate having to live in the future. God in his word has revealed to us his expectations and the manner in which we are called to live in his presence.
Advent is the time for us to begin to train ourselves to live God’s way as his children, so that when Jesus returns to bring us home, we will know how to act in God’s house as part of the family.
Look It Up: Romans 15:13
Think About It: There is no greater source of significance and security than knowing we belong to God eternally.
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School.
