It is Advent again, the season of the coming of Christ.  I love the this time of year, but I read about a church that had abolished Advent. Their argument was first, that no one knew what Advent was. (Nobody gives Advent presents.) Second, everybody wants to start celebrating Christmas. (Walmart starts in August selling Christmas decorations.) Third, people want Christmas done on December 25, so the church lingering on with Christmas until January 6 is pointless.

I worry anytime the church wants to do something because that’s the way the world is. The fact that most children know more about who comes down the chimney than who came down from heaven is a sign of the church failing in its mission to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I appreciate the comment of German Lutheran theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg that there are three comings of Christ one should pay attention to in Advent. The first is the coming of Christ as the Child Jesus born in Bethlehem. The second is the coming of Christ again to reign at the end of time. But what is the third coming? The coming of Christ in the bread and wine of Communion.

It’s so well summed up in the second stanza of “Let all Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
in the body and the blood.
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heav’nly food.

Blessed Advent,

Wayne

Read Revelation 1:7 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.