Last weekend, my youth group and I began a month-long celebration of the Advent season. For those of you unfamiliar with this, the Advent season is composed of the four weekends leading up to Christmas and is frequently celebrated by lighting a candle for each week until Christmas day. It’s been celebrated by Christians in some way or another since at least the fifth century, and commemorates the joyful expectation of Jesus’s coming.
Which coming, you might ask? After all, the Bible describes two: when He showed up in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago and when He will show up again at some point in the future. In fact, the name Seventh-day Adventist refers to this second coming. The Advent season celebrates both these things, drawing rich parallels between those who waited for Him long ago and we who are waiting for Him now. In this celebration, the past collapses with the present and we become a part of that story. The hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is frequently sung on the first weekend of Advent and I love how its lyrics would make sense for both those who waited for Jesus long ago and those who wait for Him now: O come, O come, Immanuel, And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel! O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, And order all things far and nigh; To us the path of knowledge show, And cause us in her ways to go. O come, Desire of nations, bind All peoples in one heart and mind; Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease; Fill the whole world with heaven's peace. A close look at this hymn reveals it to be a prayer for Jesus to come and accomplish all that He has promised. It is a prayer for salvation (verse 1), a prayer for wisdom (verse 2), and a prayer for peace (verse 3). Salvation and wisdom are prayers most Christians are fairly familiar with, as these are core messages of hope that Christianity has to offer, but peace? We live in a world that has never really been at peace. This year alone, most of us have been subject to the “envy, strife, and quarrels” the third verse refers to in nauseating proportions. A prayer for peace is a bold thing--it goes against the grain of human nature to set aside our differences to “bind all peoples in one heart and mind.” Why pray it, then? Because we need it, and because Jesus is the only One Who can make it happen. Total peace in our lifetime may not be possible without His actual second coming, but it is vital to pray for it and work towards it wherever it can be found. When we sing of peace on Earth at Christmastime, we must not content ourselves with the feeling of peace--the soft glow of Christmas lights and all those other sentimental pleasantries--but reach for real peace based on the desire to listen and to seek each other’s good. Toward that end, we wait and we pray. We pray for hope and for peace, and we know that Jesus can bring it when He comes again
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
Categories |