First Sunday of Advent

Preachers familiar with the Lectionary will not be taken off guard that the very first Gospel reading to begin the church’s year is a potentially anxiety-inducing warning of the end. The Preacher is advised to lean into that shock and awe, and not ameliorate it to the images of babies in mangers already creeping into parishioners’ heads as the Christmas decorations have already gone up at the department stores. Christ’s words jolt us out of holiday complacency. The Christ Child we picture as a sweet cherub and frame with sugarplums and garlands will come at the end of all things to judge the living and the dead!

The preacher might focus on “coming” in verse 37, parousia, literally “presence,” an ordinary Greek word used for a visit by a political authority, but which the church adopted as a label for intervention by Christ in the course of history. This special sense of “coming” can be used as a single word to describe the visit of the King of Kings that we ought to use for Advent, but also to expect: At the end of the world when he will judge the living and the dead as glimpsed in our first reading, but also in the course of our own lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul speaks to us about in the second lesson. Truly every moment of our entire lives is lived in the anticipation of the advent of our Lord both now and in the age to come.