A Poem for the First Sunday in Advent

by: Godsbooklover

It’s the first Sunday of the season of anticipation that the Church calls “Advent”…which simply means ‘coming’.  We reenact the longing that Israel felt waiting for its promised Messiah, by counting down to our celebration of Christ’s birth.

But for Christians, Advent is never just about a reenactment or a birthday party for someone born 2,000 years ago.  It’s also our own true longing for our Savior’s SECOND coming, which will restore all things to their rightful place of subordination under the rule of Almighty God.

Finally, justice and mercy will flower, death will be swallowed up in life, and every knee will bow before the King, proclaiming, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” to the glory of God the Father (see Philippians 2:9-11).

Meanwhile, we wait here in a dark world, and we light our candles of hope anew each December.

Here’s a poem which echoes many of the themes this blog has been playing for the past several months. Thanks to Bob Myers over at his excellent blog, ‘Thots on Life and Worship’, for introducing this poem (and this poet) to me.

View the Present Through the Promise

View the present through the promise, Christ will come again.               Trust despite the deepening darkness, Christ will come again.

Lift the world above its grieving through your watching and believing

in the hope past hope’s conceiving: Christ will come again.

Probe the present with the promise, Christ will come again.

Let your daily actions witness, Christ will come again.

Let your loving and your giving and your justice and forgiving

be a sign to all the living: Christ will come again.

Match the present to the promise, Christ will come again.

Make this hope your guiding premise, Christ will come again.

Pattern all your calculating and the world you are creating

to the advent you are waiting: Christ will come again.

-By Thomas H. Troeger,  © 1994 Oxford University Press, Inc.

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Everything believers do in the service of impacting our culture for God’s Kingdom must be predicated on this simple hope: Christ IS coming again.