Come Thou Long Expected Jesus – The First Sunday in Advent

This is the first in a series of reflections based upon a seasonal hymn, the collect of the day, and the ancient Western Sunday lectionary, as reflected in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. 

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, 

Born to set thy people free; 

From our fear and sins release us, 

Let us find our rest in thee. 

A new week brings in a new year. Sunday morning sun rises, and Advent is nearer. Not the end, mind you. For the end of this age has already begun and we are in the birth pangs of a new age, a new heaven, and a new earth. Until then, we are at war.  

The time grows short, and St. Paul calls us in the epistle reading for the First Sunday in Advent, “that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep” that the Church finds herself in far too often. Yet we are called to rise, yea, resurrect from our slumber, “for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” St. Paul is adamant about the time – have you checked it lately? “The night is far spent; the day is at hand,” St. Paul tells us in Romans 13. 

Are you too busy positioning yourself in your career? Are you far more concerned about getting the kids to their extracurricular activities than to Sunday services? Have you relegated your service to the Lord by writing a check instead of checking in on your neighbor? Have you forgotten to survey the status of your soul and neglected to wrestle with “our fear and sins” that Christ was born to release us from? Perhaps once again you are allowing a busybody and secular Christless-Christmas shopping season to drive you like a whirlwind through December. 

Stop; “find [y]our rest in thee.” 

Israel’s strength and consolation, 

Hope of all the earth thou art; 

Dear desire of every nation, 

Joy of every longing heart. 

Rest in the hope of the Gentiles and the King of the Jews. Find the “joy of every longing heart” and “Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” for our God reigns and the Son shall return as King for His people and Judge of the earth. Therefore, let Israel, His called ones, His bride, the Church, find her “strength and consolation” and “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Time is short, but not for us to be deceived by the distractions of the world but to “owe no man anything, but to love one another.” Let joy reign for Joy Himself was slain so that He may reign in our hearts, our acts, our voices, and our loves. 

Born thy people to deliver, 

Born a child, and yet a king, 

Born to reign in us for ever, 

Now thy gracious kingdom bring. 

It may strike you as “odd” that the Gospel for the First Sunday in Advent is from St. Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 21, which focuses upon the Lord’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Yet this Gospel reading prepares us for the Lord Jesus’ second coming by reminding us that we are His subjects only because He meekly descended and was “born thy people to deliver, born a child, and yet a king.” He humbly enters His capital upon “the foal of an ass,” quoting Zechariah 9:9, which in turn suggests verse 10: “he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” Our King enters Jerusalem humbly, but His humble Kingdom shall extend from Mount Zion to the furthest Isles of the Pacific. 

“Now thy gracious kingdom bring,” we sing as the Kingdom that shall have no end extends to the ends of the earth. This is the mission of the Church and the mission we must not forget nor neglect while the demons distract us with devilish deadlines, secular shopping, and corporate targets. Our mission, and the proclamation, remain the same as the children of Jerusalem in Matthew 21, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” When we are asked, “Who is this?” we must boldly reply along with His people, “This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” Yes, and Christ tells us, more than the Prophet, He is also the living tabernacle of God, who “went into the temple of God” and told His people that the temple belonged to Him, for He is God, as Jesus quotes Jeremiah 7, “[He] said unto them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer,” but ye have made it a den of thieves.’” Yes, the house of the Lord belongs to Jesus, for He is Immanuel – God with us. 

But are we forgetting how near Immanuel’s Advent is by rendering the House of the Lord a den of thieves? Are we stealing away time better devoted to worshipping the Lord, serving the Church, and proclaiming the Gospel by casting off works of darkness? Are we living an uneventful life that denies the Adventful anticipation we should have by living for the Lord? Do you find the beginning of your Advent distracting and squandering each day? 

Cease and desist your wanderings in the desert wilderness of Sin and return to the feet of the Master. Be still, wandering creature, and allow Him to “put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life” as we pray in the Collect we repeat during Advent. He gives us water from the Rock, He feeds us manna from heaven, and He armors us to face the darkness – not alone – but baptized into He who conquered for us, and not through us. 

By thine own eternal Spirit 

Rule in all our hearts alone; 

By thine all-sufficient merit 

Raise us to thy glorious throne. Amen. 

Not by our own power can we rest, but only “by thine own eternal Spirit” may we find the peace of our King ruling “in all our hearts alone.” The Father’s “Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility,” and we must seek Him in humility. He comes to us amidst our darkness to enlighten us by His “own eternal Spirit.” By His self-same Spirit our King equips us and enlivens us to live the new life in the here and now. We do not merit and earn our spot in the Kingdom, for our citizenship is given unto us. The old hymn reminds us “By thine” – and not mine – “all-sufficient merit, Raise us to thy glorious throne.”  

We are raised up by Him who took the bread and took the cup and raised it up to do in remembrance of Him. This Advent, allow yourself Sabbath. Rest and feast on the Lord’s Day, so He may pick you up, raise you on high, and set you before His glorious throne. Receive the eternal gift of the Spirit before buying the temporal gift that is destroyed. Do not plough the shallow fields of ending the fourth quarter strong when the new year has already begun. Advent is here and the Advent is near. Christ has come, and He shall come again. He first “came to visit us in great humility,” therefore come to your King in humility so “that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.”