Jordan’s Shores

The Sunday Next before Advent

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

The wearied Christian approaches the banks before him. He wipes the sweat from his brow, but Another awaits to wipe the tears from his eyes. Jordan’s shores are before us. Our journey through the ancient Western lectionary appears to be at an end. Truly, it is not an end, but a new beginning—a rebirth. In part, we are at the end of one journey, but we are about to begin a new one, and not alone but with our King who descends to earth again. What else can we do except be stirred up in our hearts, beating wildly in our chest as Lo! He comes with clouds descending!

We knock at Advent’s door, awaiting to cross over Jordan with our King into the Promised Land. On the other hand, we enter into a new Church year, crossing over Jordan to go to war against the giants and godless adversaries who oppose Christ and we, His Church: sin, death, and the devil.

Hence, as we prepare to go to battle, with our King leading the charge, we cry aloud unto the Father to “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people.” (Collect of the Day). Our will is stirred up – not to sin – but to “pleanteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,” as our weapons against our ancient foes. These works of love in response to the greatest Worker of Love, Christ Jesus, one day shall “be plenteously rewarded” upon our King’s second Advent. (Collect of the Day).

To Him shall endless prayer be made,
And praises throng to crown His head;
His name like sweet perfume shall rise
With every morning sacrifice.

Regardless of how we view Stir Up Sunday, we are being stirred up for battle. Our King descends at His second Advent to eternally destroy sin, death, and the devil. And we, while still in sinful flesh, do battle against the defiling polluters of the Promised Land, by destroying within our body of flesh and denying ourselves the sins that lead to death and belong to our former enslaver, satan. This is why the old Western lectionary does something curious this last liturgical Sunday. It resurrects a Gospel lesson we heard all the way back in Lent, specifically the Fourth Sunday in Lent. We return to John chapter 6, when Jesus feeds the five thousand. Why this repetitive Gospel? There is plenty of Gospel left untouched that our ancient Western fathers could have used for this glorious eve of Holy Advent! Yet the fathers of the Church are telling us something, if only we had ears to hear.

The first time we encountered this lesson during Lent, we also heard the prologue, which sets the scene of the feeding of the five thousand. But this Sunday, those first four verses are cut from the lesson. Why? During Lent, we needed the context that “the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh” because we were walking with Christ to Calvary. (John 6:4). During Lent, we are walking with Christ to His Passover fulfillment on Good Friday. This Sunday, we dive straight into Jesus miraculously feeding the five thousand without pause for context. There is an urgency to get straight to Christ’s feeding of His people. There is a twofold reason for this urgency. We are first reminded that Christ fed us while we were sinners in need of a Savior. Christ feeds us while heading towards His suffering. Yet we are also reminded that Christ continues feeding us in His Kingdom, while we await His Advent when He institutes His eternal kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven. During Lent, Jesus feeds His starving chosen people, who seek Him after He performs miracles and find themselves hungry in the desert. Today, we are fed by Him on Jordan’s shores, hungrily awaiting His Advent and preparing to enter the Promised Land.

The twelve baskets of leftovers represent the Jewish people when we encountered this reading in Lent. This Sunday, the twelve baskets remind us that there is no Jew nor Greek in Christ, but all are one as the Gentile believers are incorporated into the tree of life, the one body, the one Church, Christ Himself. However, on this Stir Up Sunday, we are also reminded that until Christ’s Advent, there are good works for us to walk in to spread the Gospel throughout the earth. We are called by Christ to “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” (John 6:12). Nothing is lost in Christ, dear friends. While the Light is with us, let us walk in Him and proclaim His glorious reign, for Christ is King. As faithful disciples, let us follow the footsteps of the fathers and apostles before us, when “they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves.” There are many fragments of God’s people who need to hear His Gospel and be gathered into the twelve tribes of God’s holy Church.

People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on His love with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on His Name.

The nations of the world once fell into rebellion, yet God refused to allow humanity to be lost, and He chose a people for Himself. He planted Israel, grew her into twelve tribes, gave her His Word, and by His Word, died, resurrected, and redeemed her from her slavery. God entered into the world and became flesh over two thousand years ago. Jesus, in His body, shall return bodily and we shall joyfully echo the words from the Gospel lesson, “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.” (John 6:14). A prophet, a priest, and a King, Christ is coming. “For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: and with righteousness to judge the world, and the peoples with his truth.” (Psalm 96:13, Coverdale Psalter, 1928 Book of Common Prayer). When He returns, He shall gather His elect like crumbs spread across the earth so that members of every tongue, tribe, and nation shall be gathered as His one body, the Church.

When our Lord returns, it shall be joy for the children of the King. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” (Jeremiah 23:5). The weeping prophet’s tears shall turn to joy as the wrongs shall be righted. The old world shall be made new, as new as she was on her first day. Long before the Roman church redesignated this day as Christ the King Sunday, the old Western fathers already noted this fact through our epistle lesson. The son of David, Son of God, shall swiftly execute justice upon the earth and reunite not only Jew and Gentile but all of God’s people. “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:6).

Blessings abound where’er He reigns,
The pris’ner leaps to burst his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blest.

We have walked the ancient path. We have clung to our Master and our King along His Way. We have finished the race. Enter now into His rest. Hear the comforting words of Jeremiah’s prophecy, we “shall be saved,” and “shall dwell safely” with our King. (Jeremiah 23:6). The crisp, cool change in the air is more than a change or passing by of seasons. “[B]ehold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jeremiah 23:7-8). Walk over the Jordan onto the shores of salvation. The Promised Land awaits.

We wander no more in the wilderness. We remember and recall what our Lord God did for our fathers before us: from saving Moses and God’s people on the pathway from slavery to giving us the Promised Land, and inspiring our ancient Church fathers by gifting us a pathway through the Holy Scriptures to follow Christ along the Way for the rest of our lives.

The Lord God liveth indeed. He lives and He reigns. He calls from the nations all His people who by faith believe upon Him. He gathers them as broken loaves, He herds them as lost sheep, and He gives them comfort and peace in His kingdom to return from exile so “they,” and we, “shall dwell in their own land.”

Welcome home weary traveler,
Find your rest in He,
Who won the battle
Gathering you as your King.

Let every creature rise and bring
Peculiar honors to our King;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth repeat the long Amen.

Amen.