Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending – Second Sunday in Advent

Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,
Once for our salvation slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Christ, the Lord, returns to reign.
 

“Mark my words,” is the theme of this Sunday’s collect. Yet do we truly mark our Lord’s words? Hearing the Second Coming, the Judgment, and the four last things preached upon during Advent is rarer and rarer. Should we truly believe our “Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning,” then the realities of judgment, righting the wrongs of mankind’s and the devil’s rebellion, and the restoration and of all things would come as no surprise to us. 

Unfortunately, many Christians are ignorant of the very Holy Scriptures that our Lord wrote by the hand and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Today’s collect calls us to learn Scripture, and not merely know its existence. What does it profit a man if he should own all the Scripture translations and simply collect dust on the jackets of each Bible he owns? 

To know the Living Word of God is to encounter Him in His written Word. We pray today for God’s assistance to learn His written Word so that we may be affected, impacted, and strengthened by it. Therefore, we pray for God’s provision to “Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.” We are not merely to hear but listen. Our prayer is to not simply read but retain. If we are to learn then we must digest God’s Holy Word, just as we spiritually eat the body and blood of our Lord Jesus, so too must we inwardly digest in our soul the Scriptures. 

Ev’ry eye shall now behold him,
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold him,
Pierced, and nailed him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing
Shall the true Messiah see. 

Truth be told, even Christians do not like the implications and idea of Advent. Perhaps this is why too many believers prefer a buffet approach to the Scriptures instead of consuming all three courses in one sitting. If we are honest, the Scriptures can make us uncomfortable. The Word reads us just as much as we read it. If those in the pew are honest with themselves, they dislike much of what Scripture says because it goes against the grain of what they wish it said. They fear the return of the King because secretly they have a foot in this world. For many Christians, the imagery of our King returning is less “Come now, Lord Jesus” and more of deeply wailing at the sight of the one whom we pierced. Ironically, the “Bible and me” crowd, the “Creedless Christians,” and churchless believers are the ones who balk at what the Bible plainly tells us: the Word is returning to judge the world and His people. 

Yet, should we take up and digest the Lord’s Holy Word, then we would see that our Lord’s return is for our great benefit. We should look forward to the judgment, for it means our redemption is nigh. Indeed, on the Second Sunday in Advent, we pray for God’s grace that we will know the Scriptures so that we might have not mere knowledge, but that through “patience and comfort of thy holy word” our sinful hearts will be broken and we stubborn mules shall be changed into stallions of the King who “may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou has given in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.” 

Those dear tokens of his passion
Still his dazzling body bears,
Cause of endless exultation
To his ransomed worshipers:
With what rapture, with what rapture,
Gaze we on those glorious scars! 

We Westerners and even (especially) Christians must shed the three pillars of the past century: progressivism, modernism, and post-modernism. Why? Because unfortunately for the rare occasion when we actually listen to the sermon or dust off our Scriptures, we read not to learn nor to feast and digest, but instead we scarf. We scarf down the Scriptures on our own timing and only as though it is a dessert to be ordered to-go instead of savoring with a friend. We tune in momentarily for a brief (but not too long) word from the Lord and only to make it about ourselves. Instead of praying for discernment and knowledge so that “thy will be done,” we simply try to twist the Scriptures in order to make any given passage apply to me, myself, and I. It is as though the Scriptures are a horoscope. Yet the Scriptures were not written about you. Certainly, they apply to you, but they were written as the revelation of the Triune God and about His redemption of humanity and creation. The divine revelation affects you, but the effects are for everlasting rest and not for divining your best life now. 

Hence, St. Paul reminds us the purpose of the Scriptures in Romans 15:4, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” The Bible is the book of hope for us but is about the Triune God who gives hope. The Word of God gives comfort and shows us He is our only hope by pointing us alongside Thomas to His wounds. By “those dear tokens of his passion, still his dazzling body bears” it should provoke and give us “cause of endless exultation, to his ransomed worshipers.” 

Although for the moment we do not see Christ face-to-face, yet we may encounter His wounds for us by heeding the same words St. Augustine heard: tolle lege, tolle lege – take up and read. Those words heard by Augustine of Hippo led him to read the Holy Scriptures, and he was never the same again. He became, what each of us in faith becomes, a holy one, a set apart one, a saint. We too shall never be the same once we prayerfully meditate and inwardly digest Christ through His holy words.  

Dear saints, you seek understanding, but do you believe? If you approach the Scriptures as a do-it-yourself manual then you are not feasting upon the Word, but merely treating it as a YouTube video for a quick fix to a problem in life. But the Scriptures are much more. Perhaps you are frustrated by the Scriptures and you find yourself confused by the Bible, but this is because you sample the Scriptures as appetizers instead of going all-in. Do not pick and grab off the tray, your King invited you to sit and dine with Him, not to shmooze and make an appearance at a party where you sample the scene and dash. Or perhaps you only delight in the New Testament’s red letters and forget the One who bled out His red blood is the One who spoke all the letters – both Old and New Testaments. Gorge yourself in the Scripture’s three-course meal so you may meditate, ruminate, chew, and digest every word. Although the gluttony of this world shall rot our bodies, indulgence in the Word of God shall bring life eternal.  

Yea, Amen! let all adore thee,
High on thine eternal throne:
Saviour, take the power and glory;
Claim the kingdoms for thine own:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou shalt reign, and Thou alone! Amen. 

Do you adore our Lord’s return? Do you rejoice in it? Do you expect it? 

We should expect our Lord’s return just as easily as we expect the sun to rise tomorrow. Why? Because our Lord has promised it, and His “words shall not pass away.” (Luke 21:33). We should joyfully expect our Lord’s coming with clouds descending. Moreso, we should know our Scriptures well enough to neither be worried nor ignorant about what will happen before His return. 

Today, we heard our Lord’s plain words, as recorded in Luke 21:25‒26: “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Yet we must inwardly digest that this is good news for the believer in Christ, for “shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” 

Our redemption draweth nigh, therefore let us adore Him. For now, He sits “high on thine eternal throne” but at the Father’s bidding, the Son, our “Savior, take the power and glory; claim the kingdoms for thine own.” 

Ah yes, the Gentile kingdoms shall be no more, and yet this mission between this first and second Advent is to reach the Jew and Gentile alike. As St. Paul tells us in today’s epistle reading: “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” (Romans 15:8‒9). St. Paul proceeds to quote from four sections of Scripture demonstrating God’s gracious plan from the beginning was to redeem from every nation, tribe, and language those whom He loves and calls into everlasting life. 

But how can we praise our God with “Alleluia! Alleluia!” unless we know our God as He revealed Himself in the Scriptures? For when we seek our Lord in the very written Word He gives us, then we shall realize His glorious love for His creation. Such wondrous love He has for His fallen creatures that He dares to become and die as one of us in order to redeem, transform, restore, and glorify us at His Advent. Inwardly digesting this Gospel should provoke us to praise and invite our King to return to reign on earth and He does in heaven. Further, it should spur us, O Church, to the mission and work He has called us into. The fields were planted with Gospel seed in His first coming, and we are enrolled into the harvest until His second Advent. Let us put our hand to the plow and not our eyes to the skies, for our Lord tarries until all who have been called have come home to rest in Him. Now is the time to callus our hands and harvest until “Christ, the Lord, returns to reign” and “Thou shalt reign, and Thou alone! Amen.”