Who Is "Coming" This Advent?

“Advent”, from the Latin word adventus, means “arrival” or “coming”. The Advent season begins four Sundays before Christmas – Christ Mass – and serves as a time of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

However, radio and television suggest that there might be other “advents” on people’s minds – other “comings” that are on our hearts and minds. Some examples from the radio include:

“Please come home for Christmas, if not by Christmas, by New Year’s night”;

“I’ll be home for Christmas, just you wait and see”;

“You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why …”;

Perhaps you have seen The Traveler’s Insurance Company’s “peaceable kingdom” commercial during college football games this fall? The commercial shows all sorts of animals – many of whom would normally be food for the animal next to them – living peacefully together on a beautiful day at an idyllic waterhole. Read this week’s Lesson from Isaiah (11:1-10, especially 6-9): The imagery for the commercial may be found there, but the motivation for the commercial (selling insurance) is not quite the same as the motivation for God’s prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah foretells the “coming” of a Davidic king (from the stock of Jesse, David’s father) who will be the embodiment of God’s rule on earth. Prior to the “peaceable kingdom” imagery, Isaiah describes the inspiration and the function of the king who is “coming”:

“on him the spirit of Yahweh rests, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh. (The fear of Yahweh is his breath.) He does not judge by appearances, he gives no verdict on hearsay, but judges the wretched with integrity, and with equity gives a verdict for the poor of the land. His word is a rod that strikes the ruthless, his sentences bring death to the wicked. Integrity is the loincloth round his waist, faithfulness the belt about his hips.” (Isaiah 11:2-5; The Jerusalem Bible)

Christian interpreters have always sensed that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s vision expressed through Isaiah. In Christ, God fulfilled this prophesy (Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and/or John.).

In the Body of Christ – the Church, God fulfills this prophesy whenever we live and love, offer healing and hope, or share glimpses of grace in ways that Jesus did. We might never fully replicate the witness of Christ, but when through us His Spirit touches another with His light and love, we reveal the truth about God and all of God’s creatures.

Who is coming this Advent? During this Season of Advent, pray for the “coming” of Christ to another through you!