First Sunday of Advent: Come Quickly, Lord
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
—1 Corinthians 13: 12
When I was a campus minister, just out of college in 1999, one of the first students I met was a young Jewish woman.
It was a fun friendship—we immediately bonded as some of the only “religious people” on our secular campus, and we had deep conversations about theology and life. She once invited me to a Shabbat dinner, and I was fascinated by the hand-washing rituals and careful separation of meat and dairy.
One day, not long after this dinner, we finally broached a sensitive subject.
“What do you think when Christians say that the Messiah has already come?” I asked tentatively, wondering if she would be upset.
There was a long pause. But she didn’t look at all upset. She replied with perfect clarity, as if she were teaching a child.
“The Messiah can’t have come. We believe that when the Messiah comes, all things will be put right. Have you looked around you?”
I don’t remember how I replied, but I’m sure that I looked at the ground, and then I probably mumbled something about Jesus coming back someday, Or that maybe God had a different plan than she thought. Or something else.
What I do remember is feeling unnerved by the simplicity of her response, and the power of it. “Have you looked around you?”
Soon after this conversation, my friend transferred to another school, but her words echoed in my head for a long time. I berated myself for my inadequate answer, but the truth was that it wasn’t an easy objection for me to overcome.
I believed that Jesus had come and would come again. I knew that we were living in some sort of in-between time that Jesus’ first followers—all a part of the same religious tradition as my friend—had not expected. But my “answers” seemed unsatisfying when I looked at the suffering and evil still running rampant in God’s world.
“Have you looked around you?” Yes. Lord have mercy, I have.
In some ways, this devotional that you hold (digitally) in your hands is a continuing response to my friend’s question. At its heart is an unresolved tension at the heart of the Advent season—a tension that we sometimes call the “now-but-not-yet.”
To put it simply—during Advent, we remember that we live in between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. And we wrestle with what that means.
Jesus came. A humble manger, a rugged cross, an empty tomb. The world was irreversibly changed. The light of the world shone in the darkness. The new creation was inaugurated with resurrection power. These things really happened, and they can’t be taken away.
And.
Have you looked around you? Come quickly, Lord!
But not all hope is lost. In fact, it’s still going strong. You just need to know where to look.
For the next 24 days, we will read stories about what it means to trust God in difficult times. We will cling to Jesus’ work and his promises as we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” And we will rejoice as we are filled with the Spirit, given as a sign and a seal of Jesus’ return.
In a world like this and in times like these, we need each other and we need each other’s stories. And so I invite you today:
Hear what the Lord has done. And let us imagine, together, what is yet to come.
—Jennifer Pelling is a writer and editor with the CCO’s Marketing & Communications Team. She is managing editor of the CCO Advent Devotional.
—1 Corinthians 13: 12
When I was a campus minister, just out of college in 1999, one of the first students I met was a young Jewish woman.
It was a fun friendship—we immediately bonded as some of the only “religious people” on our secular campus, and we had deep conversations about theology and life. She once invited me to a Shabbat dinner, and I was fascinated by the hand-washing rituals and careful separation of meat and dairy.
One day, not long after this dinner, we finally broached a sensitive subject.
“What do you think when Christians say that the Messiah has already come?” I asked tentatively, wondering if she would be upset.
There was a long pause. But she didn’t look at all upset. She replied with perfect clarity, as if she were teaching a child.
“The Messiah can’t have come. We believe that when the Messiah comes, all things will be put right. Have you looked around you?”
I don’t remember how I replied, but I’m sure that I looked at the ground, and then I probably mumbled something about Jesus coming back someday, Or that maybe God had a different plan than she thought. Or something else.
What I do remember is feeling unnerved by the simplicity of her response, and the power of it. “Have you looked around you?”
Soon after this conversation, my friend transferred to another school, but her words echoed in my head for a long time. I berated myself for my inadequate answer, but the truth was that it wasn’t an easy objection for me to overcome.
I believed that Jesus had come and would come again. I knew that we were living in some sort of in-between time that Jesus’ first followers—all a part of the same religious tradition as my friend—had not expected. But my “answers” seemed unsatisfying when I looked at the suffering and evil still running rampant in God’s world.
“Have you looked around you?” Yes. Lord have mercy, I have.
In some ways, this devotional that you hold (digitally) in your hands is a continuing response to my friend’s question. At its heart is an unresolved tension at the heart of the Advent season—a tension that we sometimes call the “now-but-not-yet.”
To put it simply—during Advent, we remember that we live in between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. And we wrestle with what that means.
Jesus came. A humble manger, a rugged cross, an empty tomb. The world was irreversibly changed. The light of the world shone in the darkness. The new creation was inaugurated with resurrection power. These things really happened, and they can’t be taken away.
And.
Have you looked around you? Come quickly, Lord!
But not all hope is lost. In fact, it’s still going strong. You just need to know where to look.
For the next 24 days, we will read stories about what it means to trust God in difficult times. We will cling to Jesus’ work and his promises as we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” And we will rejoice as we are filled with the Spirit, given as a sign and a seal of Jesus’ return.
In a world like this and in times like these, we need each other and we need each other’s stories. And so I invite you today:
Hear what the Lord has done. And let us imagine, together, what is yet to come.
—Jennifer Pelling is a writer and editor with the CCO’s Marketing & Communications Team. She is managing editor of the CCO Advent Devotional.