Adventus
A reading for Monday, December 8, 2014: Luke 21:20-28.
This is the season of Advent. "Adventus" is a latin word for arrival or coming. This is the season when we anticipate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are two viewpoints. There is the coming of the baby Jesus into the world two thousand plus years ago, but also the coming of Christ in return at the end of time.
Brian Walsh says the greatest and most important theological development of our age is the recovery of a theology of heaven coming to earth, and not the other way around. For generations the focus for Christians was on escaping the corrupt world and being taken to heaven. For Walsh and N.T. Wright and others, the idea that Jesus is coming back to bring heaven to earth is much more compelling. Jesus is coming again to perfect this corrupt world and restore the goodness of creation as it was intended to be all along. We are not escaping in personal salvation, we are called to help God bring salvation to the world.
As Christians we are called then to begin to imagine what that might look like? What would this world, perfected and made into the image that God intended look like? How are we called, as the hands and feet of Jesus, to begin to work for that goal? What if there were not sin? What if there was no greed, or corruption, or treachery? What if love reigned and not hate, acceptance and not discrimination? This is the hope of "Adventus." Jesus said, "Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory."
"Come Lord Jesus!"
This is the season of Advent. "Adventus" is a latin word for arrival or coming. This is the season when we anticipate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are two viewpoints. There is the coming of the baby Jesus into the world two thousand plus years ago, but also the coming of Christ in return at the end of time.
Brian Walsh says the greatest and most important theological development of our age is the recovery of a theology of heaven coming to earth, and not the other way around. For generations the focus for Christians was on escaping the corrupt world and being taken to heaven. For Walsh and N.T. Wright and others, the idea that Jesus is coming back to bring heaven to earth is much more compelling. Jesus is coming again to perfect this corrupt world and restore the goodness of creation as it was intended to be all along. We are not escaping in personal salvation, we are called to help God bring salvation to the world.
As Christians we are called then to begin to imagine what that might look like? What would this world, perfected and made into the image that God intended look like? How are we called, as the hands and feet of Jesus, to begin to work for that goal? What if there were not sin? What if there was no greed, or corruption, or treachery? What if love reigned and not hate, acceptance and not discrimination? This is the hope of "Adventus." Jesus said, "Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory."
"Come Lord Jesus!"
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