{"id":8443,"date":"2003-12-08T22:24:07","date_gmt":"2003-12-09T03:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=8443"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:28:11","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:28:11","slug":"3391","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2003\/12\/08\/3391\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent Devotion: Prepare to Meet Your God"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (December 8, 2003)\u00a0 – Covenant Communications receives more than\u00a0 250 church newsletters each month and occasionally publishes devotional\u00a0 material from those newsletters at www.covchurch.org. This one, called\u00a0 “Prepare to Meet Your God,” comes from Philip Stenberg, pastor of\u00a0 Bethlehem Evangelical Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

I don’t remember having seen one lately, but I remember driving in the\u00a0 countryside and being confronted by a sign or large letters painted on a\u00a0 rock or barn: “Prepare to Meet Your God!” Mostly I would smile at the\u00a0 incongruity of the message with my present mission. I was preparing to\u00a0 arrive at my planned destination, a meeting with family friends – I had\u00a0 little awareness or desire to prepare to meet God. Mostly in life we are\u00a0 occupied with penultimate things. The ultimate seems so distant to be\u00a0 unimportant. “I’ll worry about meeting God later.”<\/p>\n
Nearly all the texts we will read during the Sundays of Advent focus on\u00a0 the last things. The Greek word for “last things” is “eschatos,” which\u00a0 for us becomes “eschatology,” the study and knowledge of “last things.”<\/p>\n
To earlier generations, last things were more obvious. They were very\u00a0 aware of the diminishment of light, much shorter days, much longer\u00a0 nights. The darkness was frightening, even foreboding. With the\u00a0 lessening of light, there was loss of warmth. Death in nature was seen\u00a0 everywhere. Food was scarcer. Hunger more plentiful.<\/p>\n
For us, it is the facing of the end of another year. We are forced to\u00a0 acknowledge the passing of time. Hidden in that fact is the reality of\u00a0 our own approaching death – our own “last thing” in this location.<\/p>\n
Christian eschatology faces the last things with a sure faith in “new\u00a0 things.” From the words of Jesus and the convictions of the New\u00a0 Testament writers, the Christian faith believes that the creator of the\u00a0 world at the beginning is fully revealed as the world’s redeemer at the\u00a0 end. God is Alpha and Omega – the first and the last, the beginning of\u00a0 all things and the end of all things.<\/p>\n
The end is not so much a matter of chronology – “when” – but rather a\u00a0 certainty about a “kairos” event, a meeting with the one “who” is the\u00a0 goal of all things. The hope for the coming of Christ in glory and power\u00a0 has nothing to do with wishful thinking, but is rooted in the promise of\u00a0 God and in the confession: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ\u00a0 will come again.”<\/p>\n
The call of Advent is not “Get ready for Christmas.” Rather it is a call\u00a0 to prepare to meet our God. Christmas celebrates what God has already\u00a0 done. There is much to learn from those who were unprepared and\u00a0 unwilling to meet God in Jesus. Advent anticipates what is yet to be.\u00a0 The gospel of Advent is that we are being met, reformed, remade by a\u00a0 revolutionary God who intends to make all things new – including me and\u00a0 you. Despite what we might think, or what might seem so obvious around\u00a0 us – that the world is immobilized in darkness, strewn with death – the\u00a0 message is that the future is God’s!<\/p>\n
In this in-between time, we wait. In this meantime, we hope. In this\u00a0 time, between Christ’s first advent in Bethlehem and his coming, his\u00a0 advent, at the end of time, we worship, we witness and we work. We enter\u00a0 into the untamed Advent wilderness with the voice of the wild man, John,\u00a0 ringing in our ears: “Prepare the way of the Lord!” We sing with the\u00a0 whole community of Advent people:<\/p>\n
On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
\nannounces that the Lord is nigh;
\nawake and listen for he brings
\nglad tidings of the King of kings.
\n<\/em><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Let ev’ry heart be cleansed from sin,
\nmake straight the way for God within,
\nand so prepare to be the home
\nwhere such a mighty guest may come.<\/div>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
(“On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry, The Covenant Hymnal: A Worshipbook\u00a0 No. 133)<\/p>\n
While we get ready for Jesus’ birthday celebration, we must also listen\u00a0 to John and the others who call us to the work of Advent: “Prepare to\u00a0 meet your God!”<\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (December 8, 2003)\u00a0 – Covenant Communications receives more than\u00a0 250 church newsletters each month and occasionally publishes devotional\u00a0 material from those newsletters at www.covchurch.org. This one, called\u00a0 “Prepare to Meet Your God,” comes from Philip Stenberg, pastor of\u00a0 Bethlehem Evangelical Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAdvent Devotion: Prepare to Meet Your God - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2003\/12\/08\/3391\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent Devotion: Prepare to Meet Your God - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CHICAGO, IL (December 8, 2003)\u00a0 – Covenant Communications receives more than\u00a0 250 church newsletters each month and occasionally publishes devotional\u00a0 material from those newsletters at www.covchurch.org. 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