New sermon series: The Coming of the Son

Dear Redeemer Family and Friends,

We are doing something a bit different in our life together this Advent. Different not in the sense of taking up a new practice, but in recovering an older pattern begun during the first centuries of church history after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, that of pondering the return of Christ in this season when the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer. And so, our Advent sermon series this year will be “The Coming of the Son,” studies on the return of Jesus from 1 Thessalonians. 

Though we are approaching the end of our calendar year, the church year will begin anew on the First Sunday of Advent, falling this year on Sunday, November 30th. Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” As Advent begins, we remember that Jesus has promised to come again to make all things new, in the cosmos and in the lives of his people. Even as Christ came once into the world to save sinners like us, he will most assuredly come again to renew all things and to make all wrongs right. 

Early Christians focused far more on the return of Christ on a continual basis than we tend to do, while we (modern, Western, more affluent Christians) often seek to iron Christ’s coming again out of the fabric of our faith journeys, as though it were an unwanted wrinkle that we could press away. So, it is no surprise that Christians developed practices to remember the return of Christ, even before they formed traditions of celebrating Christmas. Advent early on was a season, much like Lent, of penitential reflection, to live humbly and soberly in light of Christ’s imminent return. New converts, who waited for their own baptisms around the remembrance of Jesus’ baptism, marked in the season of Epiphany (early January), started their discipleship with reflections of living in light of Christ’s return in an Advent time of preparation. 

This emphasis on the coming again of the Son was not just an ancient one. The British poet and pastor, John Donne, wondered aloud: “What if this present were the world’s last night?” We ask that question hardly at all. C.S. Lewis challenges us: “...It seems to me impossible to retain in any recognizable form our belief in the Divinity of Christ and the truth of the Christian revelation while abandoning, or even persistently neglecting, the promised, and threatened, return. ...If this is not an integral part of the faith once given to the saints, I do not know what is.” Indeed. 

We need to come back to this wisdom, ancient and more modern, of living in light of the return of our Lord. The church in Thessalonica had all kinds of questions and concerns about Christ’s return, so Paul’s letter to them is dominated with this theme. We will dig in here for a few weeks, even as we sing our Christmas carols and put up our Christmas trees. 

If you are burdened by murder in Nigeria and the war in Ukraine, or political instability and injustice closer to home, or caring for aging family members, or moving toward estranged children or parents, or the never-ending cycle of flus and viruses and illnesses and cancers, or the fractured marriages and friendships that can make life so painful, or the sin patterns that seem to hang on and on, then Advent is for you. It is a space to express your longing for Jesus to come again soon and bring in the fullness of his kingdom. Let us look for the faith, joy, hope, and love of the Gospel of Christ to come to us anew this Advent, as we wait for him to come again. May the Lord make it so, even as we await his day! Amen.  

Warmly in Christ, 

Rev. Paul Hahn 

RPC Lead Pastor