Advent I: Already and Not Yet

The word “advent” means “the arrival of a notable person, thing or event.” In the Christian year, the season of Advent has a double meaning. On the one hand, as the season that precedes Christmas it refers to the first coming of Christ two thousand years ago. Advent is the time in which we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ and God’s gift of himself to his people. In this way Advent helps to emphasize the significance of Christmas—we spend the month of December being reminded that this season is about how God himself came to Earth for us.

There is, however, a second meaning to the season of Advent. See, there is a common theological phrase—my favorite theological term, in fact, because it is so simply-put and involves no Greek or Latin. The phrase is “Already and not yet.” This term reminds us that many of the promises of Scripture are fulfilled in two stages. If someone asks when the Kingdom of Heaven is coming, the answer is, “Already, and not yet.” After all, Christ founded the Kingdom during his ministry, but the Kingdom does not fully come until Christ returns. When someone asks about the advent of the Messiah—when does the Messiah come and fulfill God’s promises?—we answer, “Already and not yet.” The Messiah has come, founded his kingdom, and saved us from our sins, and in that way the Messiah has already come. But the Messiah is also coming back, and many of God’s promises relating to the Messiah will only be fulfilled when Christ returns again to judge “the quick and the dead.”

Advent, then, reminds us of the “not yet”—it reminds us that Christ is coming back, and that we need to be prepared for that coming. This is why the season of Advent often focuses on the prophecies of the Old Testament and the ways in which God disciplined and prepared his people for Jesus’ coming: because God is still in the process of preparing his people, this time for the second coming. In the time of Advent we look forward to Christ’s return, and we rededicate ourselves to preparing for his return. Thus Advent mirrors Lent in a way: both seasons are times of preparation and reflection. The readings of Advent remind us of the yearnings of Israel for a savior, and they should awake in us the same desire for our savior to return.

One of the readings for the first week of Advent also happens to be one of my favorite passages in scripture.  In this passage we hear Isaiah with his heart open, yearning for God to come to his people and set things right. “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,” he writes, “that the mountains might quake in your presence.” Isaiah desires nothing more than to see God come down and establish his rule, even though he knows that God’s people will need to be disciplined in the process. The brokenness of the world and the plight of Israel breaks Isaiah’s heart, and he yearns to see God set it right. Here is the reading from Isaiah 64:

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

    that the mountains might quake at your presence—

² as when fire kindles brushwood

    and the fire causes water to boil—

to make your name known to your adversaries,

    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

³ When you did awesome things that we did not look for,

    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

⁴ From of old no one has heard

    or perceived by the ear,

no eye has seen a God besides you,

    who acts for those who wait for him.

⁵ You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,

    those who remember you in your ways.

Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;

    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?

⁶ We have all become like one who is unclean,

    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf,

    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

⁷ There is no one who calls upon your name,

    who rouses himself to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

    and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

⁸ But now, O Lord, you are our Father;

    we are the clay, and you are our potter;

    we are all the work of your hand.

⁹ Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,

    and remember not iniquity forever.

    Behold, please look, we are all your people.

(Isaiah 64:1-9 ESV)

Notice that Isaiah knows full well what he is asking when he asks for God to come down. He wants God to return, but he also knows that when the God of justice comes, justice will “roll down like waters” (Amos 5:24). At the same time, then, he acknowledges the sin of God’s people and begs him to save them, to mold them like clay. This should always be our reaction to the reality of Christ’s return: the desire to be molded into his likeness, to be prepared for his return so that we might  be pleasing to him. Christ saves us in our brokenness, and nothing we do can add to that. But a true love for Christ drives us to want to do his will, to be able to present ourselves as believers conformed to his will.

So my question for you, in this first week of Advent, is this: do you honestly and earnestly desire for Christ to return? As we look at this world around us, mired in sin and suffering, our hearts should yearn for Christ to come and set things right. We should desperately want to see that time when sin, which is already defeated, is finally wiped away forever along with the tears of all of God’s people. And if you do desire Christ’s coming, does that desire push you to prepare yourself for that coming? Advent instills in us a sense of urgency, reminding us on a yearly basis that Christ’s return is always imminent, and that our great hope is always on the horizon. That is the true beauty of the season: that as we look back at the Already and look forward to the Not Yet, we are surrounded on all sides by the mercy and loving-kindness of God, and his promise, not only to save us, but to sanctify us as worthy servants and to glorify us in the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!