A Kingdom of Priests (16)

 

 

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent; what does Advent look like in our lives and in the lives of our congregations? Is Advent an idealized time of looking back to Bethlehem 2,000 years ago and celebrating it today as a memorial? Is it a recognition that God came to earth 2,000 years ago, lived and died and rose again, and ascended to heaven and that we expect Him to come back someday?

 

Or, is it that God in Christ not only came to earth 2,000 years ago, but that in actual fact He continues to live on earth within His People, His Body, His holy and royal Priesthood? That is, do we see Advent as a season that has been unfolding since the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, and do we see ourselves as participating in the Advent of Christ? Do we see Advent as Christ causing us, His People, His Bride, His Body, to grow up into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:11 – 16)?

 

This is more than romantically saying, “Jesus lives within my heart.” This is declaring that God, the Trinity, lives within His People, His Family. So that, in the words of Athanasius, “He became as we are so that we might become as He is.”

 

In John 14:17 Jesus says that the Spirit of truth (the Holy Spirit) will be in us, and then in 14:23 He tells us that He and the Father will come and live within us. In John 17:23 He says to the Father, “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one…”

 

In Ephesians 2:21 – 22 we see that we are “…a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” This image, in turn, leads us to the “holy and royal Priesthood” passage of 1 Peter 2:4 – 10, in which we read, “…you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…”

 

The Gospel is about so much more than being “saved” from punishment, from sin, from death; it is also about being saved from these things so that we might belong to Jesus Christ as His sisters and brothers, so that Jesus might be “the Firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). The Gospel is about our calling and purpose in the Trinity, it is about us being a Priesthood in Jesus Christ, with Jesus as our High Priest; it is about us being sent by Jesus Christ even as Jesus Christ was sent by the Father, it is about us not being served by others, but about us serving and laying down our lives for Jesus Christ and others…giving our lives, by His grace, as a ransom for many…a mystery of mysteries.

 

On the Day of Pentecost God raised up a New Temple as the Holy Spirit came to live within the People of God – and those who are in Christ today are an extension and continuation of this Holy Temple, this Holy Place where the Trinity lives and touches the lives of those around us. This is, my dear friends, a continuing Advent.

 

By all means let us have manger scenes, but let us be faithful in making the connection between the manger scenes and what He looks like today in His People. Let us not simply dress our children in the likeness of Mary and Joseph and shepherds and Wise Men – let us teach our children to be clothed with Jesus Christ. Let us not simply tell the world about Jesus coming to earth 2,000 years ago, let us show the world what Jesus Christ looks like today, as His continuing Advent shining in darkness, His continuing Advent set upon a hill, His continuing Advent touching the untouchable and loving the unlovable.

 

As Christ’s holy and royal Priesthood, we are to not only serve the Bread and Wine at the Lord’s Table, we are to be, in Him, broken Bread and poured out Wine for others – His continuing Advent, His coming into the world and for the world.

What does Advent look like in our lives?

In our congregations?