Some Thoughts

This past Sunday was the 2nd Sunday of Advent, the ‘Sunday of Judgment’. Our pastor put together some suggestions for how to celebrate Advent in family worship, which I’ve found very edifying. The suggested readings for the ‘Sunday of Judgement’ were Isaiah 11:1-5 [show] There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. [2]And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. [3]And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, [4]but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. [5]Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
with John 1:1-14 [show] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2]He was in the beginning with God. [3]All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. [4]In him was life, and the life was the light of men. [5]The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. [6]There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. [7]He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. [8]He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. [9]The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. [10]He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. [11]He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. [12]But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, [13]who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. [14]And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (ESV)
, and Revelation 20:11-21 [show] [11]Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. [12]And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. [13]And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. [14]Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. [15]And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (ESV)
:8. What stuck out to me most was Revelation 21:3 [show] [3]And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (ESV)
:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

The first thing that jumped out was that the “dwelling place of God is with man” – immediately I thought of that theme throughout all of Scripture, beginning in the Garden of Eden. Then the next verse about God being our God, and we being his people – also a recurring covenantal theme running back through Moses to Abraham and back to the protoevangelion (the ‘seed promise’ of the gospel), when God’s first gracious act was to “put enmity between” the enemy and his son, Adam (that happens by Adam becoming ‘his people’ again, and not the enemy’s). And yet, the context of all this Edenic ambiance is judgment. I almost felt guilty for focusing on a ‘side dish’ of the text – but then I remembered that the only way Eden could be restored is by Christ fulfilling what Adam failed to do, namely, purge the temple. This passage is about the final purging of the cosmic temple – the climax of history when Christ consummates what he inaugurated at Calvary – the cleansing of God’s cosmic ‘garden-temple’. That only happens through judgement – judgement that remains for any and all who are not in Christ, for Christ has already borne the full weight of God’s wrath for all those who are His – the wrath of God has been satisfied.

And yet, judgement remains. Living now, between the ‘first judgement’ (of the Church, in Christ) and the ‘second judgement’ (of the enemies of God), I’m reminded of the very first Scripture Christ read when he began his ministry, after his temptation in the wilderness:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21 [show] [16]And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. [17]And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, [18]"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, [19]to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." [20]And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. [21]And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (ESV)
)

In reading this passage, he put a period where there was a comma (so to speak) in the text: the passage from Isaiah continues, “…and the day of vengeance of our God…” The day of judgement as come “already” and the day of judgement has “not yet” come. As I wonder at the first Advent of Christ I am thankful that it means  ”God and sinners [are] reconciled.” And it points me forward to the second Advent of Christ, terrible as it will be, when the final judgement will cleanse the cosmic temple, and “God’s dwelling place will be with men” and “we will be his people, and He shall be our God.” It will be “a great and terrible day of the Lord,” but “even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!”