DAY 274
Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic
A series of daily reflections for people of faith
by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor
Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland
Week Forty
ADVENT III
Sunday 13 December 2020
Advent in the First Churches: Rome
Seven churches – seven letters – seven days
Romans 13:8-14
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to satisfy the desires of the flesh.”
How did the earliest churches (here the seven recipients of letters that form part of our New Testament) understand the concept of advent, the coming of Christ, specifically, the second advent or coming of Christ? For the church at Rome, Paul tells them that the motivator for choices and change is the imminent return of Jesus, beginning with an appeal to obey the ‘law of love’ “because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed,” and then an appeal to the Biblical motif of ‘the Day of the Lord,’ an Old Testament concept that became the second advent or second coming of Christ for New testament believers. “The day is almost here,” he says, “so let us put aside…let us put on…let us behave…clothe yourselves……do not think about…” Everything God is calling us to do and to be in these verses is enlivened by the awareness that someday Jesus will return. This is Advent. They lived in it. So do we.
Reflective question: Which of these actions are you most in need of taking during Advent?
Reflective hymn: “Joy to the World” – verses 3 and 4 - Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Written by Watts as a ‘second advent/coming’ hymn
3. No more let sin and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found, far as, far as, the curse is found.
4. He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove,
The glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love, and wonders, and wonders of His love.
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