Advent: he comes

Morning has broken! says a friend and a hymn, the song, and a snapshot cut from the center of its very breaking. "Light and life in Jesus Christ our Lord" one of our liturgies opens. "Thanks be to God" respond the People.

Life is mixed, isn't it. Early: black coffee and Aleve. Later but still too early, another favorite breakfast that transports me back fifteen years and more, to a high deck at the stern of Disney Wonder where, at the breakfast buffet every morning at sea I serve myself lox, cream cheese, and scrambled eggs. So, lox and goat cheese this morning, whole wheat saltines.

And, look, suit yourself, but on the way to folding it back and forth over the cracker, I like to touch my lox in soy sauce.

Friday is most often my day for wrapping up my Sunday School lesson for the upcoming Sunday morning. The church is in our Advent Season leading up to XMAS,

so today, a lesson plan for one of my two Advent sessions, this first on the doctrine of The Second Coming. Incredible? Imminent for, now, over two thousand years so far? Nevertheless,

+ if it's in the creed, it's our doctrine:

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,  and his kingdom will have no end.

+ if it's in our liturgy it's our theology:

Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.

We remember his death,  We proclaim his resurrection,  We await his coming in glory;

We celebrate his death and resurrection,  as we await the day of his coming.

+ if it's in the Bible it's one of our pillars of faith:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.

+++++++++++

The Second Coming is the early focus of Advent. Before we set it aside and get down to checking labels and shaking boxes under the Xmas Tree, it will be our topic for contemplation this coming Sunday morning. At the moment, I'm finishing up preparing a discussion handout, which will be emailed to class members tomorrow, Saturday evening.

The Second Coming: wait, keep watch, what do you think?