Advent: Christ will come again, שְׁכִינָה Shekinah, the glory of God!
Did you catch the words of our magnificent Advent hymn? “The king shall come when morning dawns, and light triumphant breaks” - - it's the Light of Christ, the shuKINEah of God. shuKINEah, a peculiar word: I shall speak of it. You may be seated.
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Advent: “He comes” - high anticipation, great excitement, Christmas, the First Coming of Christ. But also - - completely obscured by shopping, decorating, holiday plans, and Santa Claus, we dismiss as doubtful and irrelevant - - the Mystery of Faith, “Christ will come again”, the shuKINEah - - I want you to “get it” about the Messiah, because it’s imbedded in Christian history and origins.
We begin with Heilsgeschichte, Jewish holy history, holy stories (and our own holy stories) of the awesome, terrifying, sometimes blindingly bright shining presence of the glory of God - - that rabbis and Jewish scholars call the shuKINEah, the shuKINEah, the presence of God's glory on earth. Stories you know:
- Genesis 15, when the sun went down, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch, the presence of God consuming bloody sacrifices in the terrifying darkness; shuKINEah!
- Exodus 3, on the holy mountain, God confronting Moses from the Burning Bush. shuKINEah!
- Exodus 13, in the wilderness, the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, shuKINEah!
- Exodus 34, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the law in his hands, his face was radiant because he had been in the presence of the LORD. shuKINEah!
- Leviticus 9, Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown. shuKINEah!
- Joshua: the Ark of the Lord’s presence, carried about in the wilderness, and in the middle of the River Jordan keeping it dry as Israel passed over into the Promised Land, and carried around Jericho as God gave the city into their hands, shuKINEah!
- I Kings 18, God with Elijah: the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, even licked up the water in the trench. shuKINEah!
- 1 Chronicles 21, David built an altar to the LORD and sacrificed. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering. shuKiNEah!
- 2 Chronicles 7, When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. shuKINEah!
So, in holy history, here we are at the Temple:
- In Jerusalem, shuKINEah the glory of God, resided in the First Temple, built by king Solomon at God’s direction about 1000 BC, but the Temple was torn down some 400 years later, in 586/587 BC by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who overthrew the messianic throne of David, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, and carried Jews away into Exile.
- With the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, and the end of messianic kings in David’s line, shuKINEah, the glory of God, departs, never to return. Yet Israel clings to hope, and prophecy of expectation.
- Cyrus the Great, Persian king, overthrows the Babylonian Empire, and in 539 BC allows Jews in Exile to go home to Jerusalem and rebuild. Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild the wall, the city; and, urged on by Haggai, build the Second Temple.
- So, now there is a Second Temple. But there are problems (and here’s where Advent hope and expectation come in). The throne of David is not restored after Exile (the Holy Land is under foreign dominion, a vassal state, first of Babylon, then of Persia, eventually of Rome). And the shuKINEah, the glory of God, does not return, God never takes up residence in the Second Temple.
- The Second Temple is just only a place of worship and sacrifice. But Hope springs eternal! In Jewish expectation, Moschiach, the Messiah will come, the throne of David will be restored, foreigners will be driven out of the Holy Land, and the shuKINEah, the glory of God, will return to the Temple.
- Hundreds of years pass. During the reign of Herod the Great (Herod was not a David Messiah, but a puppet king appointed by the Roman masters), in the Time of King Herod, great anticipation arises that the Messiah is about to return.
- And it is not simply (as we usually think of it) that the Messiah will reestablish the throne of David, raise an army, and throw out the foreigners, but the shuKINEah, the glory of God’s presence, will return to the Temple, and Israel will live again in the glory days of David and Solomon.
- So, you see? This is the anticipation that drives Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. A son of David, born in Bethlehem as the prophet foretold. Hosannah, son of David!
- And, as the story develops (in the Gospels), Jesus is not simply a son of David and messianic king, Jesus is the shuKINEah personified: at his baptism God himself speaks from heaven, “you are my beloved Son”. Theophany, the shuKINEah, the glory of God!
- On the mountaintop, Jesus is transfigured in shining brilliance with Moses and Elijah as God declares, “this is my beloved Son”. The Messiah, the Logos, the Word, shuKINEah! but,
- “He came to his own, and his own received him not” so nothing works out for Israel in accordance with God’s dream for Jesus, and the shuKINEah never returns to Israel. But!!
- Some Christian traditions hold, and if you saw Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ”, you remember the grand finale: into the darkness of death and the tomb, before dawn on that First Easter Morning, a blinding flash of light fills the Tomb: the glory of God as Jesus is raised and returns: the Light of Christ, the shuKINEah of God.
- In Jewish lore, the shuKINEah never returned to the Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, forty years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
- There may still be Jewish hope: expectation of Messiah the shuKINEah and at the End of Days when the kingdom of God is established on earth. But for Christians, those who receive Him, who believe on His Name, Messiah HAS come: Christ has died, Christ is risen and ascended, Christ will come again.
- Advent: “The king shall come when morning dawns, and light triumphant breaks” - - Christ, the shuKINEah, the glory of God! Hallelujah!
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Homiletic endeavor by the Rev Tom Weller in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on November 27, 2022, Advent One A.
שְׁכִינָה sheKINah - - (in English, any number of spellings are seen, I spelled it phonetically shuKINEah in my sermon manuscript to help me hold to a uniform pronunciation [N T Wright says SHEH-kin-uh, which is not regular, but who can take issue with Tom Wright!]) - - is a Hebrew word for the presence of the glory of God in the world. A feminine noun for dwelling, residence, resident. shuKINEah does not appear in the Bible, it’s a Jewish theological concept that can be illustrated by any number of biblical theophanies; including God in the Burning Bush, God in the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, God in the Ark in the Temple Holy of Holies. Theologically perhaps not exactly the Holy Spirit, but not exactly NOT the Holy Spirit either; perhaps a feminine side of God; and now in person as Messiah, Christ.
Our opening hymn for Advent:
1 The King shall come when morning dawns
and light triumphant breaks,
when beauty gilds the eastern hills
and life to joy awakes—
not as of old a little child
to bear, and fight, and die,
but crowned with glory like the sun
that lights the morning sky.
2 Oh, brighter than the rising morn
when Christ, victorious, rose
and left the lonesome place of death
despite the rage of foes
shall dawn that glorious, welcome morn
for all who know his grace—
the day when Christ in splendor comes
and we shall see his face.
3 The King shall come when morning dawns
and earth's dark night is past;
that morning cannot rise too soon,
that day that e'er shall last.
Then let the endless bliss begin,
as heav'n with praises rings.
Hail, Christ the Lord! Your people pray:
come quickly, King of kings!