Anthony Mullins—Year A Advent 1

Friends, and welcome to this week’s edition of Gospel Reverb. I’m your host, Anthony Mullins, and today I’ll be reading 1 Corinthians 1:3–9. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the first Sunday of Advent, which is November 29. And it reads;

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— ⁶ just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

And amen.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” There are few words more appropriate for the beginning of Advent than those.

Grace to you. Peace to you. Because Advent begins in a world that desperately needs both. We enter Advent surrounded by Christmas decorations, Christmas music, Christmas shopping, Christmas parties. The culture around us is already shouting, “Celebrate!” But the church begins somewhere else. The church begins by waiting.

Before the angels sing, we wait. Before the shepherds run to Bethlehem, we wait. Before the Magi arrive, we wait. Before the manger, we stand with Israel in the darkness and listen for the promise. Someone is coming.

This is Advent, and the word Advent means coming or arrival. And Christians have historically understood Advent as holding together three great comings or arrivals of Jesus Christ.

Christ has come among us in Bethlehem. Christ comes among us even now by the Holy Spirit, and Christ will come again to make all things new. So, Advent teaches us to live between what God has already done and what God has promised yet to do. And remarkably, that is exactly where Paul places the church in our passage today.

Paul writes, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus.” Something has already happened. Grace has been given. Hallelujah. But then Paul says, “As you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Something is coming. Grace has been given. Christ will be revealed. And the church lives between these two realities We are the people who have received grace while we wait for the fulfillment of glory.

There is something almost humorous about Paul’s opening words. If you know anything about the Corinthian church, you know this is not exactly a model congregation. They were divided. They were arguing about leaders. They had sexual scandals. People were suing one another. The wealthy were humiliating the poor at the Lord’s table. Some members thought they were spiritually superior to others. Their worship gatherings had become chaotic.

This church had problems, lots of problems, and yet Paul begins, “I give thanks to my God always for you.” Really, Paul? “Always.” For these people? Paul can say that because he begins not with the Corinthians’ faithfulness, [00:04:00] but with God’s faithfulness.

Listen to how often Jesus Christ appears in these few verses. Grace given you in Christ Jesus, the testimony of Christ, waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord Paul cannot talk about the church without talking about Jesus, because the church does not ultimately stand on the strength of its members.

The church stands on the faithfulness of Christ. That is good news for Corinth, and that is certainly good news for us. Because if you haven’t noticed, churches are messy. Families are messy. Communities are messy. People are messy. Advent does not arrive because humanity finally got its act together.

Advent announces that God came because we couldn’t. The gospel is not humanity climbing its way toward God. The gospel is God coming all the way down to us.

This is one of the great insights of Fleming Rutledge’s writing on Advent. Rutledge repeatedly reminds the church that Advent is not simply a sentimental countdown to Christmas. Advent begins in darkness. It takes seriously the world as it actually is. War, violence, loneliness, injustice, broken relationships, fear, death. Advent does not ask us to pretend that those things aren’t real. It teaches us to look directly into the darkness and say, “The darkness does not get the final word.”

That is very different from optimism. Optimism looks around and says, “I think things are getting better.” Christian hope looks around and says something like this, “Things look terrible,” and then adds, “But Jesus Christ is Lord.” There’s a world of difference. Our hope is not rooted in circumstances. Our hope has a name: Jesus.

Advent does not proclaim that humanity will eventually fix itself. Advent proclaims that the King is coming. And Paul says the church is living as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice that word: wait. We don’t like waiting, do we? We wait in traffic and doctor’s offices, test results. We wait for phone calls, relationships to heal, and so on and so forth. And sometimes we wait so long that we begin to wonder whether God has forgotten us.

Advent says God has not forgotten Biblical waiting is not passive. Imagine someone waiting for a beloved family member to arrive for Christmas. You know they’re coming, so what do you do? You prepare the house, you make the bed, you buy the groceries, you cook, you watch the driveway, you listen for the car. Why? Because expectation changes how you live.

If you truly believe someone is coming, you prepare for their arrival. That’s Advent. We live differently because we believe Jesus Christ is coming. We forgive because the King is coming. We pursue reconciliation because the King is coming. We make peace because the Prince of Peace is coming.

Advent waiting is active expectation. We begin living today according to the world that Jesus will one day fully reveal. Frederick Buechner often wrote about grace as something surprising, something that breaks into ordinary life when we least expect it.

That sounds a lot like Christmas, doesn’t it? Nobody in Bethlehem expected God to arrive the way that he did. [00:08:00] Not in a palace, not surrounded by soldiers, not accompanied by political power, but a baby in a feeding trough with a young mother and a carpenter. Some shepherds working the night shift. God loves showing up where we aren’t looking for him.

Buechner’s writing continually invites us to pay attention because the holy often hides inside the ordinary. Perhaps Advent asks us the same question. Are we paying attention? Because while we are waiting for Christ to come again in glory, Christ keeps meeting us along the way — at the dinner table, in a conversation, through a neighbor, through a child, through bread and wine, through Scripture.

Sometimes we’re staring toward heaven waiting for Jesus while Jesus is standing beside us disguised as the community. Advent teaches us to watch, to listen, and to stay awake because the God who came to Bethlehem still loves surprising people with grace. Then Paul says something extraordinary. “You are not lacking in any gift, any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Think about who he’s talking to. Corinth, this fractured, argumentative, immature congregation. Paul looks at them and essentially says, “God has already given you everything you need to be the church while you wait.” That is an Advent word for us. We sometimes imagine if we only had more resources, if we only had more people, if we only had a better facility, if we only had more money, the right programs, leaders, then we could really participate in God’s mission.

Paul says, “You’re not lacking.” Wait, why? Because the greatest gift God gives the church is not a building. It’s not a budget. It’s not a program. It’s not a strategy. God gives us himself. The Father has sent the Son, and the Son and the Father have given us the Spirit, and the Spirit is forming a people who participate in the life and mission of the triune God. The church is not waiting for God to become active. We are joining the God who is already active.

And then comes another promise. “He will also strengthen you to the end.” Notice who is doing the strengthening. God. Paul does not say, “Try harder until Jesus comes.” He says, “God will strengthen you.” This is one of the great comforts of Advent.

Christian hope ultimately rests not in our ability to hold onto God. It rests in God’s determination to hold onto us There will be seasons when your faith feels strong, and we celebrate that. And there are going to be seasons when your faith feels fragile. There will be seasons when prayer comes easily and seasons when heaven seems silent.

But underneath all these seasons is a deeper reality. God is faithful, which is exactly where Paul lands. Verse nine, “God is faithful.” Maybe that is the sentence we need to carry into Advent. When you don’t know what comes next, God is faithful. When prayers seem unanswered, God is faithful. When relationships are complicated … you know the words, you know the truth … God is faithful. When the world seems darker than you can remember, God is faithful.

Our hope does not rest upon our faithfulness to God. Thanks be to God. Our hope rests upon God’s faithfulness to us. And then Paul says something I find breathtaking, “God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship, the community of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” [00:12:00]

The word “fellowship” is koinonia in the Greek. Participation, communion, and sharing. God has called us into participation in the life of Jesus Christ. This is the astonishing heart of the gospel. Jesus did not simply come to tell us about God. He came to bring humanity home to the Father. The Eternal Son entered our humanity.

He took our life into his life. He reconciled us to the Father. And through the Spirit, we are invited to participate in the communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christmas is not merely God came near. It is even better. God came near to bring us in.

The One we are waiting for is the one who has already embraced us. The One who will come again is the One who has already called us his own. The future belongs to Jesus Christ, and because we belong to Jesus Christ, our future is caught up in his.

Buechner once described the gospel as news that is too good not to be true, news that keeps breaking into the world in unexpected places.

Maybe Advent hope sounds something like footsteps in the distance. You can’t see the traveler yet, but you hear something. Someone is coming. The prophets heard the footsteps. Isaiah heard them. John the Baptist heard them. Mary heard them. The shepherds heard them, and now the Church hears them. Someone is coming.

The world may be dark, but someone is coming. And one day, faith will become sight. Death will be no more. Creation will be healed. Justice will roll down like waters. Peace will fill the earth, and everything broken will finally be made whole. That is Christian hope. This is what Paul tells us, so we wait, but we do not wait empty-handed.

We have received grace; we have been given the Spirit; and we have been called into fellowship with Jesus Christ. And now we have been sent into the world as signs of the kingdom that is here and is still coming.

So, while we wait, love your neighbor. Open your table. Forgive generously. Seek reconciliation. Feed somebody. Welcome somebody. Listen to somebody. Tell somebody that they matter. Practice the future kingdom reality in the present tense because Advent is not merely about asking, “When will Jesus come?” Advent also asks, “How shall we live because we know he is coming?”

And perhaps the answer is surprisingly simple. We live and love like Jesus. We become little signs scattered throughout our communities that another kingdom is here and is fully coming, little communities of grace and little outpost of hope.

So Church, on this first Sunday of Advent, watch, wait, hope, prepare, light the candle, say your prayers, open your home, love your neighbor, come to the table.

Because our hope is not that everything will somehow work itself out. Our hope is Jesus Christ. Christ has come. Christ is present. Christ will come again. And while we wait, hear Paul’s promise, “You are not lacking.” Jesus Christ is coming, and friends, that changes everything. Grace and peace to you.