Advent IV

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The word Advent simply means the arrival of something or someone notable. This season has us looking back towards the advent of Christ as infant and forward to the advent of Christ as king, yet perhaps the most important is the middle advent of Christ, looking around to see what our collect calls his “daily visitation.” While this season marks events that occurred in history and are assured to us in the future, its observance, like every season of the Church year, is meant to transform our everyday lives. While we remember his coming at Christmas and look forward to his coming at the last day, let us be attentive to Our Lord greets us each day.

This collect was used by a professor in seminary to explain this three advents concept, so when I saw it for this week, I did a little digging around for sermon research and discovered that I have been stealing almost everything I’ve said about Advent this year from Medieval theologian Bernard of Clairvaux. Which is actually quite reassuring to find out, that you’ve been communicating ideas from a great teacher of the faith all along.

“In the first coming,” writes Bernard, “he was seen on earth, dwelling among men; he himself testifies that they saw him and hated him. In the final coming all flesh will see the salvation of our God, and they will look on him whom they pierced. The intermediate coming is a hidden one…In his first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and in power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty…Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation.”

We honor Christ’s Incarnation and prepare for his coming in glory by acknowledging that he is never far from us, that no matter how far we stray, no matter how we fail to recognize him, he is with us always, as near to us as our own souls. As we travel the road from our redemption in Christ to the life everlasting granted to us by that redemption, we are sustained by him, the bread of life. Though Christ was born under humble circumstances, the angels sang of his coming and a star announced him to the world. When he returns all creation will take notice. But this hidden coming, this quiet advent, is one we must learn to see with the Spirit’s guidance.

Keep God’s word in this way,” says Bernard of Clairvaux, "Let it enter into your very being, let it take possession of your desires and your whole way of life. Feed on goodness, and your soul

will delight in its richness. Remember to eat your bread, or your heart will wither away. Fill your soul with richness and strength.”

Our Gospel reading today comes from Matthew. Each Gospel emphasizes a different aspect of the ministry and character of Jesus. Matthew is most concerned with Jesus as messiah, Jesus as the fulfillment of scripture. So you get a lot of lines like verse 22 and 23, “All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:’Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” We have the original passage as our Old Testament lesson, coming from somewhere much less familiar to us than the Christmas story. Ahaz, identified in Isaiah and the book of Kings as a wicked ruler, has engaged in all manner of power-hungry wheeling and dealing rather than trusting God. This has led to an alliance against him by multiple enemies. Isaiah is raised up to do the prophet’s job: to call the people to repentance for their sins, to urge them to turn to God, and to offer the hope of God who is faithful even when the people are not.

Isaiah tells of God’s coming intervention, of God’s saving of Judah even under a wicked ruler. And this is the sign: “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” Before he is old enough to know right from wrong he will eat curds and honey, food of a prosperous land, a land flowing with milk and honey etc. And by the time he eats this food of prosperity, the enemies of Ahaz will have fallen. So this presents a challenge to the way we thought we understood this passage. If this is referring to Jesus, how is it a sign for Ahaz? A sign affecting his immediate future? If this is not referring to Jesus, then what do we make of Matthew? Many scholars have concluded that this passage, in its immediacy, refers to either Isaiah’s own son or Ahaz’s son Hezekiah, a righteous king. But rather than let this be a disenchanting stumbling block for our reading of scripture, let us have a little more imagination than that.

The whole of Scripture is the story of God and the people of God, his faithfulness to them, the story and the promise. The fullest, most complete revelation of the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, the God of the prophets, that we have, is the person of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh to dwell among us. He is the central figure around which the story of history unfolds. All scripture points to him whether it does on the surface or not, all truth belongs to him. In his hidden advent, Christ is in all times and all places, for those with eyes to see.

Prophecy is the word of God given to deliver to a certain people at a certain time, but they have no way of knowing how many thousands of years this word will outlive them, the ways in which it will speak, living and active, afresh to all who hear it. Prophecy has a message for the people it is delivered to, yes, but true prophecy is not a parlor trick or political commentary but the eternal word of God from outside of time. This child was born and this sign was given to Ahaz. But long after we have forgotten the specifics of who this child was, this word of God echoes through time to find its fulfilment in that place where all truth rests: In Christ our Lord.

So let us ask that we may receive eyes to see, this daily visitation, this hidden advent in which Christ is always already present, this kingdom that is both already and not yet. “If you keep the word of God in this way, it will also keep you”, writes Bernard. “The Son with the Father will come to you. The great Prophet who will build the new Jerusalem will come, the one who makes all things new. This coming will fulfill what is written: As we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly man. Just as Adam’s sin spread through all mankind and took hold of all, so Christ, who created and redeemed all, will glorify all, once he takes possession of all.”

Amen.