Lessons: Psalms 1, 2, 3; Isaiah 1:10-20; I Thessalonians 1:1-10; Luke 20:1-8
Hastening the Coming Kingdom
This time of year, if you are a church goer, a person is bound to hear sermons on themes like the Day of The Lord, anticipation and expectation, John the Baptist, repentance, and the like. I have been going to Church all of my life and I have never heard a sermon on the idea of “hastening the coming kingdom”. Have you?
This notion comes from an obscure passage of 2 Peter Chapter 3. It reads: “What sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming day of the God…. (2 Peter 3:11-12). Peter is encouraging his readers not only to be looking for the coming of God but also to be about hastening it!
What?! Sounds like a paradox to me.
We are told by Jesus and other prophets that we are to wait patiently for the day of the Lord confident in the knowledge that God is coming in God’s time on God’s terms and not our own. As the first leader of the early Church, Peter (the “Rock”) urges his readers to be working diligently to hasten the Lord’s coming. Did Peter believe that our active lives are part of God’s coming? That our waiting is not a passive waiting but an active waiting? That a in mysterious way, the revelation of a “new heaven and new earth” depends on us? If so, what does that mean?
A clue may be found in the verses that follow when Peter concludes his message with these words: “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless persons and lose your stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (verses 17 and 18). Active waiting and hastening the Kingdom in each of us begins with a sure knowledge of what we believe to be true. We hasten the coming of the Kingdom each day as we are about the discipline of prayer; we take time to read and glean from the Scriptures; and we are about offering abundant life and love to others. When we do those things, the Kingdom of God becomes a reality in a small yet profound way.
Gracious Lord, call each one of us into your abundant light and life. Help us to see you daily, to know you confidently, to love you passionately, and to imitate you authentically each and every day of our life. Amen.
Advent Action Step: Don’t save your Advent Wreath just for Sundays. Use it to mark each day, reading a simple prayer or a Bible verse as you light the candles.
Love One Another - Brian
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