ニューイングランドの母校から、今年もアドベントの日々メッセージ その24

ニューイングランドの母校から、今年もアドベントの日々メッセージ　その24
DECEMBER 25, 2018
What's Next?
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

From “the beginning” (John 1:1), he existed with the Father and the Spirit. The theologians call that relationship “perichoresis”—the delightful dance of love in which the Son honors the Father, the Father honors the Son, the Son does the will of his Father, the Father delights in the Son, the Spirit magnifies the Son and on and on.

Then he came to earth, born of a virgin in Galilee of the Gentiles (Matt 4:15). You know the story—out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe. He went about doing good. He taught, healed and prayed. They trumped up charges against him. He died a shameful death. But he rose and ascended to the right hand of the Father Almighty, as the Apostles’ Creed states.

What’s next? The Creed continues: “from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead.” The Second Advent is next. The Lord will return like a thief in the night (v. 2), but we are not in darkness that this will take us unawares (v. 4). We who walk in the light know that the Lord’s return is “imminent.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that Christ’s return is going to happen soon, only that it will happen next. For now, all creation groans as in childbirth (Rom 8:22), but as C. S. Lewis said, “All the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so” (The Weight of Glory).

Jeffrey Arthurs, Ph.D.
Co-Director of the Haddon W.