Title: The Present of the End
about Advent
The church has a 'church calendar' that is a little different from the solar calendar used in society. Christmas and Easter are also included in the church year. Roman Catholicism observes a much more diverse ecclesiastical calendar than ours. For example, there is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and there are several feasts of saints. If the church in our country is prepared in this way in the future, we will keep our own festivals that are different from the world church. In any case, the first feast of the ecclesial calendar observed by the world church is Advent. This Advent is a season to keep 4 weeks counted from 4 weeks before Christmas. Today, November 27th is the first Sunday of Advent this year.
Christ's Second Coming
See how this spiritual vision is expressed in today's text. This is verse 7. “I look forward to the day when our Lord Jesus Christ will appear again, receiving without any lack of every gift of grace.” The present life, in which there is nothing lacking, and the reappearance of Jesus Christ are opposites. The second coming of Jesus means that all the achievements of human beings in this world are fundamentally dismantled. All the conditions of a good life that we all strive to achieve. In contrast, since the Second Coming of Jesus is a life event that takes place in a way that is different from and beyond it, there is bound to be tension between these two events.
Let's take an example. Neighborhood children gather and play marbles. There are children who won the marbles, and there are children who lost them. At that moment, their entire life depends only on the marble. In the evening, my mother calls me to stop playing and come in. They have to give up their marble game. Once you enter the house, you can no longer play marbles. Because home is a completely different area of life from a playground.
Paul is reminding the Corinthians of that fact, who are now living in abundance. It means that the Christian life is the life of a Christian, even though we are living well now without any shortcomings, but not staying there and looking forward to the day when Jesus Christ will appear again. It's not that hard to understand so far. Although the second coming of Jesus may seem vague, the death of the individual before us is so concrete and real that we can admit that it is time to put an end to our present life. But then this is the problem. We have no certainty as to what exactly the Second Coming of Jesus, his reappearance will be.
Our lack of certainty is not so strange. Our convictions are usually given only through events that are presently sensory ascertainable or that have occurred empirically in the past. But the second coming of Jesus is purely a future event. How can we be sure of an event that has not yet been given to us, and an event that has never happened in the past? Here we can run into a deep dilemma. This is because, as an intelligent person, we cannot believe unconditionally without any basis, and as a Christian, we cannot not believe it.
I can't get you out of this dilemma at this time. I am only partly explaining the path that the Bible and theology offer. However, suggesting this path does not solve everything. No matter how clear the path is, it may look completely different from person to person. For example, it is similar to the case that there are people who do not understand that there is no difference between homosexuals and those of us who do not. When the mind is closed, nothing catches the eye.
communion with Christ
I took the children playing marbles as an example earlier, but let's go back to that story. Let's say there's a little thoughtful kid in the playground. The child will play that way and predict that the play isn't everything. Of course, he must know because he had experienced it over and over again yesterday and the day before that he would go home after playing like that. However, depending on the person, even if such things have happened in the past, there are many cases where they live as if they did not know anything.
I believe that the world that will arise at the Second Coming of Jesus can be foreseen to some extent by intuition of the life we experience today. Life in this world we experience today is impermanent. None of them secured eternal life. If God existed, He would have prepared life in an eternal way, not in this ephemeral way. If you look at it from a slightly different angle, there is nothing in this world that is just fixed in the present. Where the world, including me, is heading now. Where the hell are you going? If God were the creator, wouldn't he have prepared a time for the completion of this world?
My remarks like this are not going to be very convincingly convincing. Because this logic is bound to meet the same degree of objection. Ultimately, I have no choice but to tell you through today's text. Look at verse 9. “God is true. He has called you into communion with your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.” After referring to the time of Jesus' return and the Day of Judgment, Paul now speaks of communion with Jesus Christ. The Second Coming and Judgment here mean almost the same thing. That event means that the life of this impermanent world is changed into true life. No one can say with certainty what it is, but it is clear that it is the completion of life. In this respect, we experience it and hope for it in communion with Jesus. Because we believe that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.” Because in him a ‘resurrection from the dead’ took place. What does this mean? Crucially, future events such as the end, the second coming, and judgment are given to us today through our union with Jesus Christ.
I'm going to call this 'The Present of the End' The end, the consummation of life, is not only an event in the distant future, but also an event in the present. If we are now one with the true life, it is as if we are already in the world of life that will eventually be completed. Do you think this is correct? Can you understand what this means?
People always make a chronological distinction between the past, the present, and the future. Not only that, it only clearly distinguishes me, you, and things. There is a strict distinction between the good and the bad. I am used to living in a world that divides the world purely according to my own standards. As long as we are bound in this way, we cannot understand, believe, or hope that the apocalypse is already invading the present. But the Christian faith overcomes this chronological time. Because we basically believe that this world, this universe, was created by God. The first creation event does not end there, but is connected with the world that will be completed at the end. And in the meantime, the power of creation is guiding us. Both the beginning and the end are God's creation. If so, it means that the end is already in the present. In mysterious ways we do not know, the apocalypse rules our lives today. We believe that this work of creation and salvation is God's act of salvation.
Jesus Christ is at the center of God's saving action through this creation and the end of time. Unity with him is the way we share in the life of the end times. How can I prove that? This step requires trust, not proof. We must believe in Jesus Christ on the basis of his teachings, his deeds, and what happened to him. To believe means to entrust our destiny and future to him. Such people are people who live the apocalypse in the present. May this apocalyptic present happen to you as you enter the first week of Advent.