URC Daily Devotion 21st December

In Advent we focus not just on the coming of Christ in Bethlehem all those years ago but also on His return at the end of time. It is easy to feel a bit queasy about this doctrine – after all the churches that seem to push it the most often seem to name the date – and then get rather disappointed as the day passes.  After all, Jesus reminded us that no one knows the day nor the hour of his coming.  Since the earliest days of the Church we have had this longing for Christ to return to put everything right.  At times of persecution this has been a powerful idea to give hope – that justice will come.

In the largely religiously indifferent West we have lost sight of this idea yet it is as vital now as it ever was.  Many won’t see justice this side of the grave; oppressors aren’t cast from their thrones but amass fortunes in Swiss bank accounts in case the day of reckoning comes quicker than they expect.  International politics is about expediency – in the West we condemn the murderous actions of ISIS but don’t bat an eyelid at trading weapons with countries who support them; to quote Sir Humphrey the oily places are more pressing than the holy ones.  

Yet when Jesus returns everything will be changed.  Accounts will be settled, the Magnificat enacted, the oppressed will run free.  Wesley sums this up in his powerful line: “Ev’ry eye shall now behold Him, robed in dreadful majesty.”