Today's Readings: Isaiah 64:1–9; Psalm 80; 1 Corinthians 1:1–9
This fall, we had the opportunity to move into a new home. A friend of ours had purchased a house that was in terrible condition and planned to remodel it; to breathe new life into it. Our previous house sold very quickly and while we were waiting on our new home to be finished, Paul and Julie Weece opened up their house to us, which happened to be on the same street. We got into a habit, that after dinner most nights, we would take a walk down the street to see what had been done on the house that day. This became something we looked forward to, getting glimpses of what our new home would be like. While it was at times hard to wait for our house to be ready, our waiting was filled with joy and excitement.
Advent is a season of waiting, one that is filled with joy and hope. The thing is, sometimes it doesn’t feel that way. Sometimes when you look around at all that is happening, things can feel anything but hopeful. I think that might be because deep down inside, we all know that the world is not as it should be, that we are not as we should be. But the hope of Advent is the promise that God is sending someone to make everything right again, including us.
That is the hope Paul offers the Corinthian church. They were a community of believers that were not living as they should. They were living in sin, and as Paul begins his letter to them, it’s interesting what he feels they need to hear most.
He begins by reminding them of who they are and who God is.
In fact, the first nine verses of 1 Corinthians 1 center around God, who is mentioned 6 times and Jesus, who is mentioned 9 times—in nine verses! Remembering who God is and what he has done through Jesus in the midst of hardship or sin radically changes your perspective.
It brings hope.
In the second verse he lines out their identity in Christ. They are “holy” or set apart for God. Now, they aren’t holy and set apart because of anything they did, but because of what God did through Jesus. Paul says that people set apart for God “eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 7). That’s what we look forward to—Christ’s return, when he sets all things right again. Not only that, but while we wait for that to happen, God will sustain us so that we can wait, and Jesus will make us blameless when he returns. Paul tops it off with the reason we can trust this promise in verse 9: the character of God. He is faithful, meaning God always does what he said he will do, which gives us not just hope, but a confident hope, knowing these things will happen.
During this season of Advent, remember that the point of this time is not just to wait; the point is what we are waiting for. We wait for our glorious Lord and Savior, who will return, who will make all things right, and will make us blameless before our faithful Father. We wait with a confident hope, we wait to be in his presence, we wait to be home.
