Wishing and Hoping

Wishing and Hoping
Psalm 130-131

It’s the beginning of Advent, when we start thinking about the first coming of Jesus but also about his second coming. The sermon on Sunday related to why the second coming matters and the reason for believing it will happen. It matters because Jesus still has a job to finish; the basis for believing that it will happen is that he really has begun it. Thinking about the need for Jesus to finish the job he has begun, I recalled a conversation I had last week over Thanksgiving dinner with a nurse who had come straight to the dinner from a day’s work at the E.R. “What sort of thing takes people to the E.R. at Thanksgiving?” I asked. “Well, there was the teenager who got shot over dinner. And then of course there is the usual attempted suicide that happens on a holiday.” Yes, there is a job for Jesus to finish. Fortunately, the fact that Jesus brings harmony to many families and gives many people a reason to carry on living is the kind of thing that provides the evidence that he has begun the work that he will indeed finish...