First Sunday of Advent
Now Thank We All Our God
Today’s Gospel is one of several passages that seem to describe the end of the world. Certainly we live in perilous times, with wars and threats of wars, negative social changes, a changing climate, fewer people active in our churches.
How do these verses speak to us? Some persons relate these verses to current political events, especially to the nation of Israel. Some see in these words the Roman destruction of Jerusalem about forty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. With the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple there, Jews became even more a scattered people, a diaspora, with religious life now centered in a local synagogue.
What might these say to us?
They ask us to beware of any who promise that life will be easy or try to deny the changes and questions around us. How do we as Christians relate to people who are not Christian? How do we manage living with a changing climate? How do we help those on the fringes of our society? In a secular culture, where do we find God?
The words of today’s Gospel are sometimes heard as a threat. But they are, rather, a promise of God’s ultimate triumph over evil. One way some Moravian congregations express this is in New Year’s Eve services. At midnight, the start of the new year, we interrupt the service and burst into singing, “Now thank we all our God.”
Hermann Weinlick, retired pastor
Minneapolis, Minnesota