[AI translation] My Christian Brothers and Sisters!
Today is New Year's Day in the ecclesiastical year. The first Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the Church year. There is something symbolically significant about the fact that the civil and ecclesiastical year do not begin at the same time, do not coincide. It suggests that God counts time differently from man, that the Church lives in a different expectation from the world. God also measures the great epochs of world history by a different yardstick than human science. We divide history into prehistory, antiquity, the Middle Ages, modern and recent times. The first is the time of promise, from the Fall in Paradise to the birth of Christ. The second is the fullness of time, which includes the time of Christ's sojourn on earth. And the third is what the Scriptures call the last times, from the ascension of Christ to His glorious return. The first period was a time of waiting for the coming of the Saviour, a great advent of many centuries and millennia. The second period, the fullness of time, was the fulfilment, the realisation of that first great Advent expectation. This is the third period, the last times, in which we are living, the time of the expectation of the return of Jesus Christ, so again a centuries and millennia of a great advent, the so-called second advent. It is for this second advent that Jesus' warning is addressed.
So Jesus promised His coming again. What we see from this is that the great work of redemption is not yet completely finished. Jesus, when He was here, had not yet fully completed His work on earth, which He will do when He returns. If I were to use an analogy to express God's plan of salvation, perhaps it would best be likened to the work of a steward. Imagine a neglected, weedy field. It needs to be ploughed up, cleared, the holes buried, fertilized, and a lot of work to prepare it so that it can finally be sown with wheat. This great preparatory work was done by the Old Testament fathers and prophets. This was the great, arduous time of the first Advent. When it was ready, in the fullness of time, Jesus, the sower, came and planted the seed. Once the farmer had done the work of sowing the seed, he could safely go away for a longer period if he wished, for everyone knew that he would return, if not before, for the harvest. In the meantime, his crops are ripening and we know - all the more because he himself has promised - that he will return for the harvest.
The Bible is not a closed history book, but also a great pointing to things to come. It describes both the preparatory work and the work of sowing the seed, so that it may be all the more powerful in warning of the approach of the harvest. In the last words of the last page of the New Testament, this expectation is echoed. For thus ends the Scripture. (Rev 22:20) The Church is most different from the rest of the world precisely because she lives in this Advent expectation. The Church awaits her Lord's return as He has foretold. In the midst of some great cosmic catastrophe, the sign of the Son of Man is suddenly "revealed in the sky. And then all the families of the earth will weep, and they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mt 24,30). Those who refused to accept it will now be forced to see that He is Lord! For then all who live or who have ever lived on earth will be gathered together before Him, and the great judgment will begin. You, your forefathers, your grandchildren will all be part of this great confrontation. Tears of bitter self-reproach will be shed by those who thought they could cut Christ out of their lives, and tears of joy will fill the eyes of those who have long served Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, for they will see the vindication of their faith in the returning great Lord! That is why Jesus says that the whole generation of the earth weeps. It is only a question of whether one will weep in the pain of belated repentance or in the grateful joy of the reward of faithfulness. Then every knee will bow to Jesus, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It will only be a question of whether, in the compulsion of despair or in the exultation of having arrived at the goal, someone will then kneel before him!
Behold, the Church lives in the expectation of this coming glory. Now, let no one think that waiting for the return of Christ is something unproductive, something idle contemplation! On the contrary! It is precisely this expectation that gives the Christian life its balance in this great fluctuating, sinking world! What profit, then, is there in waiting for Christ to return? Oh, so much! To mention but a few! First, that with our eyes of faith we see our Lord already so great, so glorious! Many may mock Him, may belittle the son of the carpenter of Nazareth, may persecute His followers: we know that He who died on the cross and rose again the third day is the second person of the Trinity, the Lord and King of the world. As much as appearances to the contrary might suggest, it is not men who control the course of history, it is not demons, madmen or impostors who rule the world, but all these are unconsciously obedient instruments of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His hand all events converge, all things are done according to His will, all created things are already serving His invisible glory. Looking to the returning Christ can give you courage against all the coming perils of the present and the future. Do you already see Christ as such a world-mighty one through your faith? Beware lest you be forced to kneel before the Lord of the world too late!
Another great benefit of waiting for Christ to return is that I am constantly awake to the obligation of accountability, of being responsible for everything one day. I know that I am a servant to whom my absent master has entrusted his house. Until my master returns, I must take care of everything and everyone. I can't treat people anyhow, I can't spend my time anyhow, I can't do my work anyhow, because I know that I have to account for everything once! Perhaps if the church had preached Christ's return to reckoning more forcefully, this war would not have started, no one would have dared to take responsibility for it - oh, not before history, but before Christ! The Adventist knows that he is responsible for everything to God. A holy sense of responsibility fills the man who waits for Christ! Is this expectation alive in you, Brother?!
Then, a third great blessing of waiting for Christ is the total elimination of the thought of revenge. How much unnecessary waste of energy a soul is relieved of, what peace of mind comes into a man who has understood this word of God: vengeance is mine, I will repay. The man who waits for Christ knows that the eternal Judge is coming, and that he will render to each according to his deeds a just judgment. How much bloodshed could have been avoided if we could have entrusted vengeance to the Lord! If the idea of vengeance had been left out of the peace treaties of the last world war, perhaps the guns would not be banging today. Today, too, it is precisely the increasingly desperate desire for revenge that is darkening the path of future development. Vengeance is an irrepressible, instinctive human impulse, and only those who await the return of Jesus to judge can prevent it from erupting within themselves. Let us pray much that those responsible in this world may entrust vengeance and retribution to God, let us pray much for the Advent spirit. This means praying rightly for peace. The other day I read the announcement made by the Mayor of Rotterdam after the bombing of the city. When almost the whole of the beautiful city was in ruins and hundreds of thousands of Dutch people were mourning the loss of their dear, warm homes, the mayor stood on the ruins and addressed the people. He asked everyone not to give way in their souls to revenge and hatred, but to give thanks to God for what had happened: They obviously needed God to make known to His people in such a shocking way the biblical truth: "we have no city here to stay, but we are looking for the future"! My brother, a lot of energy will be released in your soul for good if you can entrust judgment and retribution to the Lord. Do not let the desire for revenge be stirred up in you! It is always from Satan!
One might ask, "But when will Christ come again to judge the living and the dead? 'I am coming quickly,' it says; 'the end is near,' it says in another place; 'I stand at the door,' it says again. Well, my brothers and sisters, it may be thousands of years before then, but the time is near you: as near as death is near you! And death is with you at every moment. As death finds us, so must we appear before the judgment seat of Christ. It is well, therefore, to consider the words of Christ, "You do not know at what hour the Son of Man will come. Therefore Jesus says, be ready at all times. So not only in the last moments, but at all times, now! I once had to prepare a man for death who was about to be executed. Then I saw how bitter it is to be ready when there are only minutes or hours to go! Do not delay, says Jesus, for you will find yourself running out of time! Be ready at all times to stand before His judgment seat!
What does it mean to be ready? A celebrated great man once dreamed that he was standing at the last judgment. A great balance was standing before him, one pan of which was heavily weighted down, and he began, at the prompting of an angel, to put into the other pan the great achievements of his life: the bridge for the building of which he had received a royal medal, the church which a small village had built from his generous donation, the heavy sums which he had distributed for charitable purposes. He had put everything on the scales, and the pan had not moved. And when he looked closely, there was a tear in it. A tear that he had shed unnoticed in the intoxicating atmosphere of a celebration of one of his great public successes. Someone had come to ask for his help, but was too busy to receive or listen, and as he left his door in disappointment, a bitter tear rolled down his cheek. That single tear was heavier than the churches, the medals, the donations. And then suddenly the distinguished man felt lost. But at that moment, a drop of blood fell from the cross of Christ into the raised pan. And then the scales tipped and came into balance.
To be ready for the return of Christ, or what is the same: to be ready for death, is to believe that the blood of Christ alone saves from damnation! He can wait with hope for the second coming of Christ who believes that His first coming was for Him!
"Watch therefore, and be ready always, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come!" (Mt 24,44)
Amen.
Date: 28 November 1943.