Dec 4 2019 2 Peter 3:1-10

In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!’

This is from the second letter of Peter, and he begins by saying that he’s trying to ‘arouse your sincere intention’. He’s trying to get people to pay attention to Jesus’ message. He says that people will ‘scoff’ because Jesus hasn’t yet come, and since the beginning of time, Jesus hasn’t’ come. Where is this promise of his coming?

I’m not precisely clear what the writer believed. Was he imagining the end of all times when Jesus returns on a cloud and all people are judged? Maybe it’s heresy but that’s not what I imagine the promise of Jesus’ return to be. If that’s going to happen during my lifetime, I pray I’ve lived a good life, and am judged among the sheep. If it is going to happen after I’m long gone, I pray for peace for those who are around then. I’m not suggesting that’s not a possibility; I’m just not going to place all my hope in a someday return.

Instead, I imagine Jesus’ return to be more about the incarnation; God was made human in Jesus, who lived and died 2000 years ago. The Holy Spirit has been left on earth, as God’s lingering comforter. And at my baptism and at every time I renew those vows, I commit to seek and serve Christ in all people.

God is present every day, all day, in everyone I meet. I can connect with other people through the one Holy Spirit that rests in all. God was first made incarnate in Jesus. Now, through the Holy Spirit, God is present in everyone.

To be honest, I might be one of those who scoff at those who put all their trust and faith in a future-someday return of Jesus. Why wait? Why not act every day as if God is present? Why not use Advent and Christmas to remember how Christ first entered human form, and recall that Christ is present in all of us still. 

This morning, I’m thinking about God becoming first human in Jesus Christ, and how the Holy Spirit’s presence keeps God in all of us, here and now. Today, I want to behave as if Jesus is here, and now.