Waiting

Minister’s Letter: November 2022

Dear Grace Church,

It is a deep joy to be writing my first Ministers Letter to you from our home in Montrose. We just want to say thank you once more for those who have regularly prayed and inquired about our progress. We are now here. The door is open, please come and step through. There will be a warm cup waiting for you in this cold winter.

This coming Sunday marks the beginning of the traditional Advent season. The word ‘advent’ literally means coming or arrival.

Advent calendars are fun, and I’m as big a champion of a chocolate treat as anyone. But I think they slightly misdirect our focus. Because what it does is build anticipation for Christmas Day and not the coming of Christ. What the church has done historically over the four Sundays prior to Christmas has celebrated the coming of Jesus in the flesh but also waited for the coming of Jesus in glory.

As Paul says,

we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ (Titus 2.13)

In the deepening darkness of winter, we rejoice that the light has shone into the shadows of the world (John 1.5). As the nights close in, we wait for and look forward to the full dawning of the new and eternal day, when the radiant light will shine undimmed (Revelation 22.5).

This coming Sunday, we will hear the announcement of the births of John and Jesus. The people of Israel had long waited for God’s justice and renewal. The people of God were under the rule of a cruel puppet king, Herod. And so they had called on God to be faithful to his promises.

Waiting is agonising. We wait in a world pockmarked by sin. Where corruption and decay are rife. Too often we give up, trying to take things into our own hands.

Mary is a beautiful picture of the waiting the church is called to. She receives the word of the Lord by faith, knowing his goodness. She celebrates his concern and compassion for the least, last and lost. And looks forward with eager expectation to his salvation (Luke 1.46-55).

And so we as a church wait like Israel and Mary waited for the coming of the promised Messiah. We have heard the word of the gospel. The incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ is the stamp of authenticity on God’s promises. Jesus is risen and so shall we be (1 Thessalonians 4.14). Therefore now, as we live in this decaying world, we wait with eager anticipation and certainty for the world made new, when Jesus returns. As Paul wrote, we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8.23).

The promises of God and hopes of his people were partially fulfilled in Christ’s first coming in the flesh, and will be fully accomplished at the return of Christ in glory.

So this Advent, lets rejoice with the Angels at the humble birth of our Saviour, Christ the Lord, and lets look forward to the glorious coming of our King Jesus.

In Christ,

Ciarán R. Kelleher