Advent Devotional Resource - San Francisco Theological Seminary

Sunday, December 132 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 13-17In the MeantimeThis is a mean world, to try to live in,to try to stay in, until you die.Sweet Honey in the RockDuring Advent, we typically look either (1) back to the coming of Jesus as narrated in the stories ofthe Gospels (particularly Luke and Matthew), or (2) forward to the anticipated coming of Jesus inthe fullness of time. Both perspectives are appropriate. Neither is sufficient. This passage counsels acommunity on how to look for the presence of Jesus in the meantime—in their present life, righthere and now (or, actually, right there and then).And it seems like the community of this letter is, indeed, living in a mean time. The letter writerdescribes (and rails against) persecutors—those who are troubling the community (1:6-7), and whowill yet set upon the people a rampant “lawlessness” (2:7-12). What’s more, the community seems tobe freaking out in the belief that they are already caught up in the “day of the Lord” and a cataclysmicend time. They are a suffering and distressed people.So amid a screeching tirade against lawless persecutors, the writer of Second Thessalonians also offersthis panicked community words that are surprisingly pastoral: Slow down, folks. It is a mean time.But don’t become “quickly shaken in mind or alarmed.” “Comfort your hearts.” God chose you. TheSpirit sanctifies you. God calls you in the good news of Jesus Christ. Stand firm—God “love[s] us andthrough grace [gives] us eternal comfort and good hope.”Perhaps our Advent reflection can include these questions: How are we proclaiming this good news toGod’s people in our mean time? Where do we see the present presence of Jesus in this mean world?How are we naming the presence of Christ and embodying it for God’s hurting children? How do weand can we say to the world, “In the mean time, God in Jesus Christ brings good hope?”Mr. Scott ClarkSFTS Assistant ProfessorSFTS Interim Manager of the Program in Christian Spirituality