November 28th, 2010
O come on!
“O come on!” Have you ever said that in frustration? Can’t get that thread into the needle? “O come on!”.... Can’t get your relative who is politically the opposite of you to agree with you? “O come on!” Can’t get Jesus to come back to judge the living and the dead? “O come on!”
Yes...it’s that time again when we sing “O come, o come Emmanuel.” It’s Advent. And while that hymn is filled with powerful images and different beautiful names for the messiah, it’s real cry is for Jesus to “come again already!”
Each year the church reminds people that Advent is not at first primarily about Jesus coming as a baby 2000 years ago. We don’t wait for him to come the way we wait for Santa to come. Santa’s coming is predictable. We know what he will say (three ho’s), what he’ll wear (red suit), where his finger will be (side of his nose), etc.
But Jesus’s coming again to bring us to heaven at the “end of the world”? Well that’s been a little less predictable. Indeed Jesus tells us in the gospel today that we’d better stay awake because we DON’T know the hour or the day that the Lord is coming. But he IS coming.
So I want to say to Jesus, “O come on!” I’m ready for heaven. Won’t have to raise $325,000 for roofs...won’t have to erase poverty...won’t have to find the cure for diseases....won’t have to keep wondering if people will find good jobs. “Come already! won’t you, Lord? What are you waiting for?”
Then I think, maybe he’s waiting for us to have fed the last hungry person, healed the last sick person, and yes, paid for the roofs in our lives. Maybe he doesn’t want to catch us unprepared and unfinished with the work he left us. ’Twould be pretty embarrassing, no?
Maybe Jesus is really anxious to come again and wants us to hurry up to do all the good things he wants us to get done. Maybe he’s saying to us, “O come on.” Maybe that song’s about us?
