Fourth Sunday of Advent: Coming Soon

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I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 3:11-13)

“I am coming soon.” What wonderful words! They are comforting in times of trouble. Each time tragedy strikes, I hear someone ask Jesus to make good on this promise—“Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” He promises, “I am coming soon.” Indeed, these are the words we’ve been waiting for. Yes, Lord, but when? What restless souls we are.

Eric Black

I am becoming restless in two directions. In one direction, I, too, want Jesus’ promise to come true. I long for “the new Jerusalem” and his “new name.” In the other direction, though, I know there are many for whom Jesus’ promise is ominous, not joyful. How can these words be good news for them, too?

When I see the phrase “Coming Soon,” I think about movie theaters. As a teenager, I worked for a wonderful family for whom “Coming Soon” was truly good news. Each Christmas, they went to the theater to see the movies that opened on Christmas Day. For weeks leading up to Christmas, they planned their whole day around the show times. I always think of them when I see the phrase “Coming Soon” under a movie poster at a theater, and I think about how those two words created such anticipation in them.

As a parent of young children, when I see the phrase “coming soon,” I also hear the questions, “When is it going to be time,” and “When are we going to get there?” I respond as patiently as I can, “Soon, Honey. Soon.” My oldest responds with some degree of exasperation, “I know, but when, Dad?” I assure you, no man knows the day or the hour.

I try to be patient, because I remember the anticipation of “getting there.” I also know now there are those on the other end of the waiting game, the grandparents looking out the window wondering, “When are they going to get here?” Soon is good news for the grandparents, too. Soon is so much better than knowing there’s no point in looking out the window because no one is coming. Soon, we’ll be there soon. Yes, but not soon enough.

And so it is. We promise our children we will be there soon. We wait knowing we will not wait forever. But, oh, the waiting. Until those words—“I am coming soon”—are fact and no longer promise, until then, we wait.


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Until then, we wait in a broken world long on promises but short on fulfillment. We wait with hope broken by disappointment, peace broken by fighting, joy broken by tragedy, and love broken by betrayal. Even the joy candle in our own Advent wreath could not escape the brokenness that characterizes our world and our poor attempts to fix things. Even so, we mended it, and we light it in defiance because we look to joy that no one can break, and we wait for it.

But we will not wait forever, for Jesus said, “I am coming soon.” Someday, all our brokenness will be no more, and we will be whole. But when? You say you are coming soon, Lord. We know this, but when? “Someday,” he says, and when we begin to think we must be happy with “someday,” we remember, “No, he said someday soon!”

I was first introduced to Brad Landis’ song “Someday” by our Church of Christ siblings in Abilene, singing the round as only they can:

Someday, someday, someday, someday
Peace and joy and happiness,
no more sorrow, someday.

Gotta be ready when he calls my name
Gotta be ready when he calls my name
Gotta be ready when he calls my name
Someday, someday.

The trumpets will sound,
And all the dead shall rise,
We’ll walk the streets of gold,
Someday.

In one direction, Jesus promising he is coming soon is indeed good news, but in that other direction?

In that other direction is a broken world filled with broken people who do broken things. Most of them don’t want to be broken, and they don’t want to do broken things, and yet the world has proven itself a cruel place. For them, “I am coming soon” sounds more like the threat: “Just wait ’til your Dad gets home. He’ll deal with you then.” Yes, the world can be a threatening place, but there is a better way.

The better way is the way of “the one who is victorious.” The victorious one, eager for Jesus’ return, travels in that other direction, proclaiming until Jesus comes the new day that is already here. If you, too, are eager for Jesus’ return, then we must be about the business of the new day. We must travel in that other direction.

As we travel, we must mend broken hope through our own steadfastness. We must mend broken peace by being peacemakers. We must restore broken joy by celebrating and giving away new life in Christ. We must restore broken love by embodying Christ in others’ lives. We must replace brokenness with our Christ-mended lives.

In doing these things we show we belong to Jesus and make ourselves useful as we wait, for he is coming soon! May this become truly good news for all.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Eric Black is pastor of First Baptist Church of Covington, Texas.


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