Regis Nicoll: Are We Prepared to Tell God’s Story?

It seems peculiar that the gospel reading for the first Sunday of Advent centers not on Christ’s first coming, but his second. In all three liturgical years, the gospel passage is taken from the Olivet Discourse—Jesus’s lengthy response to the eschatological curiosities of the disciples. But maybe that is not as peculiar as it seems.

In arresting prose, the synoptic writers report the Creator of all things privileging the disciples into secrets about end things. Interweaving predictions about the destruction of Jerusalem and his future return to earth, Jesus tells them of wars, famines, false Christs, and more. His purpose was not to shock or frighten them, but to prepare them—and not just for the far off events that provoked their curiosity.

Punctuating his revelations are warnings to be watchful, ready, and engaged in faithful service—imperatives for God’s people in every age. But for the disciples those warnings had immediate relevance which, like many times before, went unheeded…..Read entire article…..crisismagazine.com/2018/are-we-prepared-to-tell-gods-story