Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Advent As The Two Minute Warning

Advent As The Two Minute Warning

Last updated on: December 4, 2017 at 8:51 am by Scot McKnight

Advent As The Two Minute Warning 2017-12-04T08:51:35-06:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Mike Glenn, pastor at Brentwood Baptist in Brentwood TN. Mike is one of my favorite pastors I’ve met over the years. His young adult ministry (Kairos) is paradigmatic, and he’s a Cubs fan. He’s the author of The Gospel of Yes and In Real Time.

If you know me at all, you know I’m a sports nut. If it rolls or bounces, I’m going to choose a team and watch every minute of the game. Yet, for as long as I’ve been watching sports, I’ve never been able to figure out what happens to a team in the last few minutes of a game. For some reason, a team or player that has done nothing the entire game will find some kind of secret sauce in the final seconds and BAM! They’ll make the winning play.

It never fails. I get up from my chair and start to turn the television off when out of nowhere, somebody makes a play and sends the game into overtime. Where has this guy and/or team been for the previous three hours? The same receiver who couldn’t catch a cold for the previous three quarters of the game is now making one handed, behind the back catches. The same short stop who went 0 for 4 and left men on base when he took a third strike now hits the winning home run in extra innings. Everybody is celebrating like he’s some kind of hero, but if he had made the clutch hit 2 hours ago, I could be home in bed.

What is so magical about the last few minutes of a ball game the brings us such drama? Nobody really knows. If we could figure out what makes anyone great in a certain moment, we’d figure out how to be great in every moment.

But that’s not how it works, is it? It’s only in those moments when we bear down on the task at hand. We squint our eyes. We tighten our grip and lock our gaze at the challenge before us.

There is something about knowing time is running out that squeezes our attention into a laser focus. Suddenly, there is only the moment before us. Nothing else matters. If we’re going to win, we have to grab victory right now. We’ve heard the two-minute warning.

A lot us live as if God is going to blow a “two-minute” whistle before the return of Christ and at that moment, we’ll turn all of thoughts toward heaven, and slide safely in at the last moment.

Here’s the problem with that thinking. God has already given us the two-minute warning. It’s called Advent. Advent, traditionally the four weeks before Christmas, is the time during the Christian year the church prepares for the coming of Christ. Usually, these are the times for us to reflect on our sinfulness, the darkness of the world and the darkness within us. We have about 28 days to remember how badly we need the light before we finally celebrate the arrival of the Light.

Yet, like players not paying attention in a game, we lose the depth of Advent putting up decorations, making travel plans to be with family and of course, shopping and shopping until we find the right gift. Thanks to internet, we can now stay at home and shop and shop, but the damage is done just the same. Our focus is everywhere else on everything else but Christ.

And Jesus is here before we know it.

All of us assume if we had been living in the time of Jesus’ birth, we would have found Him. There would be stories of the shepherds, the wise men and us.

Really? We would have believed a story about a man and his wife, a baby, who we’re told was born from God, and born in Bethlehem to celebrate this Savior’s relationship to King David and all of the promises God made to the shepherd king?

Right.

There were a lot of people who saw the star, but only the wise men followed it. There were a lot of people who saw the commotion of worshipping shepherds, but no one believed their message. Think about it. We have the story of the shepherds celebrating all that had been revealed to them, but we don’t have any stories about anybody else believing.

Everyone else missed it. God kept His promises. Jesus was born in the little town where God had promised He would be born. The scholars in Herod’s court knew exactly where to send the wise men, but they didn’t go with them.

A lot of people knew the story. In fact, they knew a lot of the details of the arrival of Jesus. They just didn’t believe.

And neither do we. “Wait a minute, Mike,” you say, “Of course, we believe”. But do we? We have robbed the word “belief” of its power. For most of us, the word simply means “wish” or “think.” We use it in sentences such as, “I believe it may rain today.” Or, “I believe my team will win.”

“To believe” means to “put your weight down.” We know what we believe by where we choose to stand. If we don’t live it, then we don’t believe it. How can I be so bold in saying that?

Because just like the people in the first century, we hear the stories about shepherds and angels, about a star and wise men traveling from far away places, we hear about a young woman and a baby, but like the first people to hear the story, we never go and see for ourselves.

We don’t go to see Jesus. We go to the mall. Soon, we’ll get serious about Jesus, but let us get through the holidays when we’re not so busy.

The first Sunday in Advent is focused on the Second Coming of Jesus. The sobering reminder haunting us in the background is that so many people missed Him when He came the first time and if we’re not careful, we’ll won’t be ready when He comes the second time.

That’s why God gives us Advent. It’s the two-minute warning of life. Pay attention. We don’t have as much time as we think we do.

Uncategorized

Advent

Previous Post

November 30, 2017

A Talk At Pepperdine

Next Post

December 1, 2017 Remembering Rosa

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which parable tells of a shrewd manager who is commended for his cleverness?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Lost Sheep The Good Samaritan The Unjust Steward The Wise Virgins