Second Advent | The Coming of the Beloved

Advent is a time of spring for the Church. It awaits the coming of Jesus like a per­son in love with their bel­oved. She can hard­ly wait to embrace him. The lover over­co­mes every obs­ta­cle to be clo­se to his bel­oved. «Ari­se, my fri­end, my beau­ty, and come!» This is Jesus» invi­ta­ti­on to each indi­vi­du­al and to the Church. It is time to fol­low him and immer­se our­sel­ves in spring. Spring is a sign of anti­ci­pa­ti­on and pre­pa­ra­ti­on for the sum­mer that is sure to come. The mes­sa­ge of Advent is one of love. God’s love is on its way to us and can­not be stop­ped! It is an invi­ta­ti­on to let God love us into a per­son of love.

This mor­ning we are loo­king at a pas­sa­ge from the Song of Songs. This is the Hebrew title for the Song of Songs. The mea­ning behind it is that it is the most beau­tiful of all songs. It is a hymn to the love bet­ween a lover and a beloved.

Mockers might say that the Song of Songs is a «god­less book». Becau­se the name of God is not even men­tio­ned. But the imagery of the book is powerful and says a lot about God’s love. The Song of Songs is pro­ba­b­ly the book that brings forth the most diver­se inter­pre­ta­ti­ons. The­se ran­ge from a secu­lar love song to prac­ti­cal­ly every word being inter­pre­ted spi­ri­tual­ly. The Jewish phi­lo­so­pher of reli­gi­on Franz Rosen­zweig makes a won­derful state­ment on the under­stan­ding of the Song of Songs. «Not despi­te, but becau­se the Song of Songs was a «genui­ne», that is to say: a «world­ly» love song, which is pre­cis­e­ly why it was a genui­ne ’spi­ri­tu­al» song of God’s love for man. Man loves becau­se and how God loves. His human Soul is the soul awa­ken­ed and loved by God» (Franz Rosen­zweig). For today’s ser­mon, I will limit mys­elf pri­ma­ri­ly to three inter­pre­ta­ti­ons. First­ly, as a song about two lovers. Second­ly, as an image for Jesus and his church. Third­ly, as an image for Jesus and the indi­vi­du­al fol­lower. I assu­me that this is pre­cis­e­ly why the Song of Songs is pre­a­ched during Advent. The bel­oved (congregation/church) is wai­ting for her lover (Jesus).

Love overcomes every obstacle

Today’s ser­mon text beg­ins as fol­lows: «The­re, I hear him – my bel­oved! Here he comes, lea­ping over the moun­ta­ins and skip­ping over the hills» (Song of Songs 2:8 NLB). Can you remem­ber the last time you were in love? When you are head over heels in love, no obs­ta­cle is too big for you. You feel magi­cal­ly attrac­ted to a per­son. In this sta­te of being in love, you will do any­thing to be clo­se to your bel­oved. The bel­oved in the Song of Songs is so in love that he over­co­mes every obs­ta­cle. The bel­oved is an image of Jesus Christ. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus belie­ve that he has over­co­me every obs­ta­cle. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus belie­ve that no obs­ta­cle is too gre­at for him. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus belie­ve that he will come again, cle­ar­ly audi­ble to all. The bel­oved in the Song of Songs waits eager­ly for the moment when the bel­oved final­ly comes. He comes with gre­at ease. «My bel­oved is like a gazel­le, like a young stag. […]» (Song of Songs 2:9 NLB). The gazel­le or the young stag sym­bo­li­ses agi­li­ty, mobi­li­ty and endu­rance. A per­son in love not only over­co­mes all obs­ta­cles, but also dis­plays a gre­at deal of stamina.

To stay with the imagery of the Song of Songs. For fol­lo­wers of Jesus, he is their «bel­oved Jesus Christ». But how does this love for us mani­fest its­elf? Jesus Christ has always loved us out of pure grace (Jere­mi­ah 31:3) and the­r­e­fo­re over­co­mes every hill and every obs­ta­cle. He wants to give us peace with his light­ness (Matthew 11:28).

Get up and come!

The­re is a dif­fe­rence bet­ween wai­ting and arri­ving. As the say­ing goes, «anti­ci­pa­ti­on is the grea­test joy». Howe­ver, anti­ci­pa­ti­on is also always packed with uncer­tain­ty. When I wait with anti­ci­pa­ti­on for the per­son I’m in love with, it cau­ses a «ting­ling in my sto­mach». But what does it do to the bel­oved in the Song of Songs when the lover sud­den­ly arri­ves? «[…]. Look, he’s alre­a­dy behind our wall! Now he’s loo­king in through the win­dow, pee­ring through the bars» (Song of Songs 2:9 NLB). He stands at the door! This view of the Bel­oved as if through a gate is an image of the situa­ti­on of Isra­el in Old Tes­ta­ment times. They were wai­ting, «plan­ning» for Jesus. They could alre­a­dy see cer­tain things. But not the who­le pic­tu­re. But now the Bel­oved is here! «My lover says to me: «Get up, my fri­end, my sis­teröNo, and come on!» (Song of Songs 2:10 NLB).

We live in this world after the first coming of Jesus. We do not have to see him as if through bars. Ins­tead, we can enter into a rela­ti­onship of love with him. Becau­se the decisi­ve fac­tor is love. Is Jesus your bel­oved? I can tell you that Jesus wants you to be his bel­oved! Just like the indi­vi­du­al Jesus fol­lower, the church is Jesus» bride/mistress and he calls her «my beau­tiful one». My wife and I atten­ded a mar­ria­ge pre­pa­ra­ti­on pro­gram­me. We were taught that in a love rela­ti­onship it is unhe­alt­hy to make my hap­pi­ness depen­dent on my part­ner. My wife is not respon­si­ble for my hap­pi­ness! But in a rela­ti­onship with Jesus, it’s dif­fe­rent. I put all my trust in him and expect him to be respon­si­ble for my hap­pi­ness. What do I under­stand by hap­pi­ness: a sta­te of well-being, joy and con­tent­ment; it is the ful­film­ent of my inner­most desi­re to be accepted.

«Get up and come». When I deci­ded in favour of my wife, I deci­ded against all other women in this world! Get­ting up and wal­king with Jesus Christ always invol­ves let­ting go of an old way. When the church or an indi­vi­du­al responds to this call «[…] Get up, my fri­end, my shöNo, and come on!» (Song of Songs 2:10 NLB), then it is also a decis­i­on against some­thing. Get up and come is the invi­ta­ti­on to all peo­p­le – espe­ci­al­ly during Advent. Just like the invi­ta­ti­on to Jesus, on which our the­me for the year is based: «[…] Fol­low me» (John 21:22 NLB).

Winter is over!

The phra­se «Ari­se, my fri­end, my beau­ty, and come» appears twice in Song of Songs 2:8–13. It forms a bra­cket around a state­ment. Name­ly, that get­ting up has to do with the fact that spring has come. «Becau­se win­ter is comingüber, the rai­ny sea­son is over and gone. The flowers begin to bloomüThe time for sin­ging has come: Ühe turt­le dove can be heard coo­ing all over our coun­try. The figäThe trees bear buds, the vines are in bloom.üand ent­an­gledöher scent. Get up, my fri­end, my dar­lingöno, and come on![…]» (Song of Songs 2:11–13 NLB). Win­ter is over, spring is here! Spring, in con­trast to win­ter, radia­tes opti­mism, new begin­nings, light­ness, anti­ci­pa­ti­on and fal­ling in love. It may sound unbe­lie­va­ble, but Advent is actual­ly a time of spring. The church is in the sta­te bet­ween «Jesus was here befo­re» and «Jesus will come again». It is the sta­te of now and not yet. Do you feel a «chill» at the thought of Advent? Not for the Christ­mas pres­ents, but for the coming of your bel­oved – Jesus Christ?

Spring has a very spe­ci­fic pur­po­se. It is a fore­tas­te of what is yet to come. Spring crea­tes anti­ci­pa­ti­on for more. Becau­se sum­mer is even bet­ter than spring. Spring is the pre­pa­ra­ti­on for the har­ve­st in sum­mer. We saw, prepa­re and get rea­dy. Spring is the time to prepa­re for the coming sum­mer. Sum­mer in the Song of Songs is the wed­ding of the two lovers. What comes at the end? It is the wed­ding of Jesus and his bel­oved. Or as the Book of Reve­la­ti­on puts it «Let us be glad and rejoice and honour him. For the time has come for the mar­ria­ge sup­per of the Lamb, and his bri­de has made hers­elf rea­dy. She may pre­sent hers­elf in radi­ant whitessdress it in linen. Becau­se the radi­ant linen stands forüThe good deeds of the peo­p­le who belong to Godören» (Reve­la­ti­on 19:7–8 NLB). In the time of spring, the church pre­pa­res for the coming of her bri­de­g­room, Jesus Christ.

From the list of natu­re, I would like to focus in par­ti­cu­lar on the fig tree. With Jesus, we encoun­ter the fig tree in dif­fe­rent ways. On the one hand, the figs are a sign for him that sum­mer is coming (Matthew 24:32). It is a sign of the times that Jesus is coming again. You can find out more about this in last Sunday’s ser­mon. On the other hand, the lack of figs is seen as a sign of Israel’s lack of fruit (Matthew 21:18–22 & Luke 13:6–9) and the fig tree, or Isra­el, is con­dem­ned for this. Both inter­pre­ta­ti­ons are also obvious here. It is obvious that sum­mer is near. In spring, ever­y­thing sprouts and blos­soms. Hid­den in this is the state­ment that a spring that pro­du­ces no fruit is actual­ly win­ter. Spring is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by the fact that it ends in summer.

Whe­re do you stand in your fol­lo­wing of Jesus and whe­re do we stand as the who­le church? Spring can also come to your heart! A spring with a «Chribb­ling» for the coming of Jesus Christ. The gre­at thing is that Jesus, as the Bel­oved, wants to love me into a per­son of love. The­re is a say­ing that «love makes you blind», which may be true. But love can also chan­ge many things. It is able to bring me into a spring­time, a time of new begin­nings and chan­ge. God’s love chan­ges me into a spring­time. My life should be full of blos­so­ming flowers, songs of joy, buds and blos­soms that begin to bear fruit. But not out of me, Jesus wants to love me towards this per­son. The mes­sa­ge of the Song of Songs and the Advent sea­son is this: God’s love for us humans can­not be stop­ped. «Gre­at mas­ses of water can­not extin­gu­ish love, rivers can­not flood it. And if someone were to give away all his pos­ses­si­ons to buy love, he would only be mocked. […]» (Song of Songs 8:7 NLB). Jesus Christ is on his way to us. What is your respon­se? Are you rea­dy to let yours­elf be loved by a per­son who lives out of this love? How do you allow this to hap­pen to you? By fol­lo­wing Jesus» invi­ta­ti­on to be with him!

Possible questions for the small group

Read the Bible text: Song of Songs 2:8–13

1. «Get up and come». This is the lover’s loving invi­ta­ti­on to his bel­oved. Are you rea­dy to accept this invitation?
2. The bel­oved is descri­bed as «my beau­ty». If the bel­oved is unders­tood as an image for the congregation/church, whe­re do you see this beauty?
3. When the two lovers are tog­e­ther, spring has sprung. Do you expe­ri­ence a spring­time fee­ling when you spend time with Jesus?
4. Jesus wants to love us towards the per­son who lives out of this love. Are you rea­dy to let this hap­pen to you? This hap­pens when I am with Jesus. How can I prac­ti­se this in my ever­y­day life?