How Long Can We Keep Preaching Christ's Coming?

Over at The Hardest Question, a lectionary preaching blog curated by the mischievous, Russell Rathbun, is asking what I think is an important and difficult question.

This Sunday marks the beginning of Year A in the The Revised Common Lectionary.  So here we go again.  We get texts from Isaiah and the Gospels, about John the Baptist and the Second Coming.  And once again we’ve got to preach the immanent advent of the Christ.  “He’s Coming!” we preach, pray, and sing.

But is he?

I’m not really saying that my own personal belief in Jesus’ second coming is in doubt.  Anyone who knows my commitment the theological programme of Jürgen Moltmann can guess that my belief in a concrete eschaton is pretty, well, concrete.  What I am asking is, How long will people believe us? We preach the advent of Christ every Advent, and I just wonder how long until the parishioners start thinking that we’re the Preachers Who Cried Wolf.

I think it’ll be an interesting conversation at THQ, and I encourage you to tune in.

This Advent season The Hardest Question contributors will ask: Can we keep preaching these texts, year after year, and expect people to believe he is coming, that peace is ever coming?

Join the Hardest Question community in struggling with deep and difficult questions at time when we are pushed toward the shallow and simplistic. Add your comments; let us know how you read the text; what you might preach.

People are waiting for something . . .

via thehardestquestion.com » Waiting on the Felonies of Jesus.