Who was, who is, who is to come


The three Advents of Christ By Susan Palo Cherwien


SHUTTERSTOCK A


dvent is a bridge—a bridge over which we cross from one year of grace into the next. It’s the ending of one church year and the beginning of another. It’s a bridge between who we were a year ago and who we are now. Advent is a bridge, both a


beginning and an ending. Advent means “coming” and that coming is happening in the past and in


the present and in the future. At the Last Sunday in the Year of Mark, just at the threshold of Advent, the lector proclaims a reading from Revelation: “ ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (1:8). Past, present, future. T e Great I Am fi lls all time, all history, all seasons.


28 www.thelutheran.org Martin Luther highly esteemed


Bernard of Clairvaux, mentioning the 12th century Cistercian monk or his writings more than 500 times. In his third Advent sermon, Bernard wrote that there are three


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