Collect for Advent 1

Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come
that by Your protection
we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins
and saved by Your mighty deliverance,...

Okay, I always thought that meant we were praying that the Lord would end the world, and bring us to heaven.

But when Pastor was talking about the meaning behind "threatening peril of our sins," something occurred to me about the verb. (Mentally diagramming sentences in collects and Pauline writings helps so much.) Come that we may be rescued and saved.

It's not just the end of the world that saves us from these perils.

It's not just Jesus' having come in the flesh 2000+ years ago to die on the cross and save us from our sins.

He comes NOW. He comes in the absolution when Pastor says, "Susan, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." He comes when the pastor places Jesus' own body onto my tongue. He comes now. And that coming IS what rescues us NOW from "the threatening peril of our sins." We won't be rescued on the Last Day unless we are being rescued now. Like Pastor so often says, Judgment Day is not going to be anything new and different; it will simply be the public announcement of the judgment of absolution that God has been speaking to us Christians all along.

Come, Lord Jesus, that by the protection of Your blood shed we may be rescued by the blessed message of forgiveness poured over us and into us.