“Come unto me,” our Lord says (Matthew 11:28). Advent is an invitation to do more than come with whatever knowledge of the Bible we might have. You can know about something or someone, but still be far, far away. Space probes let us know about distant places in the universe, but that knowledge isn’t the same as being there. Advent is an invitation to our heart, to grow into greater intimacy with Jesus, but intimacy always means overcoming distance.
The Angel of the Lord spoke out of the burning bush and said to Moses, “Do not come near” (Exodus 3:5). We cannot properly meditate upon the themes of our Lord’s coming in Advent unless we constantly know our distance from God, and know why we’re distant. “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2; see also Isaiah 64:7). So it was that sometime after the burning bush, Moses was told, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). Churchly practices and preaching must be in the fear of God. “Do not come near.”
Still, as distant as God may sometimes seem in our daily lives, God sees you and me up close and personal. I presume Moses wasn’t thinking about God when he was shepherding his father-in-law’s flock. It is God who makes the first move toward man, and see how. God comes to Moses in fire, not consuming fire but fire inviting Moses out of the ordinary. God veils Himself in fire so that Moses would not die but live. So God comes to us veiled in words and sacraments, hidden but wooing us. Only the Spirit can bring us that long distance from our isolation from God to an intimacy that transcends intellectual knowledge. “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). “I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘Come unto Me and rest; / Lay down, thou weary one, lay down / thy head upon My breast” (TLH 277:1)
“Still He comes within us, / Still His voice would win us
From the sins that hurt us; / Would to Truth convert us
From our foolish errors / Ere He comes in terrors.”
(TLH, 74:2)
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