Advent Day 33: Blessed & Only Potentate | Lord God Omnipotent

“Hallelujah Chorus” from the album The Messiah, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Choir, composed by George Frideric Handel.

Poetry:

“When I Consider How My Light Is Spent”
by John Milton

When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."

The Lord God Omnipotent

New Year’s Day in our poet John Milton’s lifetime came on March the 25th. This tied it to the Feast of the Annunciation, nine months before the traditional celebration of Christmas. New Year and Christmas on this older Julian calendar were defined in relation to the incarnation of the eternal Son of God. Our January 1st is, alternatively, often taken to herald the birth of the new self, casting aside the old self of year’s end, and entering into the renewal of personal resolutions. Today our video montage and Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” very appositely lift our eyes, literally, to the heights of Jesus’ majesty even as we have been looking down into the humble manger some days ago. The words in our versions of Scripture offer the exotic “potentate” and “omnipotent” to describe God’s rule in and through Christ. These scriptural truths undergird the Orthodox tradition’s rendering of Christ the Pantocrator – the Ruler of All. The beautiful domes open up the believer’s eyes to glimpse heaven itself, frescos gesturing toward the “unapproachable light” of the triune God’s glory that is revealed in Jesus. The video closes with shots of Christ the Redeemer statues, with arms outstretched, in love for the world, in Poland, Portugal, and Brazil.

Perhaps you, like me and especially on New Year’s Day, need the Holy Spirit to continually prompt you to lift up your eyes from your own pre-occupations? To recognize and receive such ruling love in the hurly-burly of our life, calling, and culture?

Milton looks back at his prior life and forward to his expected years ahead as at service rendered that is no longer possible, his blindness meaning his talent can no longer be spent to earn a favorable judgment before God. Yet Patience personified, that much needed virtue at the frenetic excitement of resolutions and plans at the New Year, counsels Milton to heed God’s majesty and grace. God does not need any one person’s efforts or talents, but rather invites us to participate in his ruling work. Even we who can only presently “stand and wait” upon this master.

Back to the art, what is it to behold, through iconic representation, the wonder of the Lord Jesus’ rule over all things? What is it to long for the consummation and full revelation of that rule on the day of the wedding feast of the Lamb as our passage from Revelation holds forth? We stand in Christmastide in our Christian identity and on New Year’s Day by secular calendar. Like the poet, this is not our first day, whether or not we identify, as I do, with his middle-aged “’Ere half my days in this dark world and wide.” And yet it is a new day, a day of confession, a day for putting on Christ again, as a new convert. A day to desire to hear the commendation of “good and faithful servant” with what we have done with our Lord’s talent. The judgment of our days, by the secular calendar, marks relative success, stasis, or failure – we achieved our goals, grew our portfolio, built up our relationships, or we fell short, we messed up, we dysfunctioned spectacularly, or some combination of all these.

Yet - and with joyful Hallelujahs – so soon after celebrating the gift of God’s Son to us, we do not need to look to our New Year resolutions as the markers of our success. Rather we can rejoice that we are now held under the sway of the coming God in his majesty. We patiently participate in this rule as we hasten and wait for the coming of the kingdom that is precisely not determined by our own calendars and agenda, but by the glory of God’s mission. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Father God,
In your majesty and grace, by your Spirit, meet us this day, as every day, as we patiently wait for your kingdom to come in fullness. As you also daily invite us to, we pray that your rule would come in our midst as it is in heaven. Take up the middle of our lives today so that they are centered on the glory and wonder of your reigning Son, now and forever,
Amen

Andy Draycott
Professor of Theology
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University