Longing For The Bride
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. - Romans 13.8-14
This is the first scripture reading in the Book of Common Prayer’s first week of Advent readings. We anticipate the coming of Christ during Advent, as we should, but there is another aspect to Advent as well. We are anticipating the coming of Christ who will make all things new. Christ will right every wrong, establish justice, lift up the head of the downtrodden, wipe the tears from those who mourn, and he will also present his bride in her immaculate glory.
Part of our waiting for the second coming of Christ is living in light of the fact that Christ is here in our midst right now in the church. We live in the now and the not yet. Thus, the church is the place where Christ meets his bride every week. We are no longer our own, but belong to each other as we are the bride of Christ. Here in Romans, we are given simple commands about how we are to live as a bride. We are to love one another and that means that we are to seek the good for each other.
The Psalmist is also instructive in Psalm 122. “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” What are we to do when we are in the house of the Lord?
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
“May they be secure who love you!
Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers!”
For my brothers and companions' sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good.
- Psalm 122.1, 6-9
We the bride honor our husband as we wait for him by seeking peace in his bride, pursuing what is good in his bride, setting the needs of others in his bride above our own. This is how we bring honor to our coming husband: by serving one another.
This advent arrives after a year of spiritual recovery for me. It has been hard to find my place in the bride. Recently I have taken steps toward joining another church and have begun to have my heart softened toward the bride again. It has been a rough couple of years where longing for Christ has been all I had from time to time. But this Advent I want to start longing for his bride again. You cannot have Christ without his bride, and you cannot love and serve Christ without loving and serving his bride. That is the lesson for me this Advent: longing for the bride.
