Waiting with Hope
Gavin Koh, LLM
1st Sunday of Advent (30 November 2025)
St Bene’t’s, Cambridge
Isaiah 2:1–5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44
Today is Advent Sunday: the first day of the Church Year and the first day of Advent. What do we do in Advent? In Advent, we wait. We wait for Christmas, and it is not Christmas yet.
But in the world outside of church, Christmas is already here! Sainsbury's on Sidney Street has had mince pies and plum pudding since September! The Christmas lights on Kings Parade were switched on two weeks ago!
We are like children…we are very bad at waiting.
Wait! You can’t open your presents, it’s not Christmas yet! Have you never sneaked a peek at a Christmas present？ Tried to pick the wrapping paper off the corner of the parcel or given the box a shake?
We are very bad at waiting.
Back here inside the church, Advent is meant to be a time of austerity;
Just like Lent: Advent is a time of penitence and reflection, we cover ourselves in purple and we prepare ourselves prayerfully for the coming of our Lord.
“Let us live honorably, as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness” says St. Paul to the Romans.
We prepare for the coming of our Lord, not as a baby in a manger (because that has already happened); but for his second coming when the trumpets will sound and the heavens open in glory, and…
…the Son of Man [will come] at an unexpected hour.
And so, Christ’s church has been waiting for 2000 years for him to come; and in every generation There are Christians who want Christ to come in their lifetime.
Many men and women have claimed to be the Messiah, the Second Coming of Christ. Many cults have been set up over the centuries, proclaiming that the end is near. Many of these cults are small, with only a dozen or so followers; but some of the more charismatic leaders draw together hundreds or even thousands of followers. They will quote Bible verses, make detailed calculations of when the end will come.
I probably spend too much time on social media.
In September, my social media exploded with predictions that ‘The Rapture’ was coming on 23 September. What is The Rapture?
Two [men] will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left.
In the Rapture, the "true" Christians will be taken up bodily into Heaven.
Brother Joshua, a pastor in South Africa said that Jesus had come to him in a vision, and that he was ‘a billion percent sure’ that The Rapture would happen on 23 September. YouTube, Instagram—it went viral on Tiktok with the hashtag #RaptureTok.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOR9gkXN4ko
People quit their jobs; they sold all their possessions.
And waited.
Nothing happened.
Brother Joshua then changed his prediction to 7 Oct 2025, saying that Jesus would have used the Julian calendar, not the current Gregorian calendar.
Nothing happened.
St Matthew writes,
Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
Christmas is about looking backwards, to a manger in Bethlehem, two thousand years ago. Christmas is about all the hopes and prayers of a sinful world laid upon a small innocent baby.
BUT
Christmas is also about looking forward to the second coming of Christ. And we do so every year, and have done so for 2000 years.
Does that make us lunatics? Are we all gullible fools taken in by a 2000-year old fairytale?
We live in a broken world: There is anger, hate, division everywhere we look.
Ukraine. Gaza. Sudan. Anti-migrant marches in Trafalgar Square. And it is very very hard to see God working in the world right now.
And we are told that Advent is about Hope. Hope means the world is not perfect, but God will make it so.
But we are very bad at waiting for that to happen; And that is why Hope is a Christian virtue. For in this world, our Hope is continually challenged.
The three cardinal virtues are Faith, Hope and Charity. Why is Hope even listed as a virtue?
‘I hope it doesn’t rain next Sunday.’
‘I hope I get an iPhone for Christmas.’
How is that virtuous?
Hope is not a figure of speech. Biblical, Christian Hope is a fierce, deliberate, purposeful act of defiance.
Yes, There is pain in this world, but the promise of the Gospels is that God will take away our pain. Yes, This world is full of tears, but God promises to wipe every tear from our eyes. Yes, There is Death in this world, but Jesus promises us Eternal Life. Things are not right with this world; but the Advent promise is Hope.
In a short while, Juliette Maxine is going to be baptised., and that baptism is a symbol of Hope. Hope is what enables us to bring a child into this broken world.
For how could you present a child for baptism unless you have Hope? This Advent: in this season of Hope: we are commanded to put on the armour of light, to muster up the force of will needed to hold on to Hope.
For the night is far gone and the day is near…and still we wait.