1st Sunday Advent A 16
November 26, 2016
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
1st Sunday Advent A 16
November 26, 2016
Today starts a new season and I am not talking about the holiday shopping season. Yet the holiday shopping season and the season of Advent have many things in common. The first is the anticipation of that which is promised. In the world that often means the arrival of family and friends, gifts under the tree which we need to look at and wonder about until Christmas day. During the holiday shopping season there will be many promises made that if you purchase the right gift, spend the right amount of money, even if it is not in your budget then all will turn out great and wonderful. But we know from experience that feeling of fulfillment last only until the new wears off. Or if we failed to receive that which we long anticipated and expected, then we were disappointed, we lose hope that things will ever work out as now the opportunity is past and it will not come around again.
On the other hand the anticipation of the promised arrival of the Christ child on Christmas Eve does arrive, with all the anticipated traditions and expectations of which we know is about to arrive. We all know the story of the arrival of the baby Jesus, we all know the when, the where and the how. But then there is the promised coming gain, the second arrival of Christ on earth for which we do not know the day, the when or the where or the how.
The season of Advent is a reminder of the anticipation and the expected arrival of that which has been promised. Here on the first week of Advent we always begin with this reminder of the promise that Jesus, born of Mary, who came as one of us will come again in his glory.
So our readings are filled with the promises and reminders of the Advent we continue to live in, not just for the month of December but all throughout the year. We live knowing Jesus came as a baby in a manger, we live knowing with that which has already taken place even as we live with the anticipation of that which is still to come.
Isaiah is writing to a people generations before Jesus’ arrival. Isaiah is lifting up the hope for the people who are living in darkness and despair. They are suffering in the midst of war and rumors of wars. Isaiah is reminding them of the promises of God. That one day God will send the one known as the Prince of Peace, who will bring the light of God into the world. That God will act and act soon to send God’s savior. But it would take a few hundred years before the arrival of the savior, the promised Prince of Peace to arrive. But until Christ’s arrival, the people of Israel lived out their advent waiting for the arrival of the one God had promised to send.
Over those many years, others often repeated the words of Isaiah; ‘in the days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains and all the nations shall stream to it’. The people needed to be reminded it one day God’s promise will be fulfilled and when it arrived everything will be changed. But in the mean time the people are to go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of God so God might teach them his ways and to walk in his paths. They are still to gather as God’s people in the world, setting an example and walk in the light of the Lord.
The people who were following Jesus also were waiting and watching for the arrival of the Messiah. They too were living in the darkness and despair of the oppression of the Roman authorities. So much so that even the disciples are seeking sign and indications of when this would take place so they too might be ready. Yet Jesus is clear, that no one knows the day or the hour, on God knows the when and the where and the how.
So here near the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is telling his disciples that one day the Son of Man would appear in his glory, that great and wonderful day is coming but coming at an unexpected hour so they are to keep watch, to know the signs and to live each day as if it were their last. To live in the hope each day that this would be the day, that way they would be ready when the Son of Man arrived at the unexpected hour.
Jesus tells them, ‘Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. Understand if the owner of the house would have known in what hour of the night the thief was coming he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready.’
Jesus uses this example to tell us the coming will happen as such an unexpected hour so we might prepare and not get distracted even by going about doing the ordinary things of life. For the coming of the Son of Man will take place as we are working at our vocations, doing our daily chores or just enjoying life. It will come as we live through the darkness and despair of illness and mourning and loss. It will happen when we are least expecting it.
Paul in Romans is about reminding the people of the promise of Jesus. Many years had passed since Jesus spoke of his return and now the people were being distracted, losing hope that Jesus’ return was ever going to arrive. They became distracted as they got involved within the culture which surrounded them. So Paul speaks with a sense of urgency to the people. “You know that time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now that when we became believers; the night is far gone and the day is near.”
For them, Paul is pleading with them to stay focused on the promises and to remain faithful to who they are as children of God, a brother or sister with Christ. For the world around them was becoming more and more hostile to Christians, persecutions and the culture were become distractions and leading many to turn away and lose hope.
Our culture, our world can do the same to us. We are surrounded by messages which tell us that since it has been two thousand years, Jesus is not coming. So get on with life, pay attention to that which is really important. Grab for the best deals now while you are able to do so, otherwise they will be gone forever and you will be left out. Success in life is meant to be taken now; satisfaction is to be obtained now, not waiting for some event which might happen in the future.
If we fall into that trap, even for us who continue to have faith, we come to believe that we will have time to get things in order. So then we treat the second coming like a deadline to accomplish that project at work or a homework assignment to complete. We think we can go off and do all the fun things in life believing we have time later to cram for the final later or will have the opportunity to put in the overtime at work to meet the deadline.
The season of Advent is about living with the unexpected, remember Jesus’ words; ‘about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.’
So how are you at waiting, wondering about the when and the where and the how of the arrival of the Son of Man? Are you going about our daily life prepared, watching for the signs of Christ arrival? As we wait do we continue to follow Isaiah’s invitation to gather in the house of God to learn God’s ways and to walk in Christ’s path and walk in the light of the Lord?
“Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. Salvation is nearer to us now that when we became believers; the night is far gone and the day is near.” Keep awake therefore for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
AMEN T.G.B.T.G.
Pr Michael