Be on alert!
Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21: 25-36
So we come to the beginning of Advent. This day is the first day in the church year; the church’s New Year’s Day. You will notice a number of changes in the church today: the colour is purple, which is the colour the church uses to signal we are in a period of preparation, of intentionally journeying forward to God. The Advent star has been lifted into place, the star being a symbol of promise, expectation and hope that epitomises Advent. Joseph and Mary can be seen in the back of the church somewhere beginning their journey to Bethlehem. The Advent wreathe is here and we shall light the first candle in due course. The music changes as well. There is a whole repertoire of music written especially for Advent which we will be singing and which will give our liturgy a special Advent tone of expectation.
The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming” or “to come”. Most people associate this “coming” with the annual observance of the birth of Christ. But the Latin word adventus is in turn a translation of the Greek word parousia. In the New Testament, the parousia refers to the second coming of Christ. And that’s where our focus should be for most of Advent. We live in between the first and second coming of Christ, and so we are straining forward toward the final fulfilment of the Kingdom of God. We wait for God’s future to come rushing toward us and for that reality, inaugurated by Christ, to be finally established in this time and place. This is what Advent waiting is all about. We wait with expectation, just as the Hebrew people of old waited for the Messiah, as Abraham and Sarah waited for the promise to be fulfilled that they would be the ancestor of many nations. Advent brings our Christian waiting into focus, our longing and desire for all war to end, for the hungry to be fed, the thirsty given water, the naked clothed, the strangers given a place of welcome, and the prisoners set free. That is why we have such a strong focus on giving to Christian World Service at this time of the year, so that we can make a contribution to the work of co-operating with God to establish the Kingdom.
The readings today put us on high alert. The Lord is coming! Let us be ready! We are exhorted to be awake. We do not know the hour when the Lord will come, and so we are told not to be caught unaware for the kingdom is near. Be prepared, Jesus is coming!
Being on high alert is not easy to sustain. Sometimes it makes us do silly things. Earlier this year, our country went on high alert in case the tsunami that hit Samoa would strike our shores. The concern was that this could have a lethal impact on coastal towns and ports. What did a great number of people do? They went down to the beach to watch. Police and officials were dispatched to down to convince people to leave the water front. The radio stations broadcast warnings. Many of the people simply ignored the warnings. They just shrugged their shoulders and relaxed as if the danger was over. Yet, for all we knew, the danger was real enough and possibly invisible to the eye. The waiting lulled people into a false sense of security. The sense of being on high alert dissipated completely.
The gospels call us to be on high alert for the coming of Christ. But if we can barely sustain it in the face of a potential tsunami, then no wonder it’s difficult to remain on high alert for Christ. Our waiting has gone on for a very long time. There are plenty of apocalyptic groups around, cults and sects and such like, who will say that the end is nigh. Generally we shake our heads in disbelief at the power of their leaders and wonder why the group believes it. As we have seen over and over again, no end has been nigh. But Advent is a time for us to be ready for Christ’s coming. The picture of Christ coming again on clouds from the sky sounds fantastic to our ears, but nevertheless, the second coming of Christ has always been an important part of Christian spirituality; it provides the energy that drives our mission. Being on alert, looking forward expectantly to the future God has in stall for us, working with God to bring that future about is a necessary aspect of Christian living.
The readings today look forward to Christ coming again at some point in the future when the world as we know it will come to an end. Their main point, however, is about the present and how we should behave now. The coming of the Lord is about God’s active presence in our lives here and now as well as in the future. What is required of us is to be actively and intentionally alert to the ways God is working in our lives now, shaping us, moulding us, and loving us into being.
This is the gift of Advent faith, the coming of the Lord into our lives now. The problem is that we are not on any kind of alert for the coming of God to our lives. We may have faith of a sort, we may be attached to the Christian faith, we may be attached to this church and its people. But in calling us to be on high alert, God is inviting us to go deeper. God is calling us to explore the truth that is God. He wants to give up the habits and addictions that distract us from God, so that we can live for our human flourishing. He wants to give us the gift of faith that changes everything and enables us to take risks for God, to go on adventures in faith in places beyond our wildest imagining. This is the kind of faith God longs for us to have, so that we feel what it is like to experience life in abundance. It is a faith we can cultivate and sustain, or it something we can let pass and fade away.
How can we intentionally cultivate this faith? In your daily prayer, take time to review the day with God. Ask God to show you the points in your life that have been graced moments, moments when God has spoken to you, or where God has corrected you, or where you see God at work. Keep a journal of these reflections and conversations with God and ask God to show you what it is that God is calling you to do and be. And as you and God look at your life together, know that God sees in you a reflection of his own image, and the love in your heart that is comes from himself. Walk each day in the light, as we are called to do. This is the light that appeared on earth as a human being born of the Virgin Mary, the light that will be fully manifest when he comes again. Walk with your heart open, open to the being of Christ who comes to us in our fellow human beings, and in word and sacrament. Be open to the communion that he offers us. Be awake and alert for the coming of God this Advent.
