By Diana Boland, postulant for ordination
Happy New Year! This Sunday marks the first week of Advent, the beginning of the Christian year. It’s the season of “Expectant waiting, hopeful anticipation, joyful preparation, and thankful praying”. We have Decked the Halls and set up nativity scenes. We are organizing our Christmas dinners, making gift lists, counting the shopping days until Christmas and a thousand other things. The stress level is rising. So, we might have hoped that the Gospel reading today would be a cheerful message, full of the joyous expectation of Christmas. Not so! Adding to the stresses of the season comes the word of the Lord in today’s gospel reading that says, “Keep awake, be ready.” It feels like too much. Instead of hopeful anticipation, the reading from Matthew’s gospel is about Jesus warning us that we must stay awake and be watchful. The Son of Man will come again unexpectedly to judge us, and only God knows when that will be.
Before we remind ourselves of the gospel reading, just a quick note about Matthew, the author of this gospel. The Matthew here is thought to be the disciple of Jesus who was a tax collector. It was written in about 80 to 85 of the common era. Matthew had first-hand knowledge of Jesus, and being a good accountant, he was very systematic. In his gospel he collects the sayings of Jesus in neat, organized categories. This passage is in the middle of a 2-chapter apocalyptic section that begins with the disciples’ questions about the coming destruction of the temple that happened in 70 AD, and the Signs they should expect of his coming again. Jesus identifies those who were taken as not watchful, thus judged by God. In today’s gospel story, Jesus says that judgement day and our possible destruction can come at any time, so we had better be ready, stay watchful, awake and prepared. Neither the angels, nor the Son of Man, but only God knows when that day will be. Jesus gives us examples. First Noah – he did pay attention, was watchful and listened to God, so built the ark, and was saved. But Noah’s neighbours were eating, drinking, and having a good time, and were taken to their death by the flood. They thought they could live like there was no tomorrow, not concerned about anything but their own pleasure. But tomorrow came and the flood swept them all away. Jesus says judgement comes to all sorts of people – men working in the field and women grinding grain – one will be taken away to destruction and the other saved. Then Jesus tells of the story of a thief breaking into a house because the owner did not stay awake to prevent it. He was not ready. It is helpful to remember that Jesus, being a Jew, gives examples here from his own scriptures, what we would now describe as the ‘Old Testament.’ God, in the Old Testament was a judgmental God, who became angry when his people did not obey the Law. In today’s Gospel story, Jesus tells us about people not being ready and not being watchful. It seems to imply that ‘good’ people will be saved and ‘bad’ people will be taken away to destruction. But there is no such distinction now. The righteous versus the unrighteous could not be further from the meaning of the cross. Jesus is our Salvation. Our present perspective is that we live with the understanding of an Incarnational God. Jesus was God made man. And we know that we are saved, whether we are ‘bad’ or ‘good’ through the resurrected Jesus who died for our sins. However, that does not absolve us from our responsibility to live our lives as Christ taught us. Today violence, injustice and criminal acts come without warning. Jesus wants us to stay awake and be ready. There is much trouble in our world today – as much as in Old Testament times. Bad things happen to us and there is violence, injustice and criminal activity that come without warning. There are major conflicts going on in 6 areas of the world including the Ukraine right now. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes and climate change occur with increasing regularity. Disasters of many different kinds can happen to us anywhere. Often there is nothing we can do to prevent these things, and we feel powerless. Sometimes bad things happen because of our inattention or mistakes. How do we become “ready” and “awake” to prepare for disasters and continue to live in hope? In this context, to “be ready” is to continue to do what Jesus taught. We are to prepare less by doing special things, and more by living and witnessing as Jesus instructed. That means being watchful and “Waking up” to live as we promised in our baptismal covenant. We are covenanted to partner with God’s own ministry of transformation, reconciliation, healing, and salvation of the world. God comes unexpectedly bringing peace as well as judgement Let’s return to Noah and his ark full of animals. (The internet tells me there were about 7,000 animals in the ark! Pretty crowded I’d say). Noah listened, stayed awake long enough to hear God’s message and survived the flood. Then God made a covenant with Noah and his sons. God said, “never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” God returned to bring grace and peace to Noah’s world. God enters into our lives without warning, connecting us to his loving presence. Jesus awakens us to the grace and beauty in the world. God enters into our lives today without warning and awakens us to the beauty of His created world. Every day provides the opportunity for God to come into our lives unexpectedly, connecting us to his loving presence. Just being awake and watchful allows us to see the beauty around us, even in times of sorrow and difficulty. From the spectacular sunrise to the smile on the face of a homeless man. I was doing my PR role at one of our Soup and Sandwich takeout meals, trying to connect with everyone who came through the door, when a frequent visitor showed up. I remembered his name, and his broad grin when I greeted him was the grace that we both needed on that day. Encouragement from one another creates that moment of grace we receive from God. Being ready and awake to receive it is all we need. Our connection to God’s loving presence can also come with sharing Christ in the Eucharist. These are unexpected moments of grace to which our response must be simply to give thanks. Conclusion During this Advent season, we set the joyful expectation of Christmas against the realities of our imperfect world. God is concerned about our human problems. We as a Christian congregation can support each other in our joys and sorrows, both within our church family and beyond it. Today’s Gospel message from Matthew is that God wakes us up and holds us to account. The Advent message is about being awake, watchful, and ready. The season of Advent is an annual reminder of the importance of faithfully doing what Jesus said. It’s being ready to be God’s hands and feet in the world in whatever situation He has placed us. Let us stay awake and ready in this season of Advent with: “Expectant waiting, hopeful anticipation, joyful preparation, and thankful praying”. Amen