Today is the First Sunday of Advent. Advent (from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming") is considered to be the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent, with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown. That happens this year and if we were following the rules that is what we would do, but because of our situation as a church (and not just because we don’t follow the rules) we’re going to combine two weeks of Advent next week and do Christmas Eve on Christmas Eve morning.
It is a season of anticipation and hope – we look forward to the remembrance of Christmas morning, when Jesus was born and also to his coming again at some point. I will be honest and say that of those two things, my hope and anticipation leans a lot more to the Christmas morning part of things than the Jesus coming again side of things.
Not that I don’t want him to come back or anything, but its just one of those areas of theology that is so messy and confusing that I pretty much just choose to stay out of it.
Take today’s reading for example. First Jesus tells us that if we pay attention to the signs, we’ll know when the end is coming. Then immediately after that he tells us that no one knows when its coming – not even him!
Which is it?
Also, I hate to be captain obvious, but the sun going out and stars falling from heaven and seeing Jesus coming on the clouds aren’t exactly subtle signs. I’m going to go out on a limb if that happens and assume the end is here.
But obviously, he isn’t speaking literally and sometimes, that’s where he loses me. All the various interpretations of how all this might go down make my head hurt, so I just stay out of it.
I think the important part of all this is the last part.
Stay Awake!
In the words of my favorite doctor, Matt Smith, PAY ATTENTION.
A couple of weeks ago, the new testament reading was from Thessalonians and Paul was writing to encourage them because they were worried. Many of them thought that Jesus was going to come back before they died and they were starting to get stressed out because some of them were starting to die. Like, of old age.
So Paul tells them – “you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.”
Stay awake! Pay attention!
We don’t know when Jesus is coming back. And guess what? When is not important. What’s important is what we do until then.
Also, I think a lot of people unconsciously have this idea about Jesus coming back like he left on a spaceship or something, and we’re just kind of waiting around for him to come back someday and take us away on his spaceship too. Those people are completely missing the point of Christmas. Jesus is called Emmanuel, God With Us. He isn’t “gone”. God is here with us. Right now. Its one of the weird things about Advent. We’re looking forward to something that’s already happened.
So, WAKE UP! And pay attention.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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