First Sunday of Advent

Sunday 27th November 2022 Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44

The Church today starts the season of Advent. A time of preparation and waiting, waiting in anticipation. Anticipation for what? It is the lead up to the celebration of Christmas, when we recall how God became human in the person of Jesus, was born like one of us, lived like one of us and died like one of us. He also rose again and led the way into his heavenly kingdom so that we can follow. Advent is also a time to anticipate the return of Jesus. Ever since the day that Jesus ascended into heaven his return has been imminent. Imminent in the sense that it will happen rather than indicating when it will happen.

If we are going to celebrate any occasion the success of that celebration depends on how well we prepare for it. Advent gives us the opportunity to prepare for the celebration of Christmas so that we can get the best out of it from a spiritual point of view. Consider all the effort the world around us puts into preparing for Christmas. That is the kind of effort we should be putting into preparing ourselves for celebrating the birth of Jesus but also into preparing for his promised return.

Being prepared for Christmas should mean more to us Christians than ordering food, drink and buying presents. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves that one day we will meet Jesus face to face. If we were planning to meet even a minor civic dignitary or celebrity we would prepare for it by being neat and tidy, wearing appropriate clothing and having an idea of what we would say to them. Jesus is much more to us than a local dignitary or celebrity, he is our God and Saviour. How much more should we prepare to meet our God than any other person?

The people of the Old Testament looked forward to the coming Messiah which would bring a time of peace and harmony. A time when the weapons of war would no longer be needed, being transformed into implements for farming. By stepping into human history, Jesus, fulfilled that longing but sadly he was not accepted by all then and is still not accepted by all today. We still live in the same hope of peace that the Old Testament Israelites lived in, but our hope is in the anticipated return of Jesus. We still see all too starkly the weapons of war being used while millions are without the basics of food, water, and shelter. If only we could realise the time of peace anticipated by the coming of God’s kingdom then all the resources of war could be put into ridding the world of the suffering brought by conflict and the unjust division of wealth.

The letter to the Romans reminds us of the urgency felt by the early church in respect of being ready for the promised return of Jesus. The call is to ‘wake up’ and be ready putting aside all the evils of a life dominated by the ways of the world. Over the centuries the sense of urgency seen in the early church has waned and the need to stay awake and be prepared has worn off in many people’s hearts. The truth is that Jesus will return and without further warning. The world must not leave it too late and find itself unprepared. On a personal level we need to stay awake to the fact that although we might not be around when Jesus returns to wrap up history our own end will certainly come, and it may also be ‘at an hour you do not expect’.

Our task as Christians is to stay awake ourselves but also to encourage others around us to stay awake and be prepared to meet Jesus when the time comes. The challenge today, two thousand years after Jesus ascended to heaven promising to return, is to stay awake and not fall into a false sense of security distracted by the many temptations the world offers us. Do we fall into a lazy sleepiness, or do we stay awake alert to the message of the Gospel?

Let us use this season of Advent to become more awake. To realise what it means that Jesus has appeared in human history. That he lived, died, and rose again so that we could follow him into our heavenly home. That he is still with us in his church, in his word and in the Eucharist and crucially that we will meet him at an hour of his choosing at the end of time but also at the end of our earthly lives. We prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, his presence among us, and his promised return. Jesus, God who is, who was, and is to come.

God Bless Brendan