“But about that day
or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.”
Happy New Year! We are beginning the new liturgical year
with this beautiful Advent season of four weeks of preparing for Christ.
In this time, in these weeks, it can be difficult to connect
with Jesus’ declaration that “about that day or hour no one knows.” Everything
is scheduled for us today. Doctor’s appointments, meetings, holidays, travel
plans. Everything in our lives has a day, a time, an hour.
And yet, in this Advent season, we are celebrating the
unknown of Christ’s return. We are, indeed, counting down the days and hours
until Christmas, our celebrations and holiday plans, marking the birth of
Christ in Bethlehem.
But we are also celebrating the promised return of Christ,
the day and hour of which we do not know, cannot know.
So we keep awake. We keep alert. We continue in our prayers,
we continue in our love of God, and we continuing in caring for God’s world.
Martin Luther, when asked what he would do if he knew the
world was ending tomorrow, said that he would plant an apple tree. So what do
we do to prepare for an unknown event? This is not a call to panic and do nothing,
but a call for preparedness, a call for love, a call for continuing to be in
the world, but not passively.
We are called into the world. We are called into being in
the world, loving the world.
How then, in this Advent season, as we remember the final
preparations for Jesus’ coming as a baby in Bethlehem, can we prepare also for
the return of the king?
I have no answers for you, but invite you in this season to
look around, to look at your neighbors and at the need in the world, and to
respond with joy and hope and love.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
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