First Sunday in Advent, December 3, 2023: Isaiah 64:1-9; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
This is the first Sunday of the new church year, and the Gospel for today ends by telling us to “Keep awake”. Soon, Jesus is telling his followers, the world they know will pass away. But no one knows when it will happen, so you have to stay alert. This is not a prescription for long term sleep deprivation, though, but one for long term attention.
While Jesus tells his followers that this end time he is telling them of will happen soon-“this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place”-we know many generations later that it has not happened. Or it has not happened in the way we understand it. So what do we do?
We may not be facing the end times, but we all have finite lives. And it is important to pay attention. We need to pay attention to the world around us. And we need to live in the world following Jesus as best we can. If we do, we will be ready for the things that come our way. And there is much we can pay attention to these days: the environmental crisis, the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the refugees fleeing violence and an unforgiving climate, homelessness, child poverty, growing racism and antisemitism, the list could go on. None of us can act on all of these, but we do what we can where we are.
The season of Advent is a season of preparation. As we prepare for the arrival of the Christ child, we need to also be aware of the longer story. As we pay attention, there is also hoe from Paul: Christ will “strengthen you to the end”: “God is faithful”. As we wait, as we pay attention, we are not alone. That is another thing to which we need to pay attention.