With twin warnings, Jesus tells the disciples “Keep awake!” and “Be ready!”
Contrary to the success of the popular fictional “Left Behind” series, these verses are not about God seizing the elect and forgetting the rest of us. And while they may be entertaining, bumper stickers and church signs telling us, “to look busy because Jesus is coming” miss the mark here too. The purpose of apocalyptic literature in Scripture is not to terrorize us into obedience, but to provide revelation about God and to encourage hope.
Instead of being anxious about a capricious God whose promise of eternal life is based on our attitude or behavior, as we begin anew the season of Advent, both Isaiah and Matthew call on God’s people to wait on God and to look to God to do something new again.[i]
Isaiah is addressing the Israelites before the exile, urging them to trust God to fix what is broken and to live in anticipation of a peaceful future, despite the conflict roiling around them.
Matthew is speaking to Jesus’ followers who were likely living in Antioch in Syria where there were both Jewish and Gentile Christians. He’s addressing them after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and in the midst of disagreements with both rabbinical Jewish leaders and Roman authorities.
Their messages to their communities remind us that faith is always communal, nurtured in the space where we gather together and draw near to God.
In this season, here at Grace, we are waiting and preparing for the coming of the Light of the World, God’s own Son Jesus - God’s love incarnate, born into the world for us.
Knowing what we are
waiting for shapes how we wait. Instead of being anxious or
afraid, we are invited to believe that God’s future will be different
because it is a future is based on God’s promises; it is a future
where God will be with
us;
where God will mediate
or make a way through the division and enmity between nations and peoples,
and where God will bring peace to our lives.
That sounds implausible if not impossible as we witness violence in our communities and world. Is it surprising that we’d rather retreat into the merry comfort and nostalgia of Christmases past and pin our hopes on gift giving and holiday feasting?
But what is faith if not “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”? (Hebrews 11:1 NRS)
The prophet Isaiah
begins his speech with a call to return to the house of the Lord, to the
centering place where the people experience the rhythms of life together with
God. This Advent season we are invited to gather here, to practice our
faith together in worship and “to get ready for the new movements of God’s
Spirit in our lives.”[ii]
We come together to learn God’s ways and God’s paths. But to be ready to learn we must be tender-hearted, and not let our hearts be hardened toward God. Remembering the mistakes of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, we must have a willingness of Spirit to hear God’s Word and go God’s way.
It's easier said than done, of course. Submitting ourselves to God’s Word and God’s ways requires a re-orientation, turning away from the world and towards God, as when Saint Paul says, “lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light”.
The works of darkness are the sin and self-centeredness that distract us from God and what God is doing in this season. And wearing the armor of light, like being clothed in Christ at baptism, is not about being transfigured into dazzling majesty, but receiving the grace that God has given us freely and finding our strength in Christ. Instead of swords we carry weapons of righteousness, equipped by God to bear the Good News of Jesus coming into the world.
Finally, Isaiah calls to the house of Jacob, the people of Israel, and to us, “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”
Pastor Nathan Nettleton
paraphrases the verse from Isaiah as “let us stick to the tracks that the LORD
lights up!”[iii] (Isaiah 2:5)
This time of year, I sometimes wear a headlamp to walk the dogs because it gets dark so early; with a headlamp, you don’t see very far ahead – just enough to take the next step, and the one after that as you move forward. Walking in the light of the Lord isn’t about having a floodlight that illuminates your surroundings so you can see everything at once; instead, it is taking the next faithful step, trusting in the One who is lighting the way.
Let us pray…
Holy God, We give you
thanks for giving your Son Jesus to the world that we may all know your love
for us.
Help us turn away from
the ways of sin that draw us from you,
and teach us to walk in
Your light.
Let our light so shine that
the world may know You.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
[i] Fairless, John;
Chilton, Delmer. The Lectionary Lab Commentary with Stories and Sermons for
Year A (p. 3). The Lectionary Lab. Kindle Edition.
[ii] ibid,
p. 4.
[iii] Nathan Nettleton,
Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources. https://laughingbird.net/index.php/occasion/a01/2022-11-27/
, accessed 11/25/22.
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