Keep Ready!

 

 

Scriptures

 Isaiah 61: 1-3, 8-11

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and release to the prisoners;
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
³ to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, to display his glory...

⁸ For I the Lord love justice,
    I hate robbery and wrongdoing;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
    and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
⁹ Their descendants shall be known among the nations,
    and their offspring among the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge
    that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
¹⁰ I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
    my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹ For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
    to spring up before all the nations.  (NRSV)

 

Matthew 24:42-44

⁴² Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. ⁴³ But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.  (NRSV)

Devotion

Advent--the time of preparation for Christ's coming--is my favorite part of the liturgical calendar.  As the days get shorter and and the nights grow dark and chill, it seems as if even nature is pointing to how hard and hopeless life can feel.  But it is in this time of darkness and death that we get the promise of of new light.  New life.  New hope.  We are assured that all these things and more will come in the form of Jesus Christ, who has come before and is coming again.  And so even when times are hard and dark, we prepare for the Christ's coming.

  How and when shall our Redeemer come?  Scripture gives us metaphors instead of hard facts.  Depending on where you turn, Christ is described as a thief in the night, a long-awaited bridegroom or guest, a flowering branch from a stump everyone thought was dead, various kinds of birds, a star or guiding light, and (of course) the Lord.    Each image teaches us a little bit about who Christ is and helps us keep watch for his arrival...but none of them point to a particular time or place.  Instead, they tell us our Redeemer will appear when and where folks are least likely to expect him.

While we may not know when the Messiah will come, we are told what the results of his coming will be.  The oppressed will be given Good News and help.  Those with aching and broken hearts will have their wounded places bound up.  Prisoners will be set free. Those who mourn will be comforted.  And as the Son of Man calls justice and righteousness to spring up everywhere, all the people that God has blessed will rejoice and give thanks to God,

So how do we prepare for such a great day?  Jesus tells us simply to stay awake and keep ready.  And all scripture teaches that we keep ready by living as Christ taught us to live: by loving God and neighbor to the best of our abilities.  We keep watch and keep ready by giving aid to the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the downtrodden, and the imprisoned.  As we do that work in Christ's name, we can look for signs of God's justice, Jesus's loving-kindness, and the Holy Spirit's influence at work in the places that seem the most cold, barren, and dark.  For the Son of Man is coming...and though even though we may not not know the day or the hour when he will get here, each good deed done in his name is a sign that he is drawing a little bit closer.

This Advent, let us take heart, live in ways that show love for God and one another, and keep our eyes peeled for the coming of our Lord.  For as the carol "People Look East" says over and over again, "Love...is on the way."  And we want to be ready to welcome that Love among us when our Savior finally arrives at our door.

 

 

Prayer

 Jesus, the world we are living in can feel like a dark, cold, and lonely place.  Help me to take heart and find joy in the knowledge that you are on the way.  May I live in ways that make me ready to welcome you when you come again.  Amen.