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 Watch. Be ready. The teacher glances down the rows, probing to discover who is prepared, who has read the lesson, and who has not. It's a way of getting us to put the material into my heads, I guess. But just now the purpose is lost to simply doing. If I want a good grade, if I want to win approval, I have to be ready. Ready or not, the teacher approaches, and I watch nervously.

Or, another personal experience of being ready; or not. The other team comes out onto the court, and their center looks tall, and that is frightening. But he's skinny, too, so maybe he won't be so rough after all. The referee walks to the center court. So do we. He tosses the ball in the air and I jump. Ready or not, the game begins. The time is here. This is the conference championship. No more waiting or watching.

Watch. Be ready. Two words Jesus leaves with his followers. And it's no surprise that these words are with us in our lives as well. But they are especially a part of the life of faith. This message is a warning, not a comfort, and it is summarized in today's lesson: "Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. ...you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour."

Christ, the living Lord who is forever in our midst, gives a warning as well as a "warm fuzzy". And this word of discomfort is the primary word during Advent. For Advent is the season when we recall God’s coming, quite literally, to stand beside us. Advent is a time for preparation, of making ready.

Such watching implies not a frenzy of activity when we see the Lord approaching. Rather, the activity is constant, steady, continuing. Since we don't know when the Lord might appear, or from which direction the Lord might come, or in what shape the Lord might come to us next.

Lovely old homes still stand all along our rocky coast, from here to Maine. Some have a window at the very peak of a third- or fourth-story gable, while on others you look up to see the seemingly out-of-place door leading out to a high balcony with a Victorian railing. These are not mere decorations, these "widow's walks." Their function was to give folks at home a clear view of the sea, from which the tall masts of merchant ships could be seen miles before their return to port.

I guess that there were indeed those who watched for the masts from such places. And I can also imagine that watching, for them, involved more than merely curiosity about when the ships might return. Watching, for these looking out to sea, or for us awaiting our Lord, involves remembering the past and dreaming the future.

Watching implies remembering the past, for the One for whom we wait, is the One whom we have known. We look forward because we have first seen in the other direction. We long for the future when the past has held its wonder.

And certainly that is the way the disciples waited for their Lord's return. Having shared their meals with him, they long to share the heavenly banquet in his presence. Having heard his laughter on the barren hillsides, they longed for the echoes of that same voice in their ears once more. So, too, our longing for Christ, our waiting, our watching, implies that we have felt his presence before.

But if watching includes remembering, it grows through dreaming. We look for the things that are yet to be. The Hebrew Bible lesson contains a classic vision, a common hope of faith. Listen to it. Doesn't this vision inform our watching for Him?

The Lord shall judge between the nations,
And shall decide for many peoples;
And they shall beat their swords
Into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hook;
Nation shall not
Lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war any more.

That vision, that dream, inspired Israel's watching and waiting.

So watching means remembering and dreaming, looking back, but looking ahead as well. And both the memory and the dream have a way of changing us as we make them part of our lives.

This time of year, being ready implies a frenzy of activity: going shopping, putting up decorations, and baking, eating, singing, listening, going to parties. But that's all because we have put ourselves on a schedule which includes Christmas on December 25. We know when Christmas will come this year – and every year.

But suppose we didn't know? Suppose Christ were to come at any moment, as the lesson indicates happens. What would mean then, to “be ready”?

It would mean going about our normal activities, normally. But it would also mean living our faith here, now. Justice, mercy, kindness, laughter, joy, and enthusiasm – none of these could wait for later. Forgiveness and understanding can't wait for later, either. We need to practice these virtues, now. Nor can our compassion wait; nor our concern for the poor; nor our hunger for peace in our world, and in this time. Now. Now is the time to "wake up" and live as people of the light.

Live as the people you are. Dream the dream that is yours. Only then will ever be ready for Christ to come. Yes, our watching opens the door for God to enter the world – through us, beside us, with us and for us. That’s one message of Advent.

Watch therefore. Be ready!

Amen.

Mamaroneck United Methodist, November 28, 2010.
 

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