Just spent the last hour talking with a classmate outside the library. We talked about Mark 13:24-37, the lectionary text for next Sunday. The first Sunday of Advent, we should be looking forward to the birth of the Christ Child, but this passage is about the 2nd coming of the Son of Man. The end speaks to being awake, keeping watch. That is what we talked at length about. The word that is used appears like 10 times in the NT and most of those are in Matthew and Mark. This text and again in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is a command to watch, to keep alert, to keep awake!
33-37 Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning-- lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch."
We are all called to do something to bring about the Kingdom, we are to be dilligent in doing that which we are called to do and to keep watch so that no matter when the master arrives we are on watch. May this upcoming advent season be about re-awakening ourselves to life in Christ. To life as one of the servants of the house, keeping to our work and waiting, anticipating the coming of the Master.
Advent is a season of watching and waiting, but not for what has already come. We remember the birth of Christ and celebrate the radical love of God, but we are to start the Christian year with renewed diligence in staying awake, working where we are called and awaiting the Master's return. Alleluia! Amen.
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