CAN'T SEE WITH OUR EYES CLOSED

1st Sunday of Advent

            Have you ever waited for someone who didn’t come?  Samuel Beckett devoted an entire play, Waiting for Godot, on waiting for someone who does not come.  In the play, Gogo and Didi wait and wait for Godot.  A young boy arrives to say that Godot will not come today, but will come tomorrow.  But he does not come.  Have you ever kept vigil for someone who didn’t come?  People in Jesus’ time expected his return in their own time.  But he didn’t return then.  People throughout the centuries since Jesus’ advent have been waiting for his second advent.  But it hasn’t happened yet.

            You have to wonder.  It seems as though some people are ready to give up the vigil.  More likely they give little or no thought to Jesus’ second coming.  These are people who believe in Jesus.  But it would seem that many Christians today have no lively expectation of Jesus’ return.  Even so, Advent is the season in which the church reflects on both Christ’s first coming and his second advent.  The apostle Paul concluded his First Letter to the Corinthians by saying, “Our Lord, come!” a prayer for Christ’s return.  The Aramaic words used in Paul’s letter are “Marana tha,” “Our Lord, come!”  But these words can also be read “Maran atha,” meaning, “Our Lord has come.”  The season of Advent captures both our history and our hope:  “Our Lord has come” and “Our Lord, come!”  It’s not so hard to celebrate that the Lord has come.  But when it comes to Christ’s second advent, his return, there seems to be less focus in the minds of Christians.  So they just go about their business.

            Of course, just going about our business can lead to our downfall, Jesus warns.  The people in Noah’s time, he said, were just going about their business.  The usual stuff.  Putting a roof over their heads.  Putting food on the table.  Young people were getting married, as young people do.  Their elders gave their children away in marriage.  This is the stuff of everyday life.  Nothing wrong with seeing to our daily business.  Unless.  Unless the focus remains there.  Those in the time of Noah were apathetical toward God and God’s will.  They were engaged in taking care of business.  Their business.  Not God’s will.  They were oblivious to the activity of God in their midst, either to judge or to save.  The will of God was off their radar.  Jesus teaches that such a condition can lead to our downfall.

            So what should we do?  Should we get into a panic and dread Jesus’ second advent?  No.  Jesus teaches that we are simply to live as those who keep watch.  We’re actually used to keeping watch here in North Texas.  When a storm is threatening, there are certain ways we keep watch in order to do our best to survive.  In my house, I turn on a radio to a station where a meteorologist keeps the public informed about the movement of the storm.  Along with that, I’ll have on a TV station that is showing current weather radar.  Television stations frequently show a storm’s location, direction, and intensity.  I also will listen to a weather radio.  All of this is to keep us informed so that we may take action.  If a storm were to come our way, we would be ready to hunker down in the safest place in the house.  That’s keeping watch.  Jesus teaches that we are to keep watch for his return like we keep watch on dangerous approaching weather.

            Being vigilant for Christ’s return takes several directions.  First, we are to expect his second advent; that should always be a priority that guides our present lives.  We should be on the alert.  James A. Harnish in his Advent study for adults titled Rejoicing in Hope tells about the time the family gathered at his home for Thanksgiving.  Julia, their three-year-old granddaughter, decided to sleep on the floor on an air mattress.  Before sunup, Julia crawled into bed with her grandparents.  As they snuggled together, Pastor Harnish suggested to his granddaughter that they couldn’t get up until they saw the sunlight coming in the bedroom window.  Closing his eyes, he hoped that Julia would get the hint and go back to sleep.  Soon Julia was tapping him on the arm.  He opened his eyes.  She said, “Gampa, you can’t see the sunshine with your eyes closed.”  True.  We can’t watch for Jesus’ second coming with our spiritual eyes closed.  We need to remember that Christ promised to return and keep our eyes open for it.

            The second way we watch for Jesus’ second advent is to do what our Lord has commanded us to do:  to love God, to love neighbors, and to tell the good news to the world.  Being watchful for Jesus’ return sends us out into the world to do what he commands.  The way to keep watch for the return of our Lord is to be about the Lord’s business until he comes.  At the office, the boss is seen with a travel bag along with her briefcase.  She is about to leave the country on a business trip.  It is uncertain when she will return.  How should everyone in the office keep watch for her return?  One way would be to have someone stationed on the first floor of the building and call up to the office the minute she is spotted waiting for an elevator.  The faithful way to watch for the boss’s return is to be about the business the boss has given you.  That’s how our waiting for the Lord’s return is to be carried out.  Jesus has commanded us to love God and to love neighbors and to make disciples of all nations.  In the Lord’s absence, we are to be about his business.

            One more way to watch for Christ’s return is to offer ourselves to him, just as we are, in a way that seeks to know his will and to keep ourselves focused on him.  I was impressed when I read a prayer by Henri Nouwen that showed his own struggle to keep focused on Christ.  Isn’t that your struggle?  It surely is mine.  This holy man prayed, “Why, O Lord, is it so hard for me to keep my heart directed towards you?”  In his prayer, Henri Nouwen moves toward God in trust.  “Please accept my distractions,” he prays, “my fatigue, my irritations, and my faithless wanderings.  You know me more deeply and fully than I know myself.  You love me,” he says, “with a greater love than I can love myself.”  Nouwen goes on to pray, “All I can do is show myself to you.  Yet, I am afraid to do so.  I am afraid that you will reject me.  But I know—with the knowledge of faith—that you desire to give me your love.  The only thing you ask of me is not to hide from you, not to run away in despair, not to act as if you were a relentless despot.”  Wow!  What honesty!  What openness!  Finally, Henri Nouwen closes his prayer in the hopeful spirit of Advent, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”  If we, like Henri Nouwen, can be ourselves before our loving Lord, if we, like him, can offer ourselves to Christ just as we are, if we will do that daily, we indeed will be watching for the Lord’s return.