Psalm 122 Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 24:37-44

It is interesting that we, living 2004 years after the birth of Christ, should call the season before Christmas “Advent.” Generally, an advent is the coming into being of some thing. The 1980’s saw the advent of the personal computer, the 90’s the advent of the internet. This past year seems to be the advent of blogging on a grand scale. So, rightfully, Advent is a season of celebrating the coming into human being of Jesus Christ. It is the period in which we prepare for the Christ Mass on December 25. It is a time of looking back. However, as did the Old Testament prophets, the tradition of the church also directs us to look forward to the second advent of Christ.

In the readings for the first Sunday of the new church year, we see this constant forward looking. The Psalm and the reading from Isaiah both look ahead to days better than the days in which they were written. The psalmist prays for peace, a peace that is not yet made. Isaiah also looks for peace, predicting that the day will come when

they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The Gospel provides not only a bridge between old and new but also provides us the model of looking back to the past to see the future.

As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man.

Christ looks back to pre-Flood attitudes and prohesies that those attitudes will return and provide the backdrop of his second coming. Lest we be one of those who are caught unawares, Christ tells us that we must

be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

The letter to the Romans reinforces this idea that the hour is coming. While no dates are given, Paul makes the perhaps obvious observation that

salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed

I must admit that reading this line made me think of the TMBG song “Older”:

You’re older than you’ve ever been.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re even older.
You’re older than you’ve ever been.
And now you’re even older.
And now you’re older still.

These readings together form an interesting logic. We are to be looking forward to a better day. What makes that future day better? A lasting and true peace and justice for all. But how is that day to occur? A major part of the better day will be the coming of the Lord. But is we want to be part of that glorious day, we must be ready. How then are we to be ready? Christ tells us to keep a look out, and Paul tells us because we know what hour it is (it’s closer than it’s ever been and now it’s even closer), we are to love our neighbor.

The two activities we need to be doing in these last days is to watch for our Lord and to follow his commands, specifically we are to behave respectably and love those around us. The part of Paul’s exhortation that I seem most sensitive to is in Romans 13:13:

let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and
drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and
jealousy.

The first four items in the list seem to be no brainers, and I dare say that most Christians don’t have much trouble with them–well recent surveys do seem to indicate we have a penchant for debauchery–but it seems to me that we have a special weakness for quarreling and jealousy. In rhetoric there’s a principle that when you put items in the same list you are indicating some kind of moral equivalence. Isn’t it interesting that quarreling and jealousy are on the same level as drunkenness and debauchery? Somehow, I don’t think God was saying drunkenness and debauchery are lesser sins.