Readings
Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44
In the Gospel this morning we hear Jesus speaking about the coming of the Son of Man. We hear him, put simply, talking about his own return. He warns his disciples, by comparing it to the story of Noah and the flood, that we cannot know when it will happen because nothing of ordinary life will be disrupted until the moment it happens. But the point of the story is for us to be ready for his return whenever and wherever it might happen.
This season of Advent is about getting ready. It is a season marked by stories of the events leading up to Jesus’ birth. But, as we see in today’s Gospel, we also hear stories about Christ’s return to this world. This season of Advent is not only about getting ready for Christmas, but it is also about us getting ready for the return of Christ into this world and into our lives.
If you are like me, I have always thought of the second coming of Jesus as being something that will happen at the end of time … at some time in the future. It evokes in me images from the book of Revelation. I imagine Jesus descending from heaven on a white charger. I imagine the cataclysms outlined in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation. And I imagine the descent of the heavenly kingdom to earth.
The difficulty with focusing so greatly on the apocalyptic story in Revelation is that it was not written to describe the end of all things for us today. It was written to seven churches in Asia Minor who were facing various sufferings and difficulties. It was written to both challenge them in their faith and comfort them in their affliction. Those who read it in the first century would have understood the language and imagery to be symbolic and not literal. They would have understood its purpose to be about describing how God will not abandon the faithful, even to the point of death. They would have understood it to mean that no matter how broken the world becomes, God will right things in the end and there will be peace and justice for humanity. The book of Revelation uses the idea of the second coming of Christ as a way of expressing God’s commitment to humanity and the human condition, not necessarily as a description of how exactly Christ will return.
Even in today’s Gospel while there is a hint of cataclysm in the comparison Jesus makes with Noah and the great flood. The point he is making is more about the sudden and unexpected nature of his return. Jesus is calling his disciples to recognize that his return will come when they least expect it and in ways they cannot anticipate.
I would invite you to imagine a different way of thinking about the second coming of Christ. I would invite you to move beyond the apocalyptic images that have shaped our understanding for centuries and instead imagine that the coming of Christ is not something that happens once in the future, but something that can happen again and again in the here and now.
The truth is that Jesus is perpetually present to us in our lives. Christ is not in a distant and faraway place from which he must return. As his disciples learned again and again after his resurrection, Jesus is with us always. They came to understand that Jesus is known and experienced in the relationships we have with one another. This means that Jesus is all around us. He is to be found in every person we meet. Our failure to see Christ in the other is not about the absence of Jesus, but about our failing to be adequately formed to recognize him.
This season of Advent is a time of preparation for the return of Christ. In preparing for the celebration of Christ’s in-breaking into this world in his nativity, we set our minds to the task of preparing ourselves for his in-breaking into each of our lives. Our worship this season is marked by the ancient word from scripture, maranatha, which means “come, Lord.” We intentionally will again and again in the prayers of the people ask for the Lord to be with us even in the midst of our waiting.
But this still begs the question of how we might prepare ourselves for Christ’s return. How we might recognize that the return of Jesus is not something far off, but something near. How we might see that the grace, peace, and transformation we all long for is not something for which we have to wait. But it is something that is already ready and waiting for us.
Preparing ourselves for Christ’s return is a simple task. To start I would invite you my friends to look around. Go ahead. Look around. In each person you see, there is the opportunity to experience the risen Lord. In each person you behold, grace, peace, and transformation is waiting to flow over you.
Jesus is waiting all around us. He is with us in this room. He is with us at the grocery store. He is with us when we are sitting and watching tv. He is with us in all the relationships that we have, both intimate and cursory. What determines whether or not we experience that is whether or not each of us is ready and willing to acknowledge the sacredness and mystery of another human being. To recognize that what we simply perceive with our senses only scratches the surface of the reality before us.
Preparing ourselves for the return of Christ is about preparing our perception and our hearts. It is about learning to see and recognize Christ when he shows up. And while I do not deny or preclude the possibility of a miraculous and cataclysmic event, it is about realizing that those moments of his return occur most often in the ordinary and mundane patterns and places of our lives.
And so I invite you to take the next four weeks as an opportunity to intentionally, consciously and mindfully practice the presence of God in your life. To actively seek for Christ in the people you encounter and in the ordinary moments that fill each day. To be open to the transformation that comes with such an exercise.
The Catholic priest and scholar Henri Nouwen sums it up best:
“The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.”