With today’s instant and easy communication technology, we often know when company we are waiting for will show up. We know when their plane will land, or what ferry their car will be boarding and if the ferry line is long, we usually get a text from them guessing how long their ferry wait will be. While Christ won’t exactly text us the time of his arrival, we can see signs of his presence now if we are alert.
Despite our inclination to count the days until Christmas, Advent isn’t about waiting for the birth of the Christ child for he was born in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. Instead, Advent is a reminder that we are waiting for the second coming of Christ, for Emmanuel, for God to be with us. In Greek, this was known as the parousia.
Jesus has come, he has fulfilled his mission and left, returning to his Father. Like the “lord of the house,” he is traveling abroad, and we don’t know for certain when he will return. We, “his servants in charge,” have meanwhile been given work to do until he returns, namely to live the gospel.
More than once in this pithy gospel passage, Jesus commands us to be watchful, that is, be alert to his coming. If we presume that we are to only watch out for his second coming, much like “born again” Christians who are anticipating the “rapture,” our wait could easily become a ho-hum experience. After all, we have been patiently waiting for Jesus to return in much the same manner that the early Christians did before Mark even wrote the gospel.
The early Christians, many who knew Jesus firsthand, believed the parousia would occur in their own lifetime. They expected Jesus to return in glory and conquer the world and the world, as we know it, would end. With Jesus in complete control, the reign of God would begin and there would be no more hunger, wars, sickness and suffering. God would then transform the earth into a new Garden of Eden, free of sin.
The second coming of Christ becomes real for us when we encounter Christ in one another, and recognize that he is already in our midst. When we reach out to those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, ill, or imprisoned, for example, he will not find us “sleeping.” Our watching for the coming of Christ is heightened by seeing God in the simple, everyday things we do. We don’t have to venture far to find God in our midst.
A husband one summer rented an ocean cottage for a two-week vacation. Before driving to the beach with his wife, he made a solemn promise to himself that for the next two weeks, he would be the kind of husband that he knew he could and should be.
For two weeks, he made no calls to his office. For two weeks, he held his tongue when tempted to say something unkind. For two weeks he was thoughtful, loving and caring. On the last night he caught his wife staring at him with a deeply concerned expression. He looked at her and asked, “Honey, what in the world is wrong?” Tears rolled down her cheeks as she said, “Do you know something I don’t know?”
“What do you mean?” he responded. “Well,” she said, “you know that before we left on our trip, I went to the doctor for a check up. Dear, you’ve been so kind to me. Tell me the truth. Did the doctor tell you something about me? Did he say I had cancer? Did he say I’m going to die? Is that why you have been so good to me, dear?” It took a full minute for her remarks to sink in. then he broke into a laugh. Throwing his arms around his wife, he said, “No, honey, you are not going to die. It’s just that I’m going to start living!”
Imagine how different our world would be if we all started living, not for ourselves but for others including those who are hungry, ill, or a stranger in our midst. Many people saw Christ this past week, preparing meals for countless individuals on Thanksgiving who otherwise would have not had one. Our place was a beehive with many volunteers putting together and delivering nearly 500 meals.
Sadly, we also witnessed many reminders that sin still exists with violent protests across the country in response to the verdict in Ferguson, Missouri. For some business owners and the injured, this was not a joyful Thanksgiving because angry protestors refused to forgive and see Christ in those around them. Alas, violence only begets more violence. Centuries later, long after the lament recounted by Isaiah, many people are still lamenting that peace is so elusive. Terrible things still occur but people of faith remind us that the Lord is in our midst by what they do: unannounced, unreported by the media, but he is there because they care.
Preparing to receive Jesus means refusing to accept any situation where people’s hopes are dying. Justice must be practiced with joy and hope, not with bitterness, despair or discouragement. By doing that, the Lord will meet us and the feast of Christmas will have meaning for our lives, making us mindful that yes, Emmanuel, God is with us.
Our deeds of charity, our acts of forgiveness, our morally lived lives, our compassion, are like pinpoints of light in a morally dark world; they show a weary and anxious people that the Lord really has come and is here, and if there is any watching to be done, it is to be done by us, looking for the opportunities around us when we can endeavor to imitate the good Shepherd, and make his presence known to others by what we say and do.