First Sunday of Advent Yr A
December 1st, 2019
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. Canon Michael J. Horvath
Matthew 24:36-44
Happy New Year! Advent ushers in what is the liturgical New Year for Christians around the world. Advent is this time of four weeks devoted to the hopeful anticipation of the return of Christ. “Advent” meaning Christ’s arrival, Christ’s presence with us. On Christmas we celebrate the first aspect of Advent when Christ was born on earth. The Second Advent focuses on the time when we wait in hopeful anticipation for Christ’s return. As always, this season of Advent challenges us to envision God’s future as a guide in how we live in the present.
Every day some sort of alarm goes off next to your bed – whether it’s a clock, or your phone or your biorhythm. Regardless if you love the mornings or not, everyone gets out of bed and starts to make decisions for that day. Decisions that will have immediate impact: What will I wear? Should I check my e-mail now? I’m out of coffee, should I go out and get more? What do the kids need for school? Did I feed the dog yet? Should I go for my morning jog? These and other decisions will be continually made throughout your day. From your to-do list, to your grocery list, to the kind of coffee will order as you stand in line at the coffee shop.
There’s always something begging for your time and focus. It needs your immediate concentration and a decision must be made!
When there’s always something begging for your time, when you’re always immersed in details and concerns of the here and now with little, if any, time to take a break and rest your body and mind, a fascinating quality develops. The quality is called “decision fatigue”. Decision fatigue refers to the idea that your willpower or ability to make good choices deteriorates in quality after an extended period of decision-making. Put simply: When you're forced to make hard decisions throughout the day, then it's easy to make bad choices near the end of the day.
It becomes harder for your brain to make decisions as the day progresses, and eventually your brain will start to look for crutches and shortcuts, usually in one of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act without reflection or a view towards the consequences of that action. The other shortcut requires no action at all: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions and living out what those decisions require, we do nothing, letting a sense of selfish impotency grow. Live for the moment. Follow what others do. It’s the timeless phrase children hear from their parents: if everybody jumped off a bridge, would you do it? When you have decision fatigue, the response is “Sure! Why not? Thanks for making the decision for me.”
When decision fatigue sets into our lives, our faith gets checked. Acting impulsively or doing nothing are easy default positions in how we live, or not live, our lives as Christians. Acting impulsively, either intentionally or not intentionally, we throw out our Christian principals of faithful living taught to us by Jesus. Impulsive behavior has a myriad of consequences – usually destructive, insensitive and isolating.
Then there’s “doing nothing”; putting little, if any, effort into our Christian life. Choosing to settle for just a little to make us feel good with the minimal amount of energy. Is God in the forefront of your life? Perhaps, perhaps not. We can just say that Jesus isn’t physically here among us. It’s been over 2000 years since he walked the earth and he’s still hasn’t returned. Besides, I’m tired. So, why do we need to bother with forgiveness, serving others or praying?
It’s not about living a flashy way of Christianity. It’s about deciding to make the model of Jesus’ life and teachings a daily reality. That is what Christ is trying to get across to us today.
We are in chapter 24 of the Gospel of Matthew. Let’s put chapter 24 in context. Chapter 26 begins with the plot to kill Jesus and continues through the events of his Passion. Chapter 28 lays out the story of his resurrection. Chapter 25 has two parables and a teaching about judgment and eternal life. In chapter 24 Jesus uses the entire chapter to talk about what his followers should expect in the future and what their lives will be like when they live out their faith.
In this final oration from Jesus in chapters 24 and 25, he reveals remarkable things: As evidence of God’s power, he refers to the large stones of the temple, “You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
On false leaders: “Beware that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many astray.” On the treatment that his followers will receive: “Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name.” On his second coming: "Immediately after the suffering of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. They will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
All this eventually leading to his veiled revelation today, “But about that day and hour no one knows.” “Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
All these statements have a tremendous amount of meaning since Christ’s death was at hand. The Son of God is clear in what following him will entail. He knows of our human tendency to become complacent in regards to the future. The present demands and decisions of our lives easily take priority.
Christ here is getting our attention by describing a greater reality that, if we trust his words, shapes how we live today. Like a great speaker, he says with simplicity and great effectiveness: KEEP AWAKE. Keep awake in living your faith and seeing the need for God’s presence around you.
You see that African-Americans are still victims of racism and often it seems as if their lives don’t matter: keep awake. You’re making decisions to take care of everyone and it’s wearing you out: keep awake. You see anti-Semitism and hear the rising voices of white supremacy: keep awake. You’ve been mistreated: keep awake. You see a world in which there is a greater divide between the haves and the have-nots: keep awake. You see others continually pushed to the margins of society because of race, gender, or sexual orientation: keep awake. You see our climate in crisis: keep awake.
Keep awake, Jesus says, lean into me and hold on to what I’ve taught you. In keeping awake we not only wait in hope for the second coming of Christ, but we can have a hand in creating a world into which Christ is immanent (already here) through living a life dedicated to seeking wholeness and community for one another. When that is our goal, when we seek to serve the God essence in each other, then decisions can be effortlessly made.
Keep awake as you live out your faith at home, at work and in the larger world. Today there will be many decisions you will likely be called on to make, and the temptation to act compulsively or do nothing in your faith life will be compelling. And in the midst of all of that, Jesus asks one thing of each of us: keep awake. Keep God present in the everyday, because today, now, here is where we can tangibly and actively experience the kingdom of heaven with each other in joyful anticipation of God’s Kingdom to come. Amen.
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