1st Sunday of Advent: Staying Awake for the Journey of Advent

Today, we begin a new Church year. Today, we enter a season of preparation for yet another Christmas, celebrating that our God came to us in time and space.  Our readings today guide us to prepare for both a four-week journey to a birthday celebration on December 25 and for a journey of a lifetime, as we anticipate the certain return of our God at an uncertain time in the future. 

Travel is a passion in my life. I can’t imagine going on a trip and not doing the needed preparation. The same is true in my spiritual life. The better prepared I am for an adventure, the more I can appreciate and enjoy arriving at my destination. The readings that we hear echo for today this life experience. They encourage all of us to ready ourselves during this Advent season for the time ahead. 

Matthew’s gospel urges us to prepare, drawing a parallel to the days of Noah. A few years ago, a friend and I traveled to Kentucky and visited the Ark Encounter in Petersburg. We were amazed, after walking through a rainbow, seeing for ourselves a replica of the Noah’s Ark. This Ark, touted to be the largest freestanding timber structure in the world, was fashioned according to insights that the designers gleaned from the story of Noah in Genesis. The ark stood 510 feet long (300 cubits), 85 feet wide (50 cubits), and 51 feet high (30 cubits).

One can only imagine the amount of preparation that went into this modern engineering wonder. Noah and his family would have had to spent years and a staggering amount of personal and psychic energy as they prepared and construct a vessel of this magnitude. Certainly, Noah and his family would not have had any time to “eat, drink, marry and giving in marriage.” Their preparation was focused on the survival of created order from a pending flood coming at an unknown time. Thus, Matthew encourages us, to take heed and “stay awake.” We, too, need to be prepared.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, underscores an urgency to awaken from a spiritual slumber. The provisions he directs us to garner as we prepare are found in putting on Christ Jesus. To live in love, as Christ has modeled for us, we are counseled to “conduct ourselves properly,” rejecting anything that leads us astray. Afterall, “salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

Isaiah, in our first reading, boldly encourages us to climb God’s mountain. He prepares us for this journey by offering us a vision of what life could be, if, by following God’s guidance, we foster peace and harmony as we climb. We are being encouraged to walk, hand in hand in relationship with others, “in the light of our God.”  Prepared to trust in a God who does not disappoint, along with the psalmist, we have reason to “go rejoicing to house of our God.” 

Today’s readings give us the advice we need to make our journey to Christmas and the days beyond Christmas Day more meaningful. Amid the hustle and bustle and the many distractions that define daily life, do we have the wherewithal to properly prepare? Can we set out for ourselves a plan??? Will we stay awake long enough to really follow-up? Blessed Advent!