"Keep awake therefore..."

This year, the lectionary, or set of Scripture verses that lots of denominations use to guide the flow of the Christian year, focuses heavily on Matthew for Advent. I don’t know if you have ever read all the way through Matthew – all at once like it was the script of a movie – but if you have a free afternoon, I would recommend it. (Here’s a hint: just breeze over the first chapter. Its good, but it can be yawn inducing.) The texts we hear for Advent come from close to the end of Matthew: we begin our season of preparation by hearing the words of Jesus as he prepares to face the cross. Towards the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus lays down hard and heavy words about turmoil and persecution and judgment that provide a harsh counterpoint to the too-early Christmas hymns and joy and cheer that we see in the stores and on the radio. The twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew can be, frankly, fear inducing. There are no snowflakes or shepherds or angels singing; but there are floods, and the separation of sheep and goats, and wailings from the outer darkness. Yowza – what a hard way to get ready for the coming of Christ!

But really, isn’t preparing for Christ about taking a good, long look at our world, and even harder, at our own lives? The path we are called to as disciples of Christ is a hard one. And Jesus, as Truth Incarnate, was a truth-teller, and didn’t sugar coat what a life of preparation and waiting would be like. Yes, there is hope and joy and love greater and richer and deeper than we could ever imagine in this life of faith, but there is also heartache and pain and persecution – and, as a wise man once said, “anyone who says differently is selling something.” We ought to live as ones awake, with our eyes open. It is prickly, and can be harsh to our ears, but as we travel through Advent and into Christmas this year, we must be open to the honesty and truth Matthew brings us – that the world is still covered in horrifying darkness where bad things happen to good people, but that God’s power is not like the power of this world, and that God can bring life where there is death, God can bring hope where there is despair, and that God can bring light where there is overwhelming darkness. And for the coming of our surprising and unexpected God, we prepare with hope and joy and thanksgiving.