November 25, 2010

"Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Matthew 24:42-44)

How many of us this Thanksgiving weekend can say that we are fully prepared to celebrate Christmas? Even the "anti-crastinators" among us, who may have completed their gift shopping, probably haven't wrapped all of those gifts yet. Or consider your church choir who may have all of their Christmas pieces selected, but who likely don't have any of the numbers solidly rehearsed or polished. And who of us can say that we have taken the time to properly ponder the wonder and great mystery of all the events that led up to that first Christmas - when Jesus "became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:14)? It stands to reason that none of us are properly prepared for Christmas yet - and that's fine, because we know we have another month to take care of all of our Christmas preparations. We know that in exactly one month, we will be celebrating the time when our Lord first came into this world. What we do not know is the day when our Lord will return, "you do not know on what day your Lord will come." Because we do not know, and in order to avoid being surprised, we must be "ever ready" for that day - which could even be today yet!

How can we be ever ready? Jesus tells us here to "keep watch." Does this mean we should be signing up for time slots, so that at all times one of us can be watching and looking up into the sky to see if we can spot Jesus' feet coming down out of the clouds? I suppose if that's what it takes to get us to think about His return on a daily basis, then it wouldn't hurt. But I would like to bring to light some other suggestions that may be a little more practical. Often when we hear about keeping watch, we hear it coupled with something else - we hear keeping watch coupled with prayer.

Teach us in watchfulness and prayer
To wait for your appointed hour,
And fit us by your grace to share
The triumphs of your conqu'ring pow'r. (CW 9:5)

Another example of this coupling would be what Jesus told His disciples to do in Gethsemane - “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." (Matthew 26:41)

Maybe we don't need to make a habit out of going out and watching and looking up into the sky everyday, but maybe we should make a habit of praying about being prepared for Christ's return. One way to make such a prayer a habit could be to marry it to something that is already a ritual for us in our daily lives - like brushing our teeth or taking our pills. Every time, out of habit, that we do one of these rituals, we could also pray about being properly prepared for the day of the Son of Man's return. Here's a simple prayer that we could use as a framework for our personal "ever ready" prayer: "Dear Jesus, today could be the day that You return, please help keep that thought in my mind throughout the day. Please guard my heart and mind from anything that could cause me to be unprepared for, or surprised by, Your return. Amen."

So, one way we can "keep watch," is through prayer. The pastor and hymn writer, Paul Gerhardt, provides another suggestion for how we can be "ever ready" and unsurprised by the day of our Lord's return - should it happen in our lifetime.

O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?
Your people long to greet you, My Hope, my heart's Delight.
O Jesus, let your Word be a lamp to light my way,
To show me how to please you, to guide me ev'ry day. (CW 19:1)

God's Word serves as a guide that keeps us on the path of proper preparedness - a path that also draws us closer to Him. As the Word brings us ever closer to Jesus day by day, we are also ever closer to being with Jesus as every day passes. As the final stanza of Amazing Grace puts it, "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun." (CW 379:4). As each day passes we have no less days to sing God's praise, but we do have less days until we are taken to the place where we will be singing His praises eternally. The Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans contains a passage, which also happens to be a part of our Epistle Lesson for this Sunday, that speaks to the fact that every day we're a little bit closer to our day of salvation- "And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." (Romans 13:11)

Whether the Son of Man returns in our lifetime and brings the world's time of Grace to a close, or whether our own personal time of Grace comes to a close before Judgment Day, the fact of the matter is our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. It might even be nearer than we currently anticipate. We know that we have another month to prepare for the celebration of Christ first coming into this world, we don't know how long we have to prepare for Christ's return. Because of what we we are preparing to celebrate in a month - because God was willing to send His Son, our Savior, into this world as our ransom, we can be ready for the day when God will send His Son, our Judge, into the world again. As we keep watch, our prayer is that we will be ever ready, and as we keep watch and when we dig into God's Word, we find a guide and a path that will bring us closer to Jesus. In order to avoid being caught by surprise and unprepared, during this Advent season, as we make all our various preparations to celebrate our Lord's first entrance into this world a month from now, let's also keep watch and make paramount our preparations for that unknown day when the Son of Man will make His final entrance into this world - which could even happen before 12/25/2010!