In Paul’s letter to the Romans, it says, “the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.”
Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light: so beautiful. What is the dark? The dark can be a place of fear, of defensiveness, of hidden antagonists. Especially if you’re a follower of Jesus in 50 AD. Or a person of color in 2025 America, or someone depending on government assisted health benefits or food or housing, the stranger, the widow. So, the light of hope urges us to spend our time in acts of love for our fellow humans. As Paul suggests, choose love. Quarreling and Jealousy certainly aren’t the state you want to be in when you perform an act of love. You simply can’t be. So, get to the root of your quarrel and figure out why you’re jealous and dig it out. Expose it to the light, and be done with it. No time for quarreling. Who needs it? Where’s the hope in Jealousy. Nowhere to be found. There’s no hope in Jealousy.
And Matthew. (We’re going to be hearing from Matthew for about a year.) Matthew says to “Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” The way I see it, as long as you’re awake, as long as you are conscious of the way of Jesus, the more opportunity you have to be Jesus’s worker. And in so doing, God is present. Present in your heart, in the front of your mind. In your actions.
And Matthew goes on, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” If you spend your time wondering when the Great Reckoning, the Last Trumpet, the Coming of the Lord is going to happen, you won’t ever see God. Because God is already present, if you include God in your life, in your actions, in your words, in your thoughts.
The apostles were always wondering when the final days were going to happen. They thought the final days would occur within their lifetimes, as have many throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries who claim that they are prophets. But that’s just taking away from Jesus’s message to not worry when the day is at hand, because that watch, that worry simply draws us away from our opportunities to do the good work of Jesus right now.
If you never have before, now is a great time to practice watchfulness, faithful attentiveness. If you’re looking for the second coming of Jesus, look no further than the people around you, no further than the daily news, no further than your own behavior. Learn from others; learn from yourself. Advent is a great time to find Jesus reborn in your everyday thoughts, in your meditations, in your actions.
I was reading this sermon out loud to Sam and Kenny, who was visiting for Thanksgiving. I like to share my sermon with Sam before I commit it to hard copy because saying it out loud to someone highlights any confusion caused by my writing. Anyway, later, Kenny comments, “One of the problems I have with people preaching about the dark – especially as we’re heading deeper into the dark of winter – is that we need to bring the light into the dark. We can’t lose ourselves in the dark.” “That’s right,” I said, “and we carry that light within us, and only we can light the dark.” Go Kenny!
And so, we are now going to engage in dreaded group participation by answering the question: in what kind of personal actions can we find Jesus? What can we do to fight back the dark? To create Hope? I’ll start: in thanking someone who holds the door for you, in holding the door for someone, in praying for someone whose driving skills are less than good. Your turn:
This is where you find hope. In the everyday acts that prove that Christ is here on earth already. No matter how simple, how straightforward, no matter how everyday: an act of goodwill toward humanity is an act of God on Earth. [A hand raised to help, a sympathetic smile, a lifted prayer, a cup of coffee with a friend: these are acts of hope.]