"Stay Awake! Wait!" given Dec. 3

 He was born in a stable, over two thousand years ago. For all the centuries before that, men and women, youth and elders had been waiting for Him, hoping for Him, praying for His coming, watching for Him. They really had no idea of who, or what exactly it was that they awaited so eagerly, watched for so diligently. But they waited. They watched. They hoped.

The history of humanity before His coming is a history of blood and pain and yearning-- reaching, searching, wondering-- for peace, for meaning, for justice, for purpose, for a reason, to touch and be touched by the Ultimate Reality that undergirds Creation. Before His coming, and ever since, we cannot name a people anywhere on this planet, who haven't reached out for somebody, for someone, for something beyond themselves-- to worship.

Before He came-- it was all fruitless. The Creator sent prophets and teachers and lawgivers, and holy men and women-- trying to reach us. But we ignored or killed them, or misinterpreted them. Worse, sometimes we put them on a pedestal and tried to worship the messenger instead of the message. Finally the Holy One decided that in order for us to get the message right, God would have to come to us in person. And so that is what our Maker did.

In the man Jesus of Nazareth, our God somehow mysteriously came among us. How? We don't really know. Does it matter?

In Jesus' life, God showed us the perfect model for our lives. In Jesus ' teachings, God gave us a glimpse of the Divine Will for us, for the world, for all of creation. In Jesus' healings and feedings and acts of compassion, God showed us that we are supposed to be about the business of healing and feeding and caring for one another.

In Jesus' willingness to die for us on the cross, God showed us the ultimate act of love-- even in the face of rejection. In Jesus' resurrection, God broke the boundaries of human existence and gave us the promise of new and abundant life-- in the world to come and in the world here and now.

Now, two thousand years later, we are waiting. We wait for the Christ to be born again in the past, the present, and the future. We wait throughout the season of Advent to celebrate His past birth in a manger. We wait for Him, invite Him to be born in our hearts, that He might remake us into new and forgiven people-- His people in the world today. We wait for His future rebirth into this world and the coming of His eternal Realm of Shalom-- of, Justice and Mercy, as He promised.

We are waiting, we are hoping, we are watching. Every child hanging a stocking or putting out an empty shoe on Christmas Eve is an expression of that hoping, that watching, that waiting.

"It doesn't matter," we tell the children, "if your house doesn't have a fireplace. You can put up your stocking on a wall, or on the tree, or on the door to your bedroom."

And when the child does that, it becomes a sign of the everlasting hope within,that gifts will come down upon us from above. It becomes a sign of humanity's dream that all peoples hopes and desires and wishes and needs will one day be fulfilled. The child is only looking for an American Girl doll, or a transformer robot. But we Christians, we adults, we human beings are hoping for so much more.

Christ was born two thousand and seventeen years ago--give or take thirty years. But humanity's desires have yet to be fully realized. There are hundreds of million people starving in Africa-- the same continent that Jesus knew as a refugee child. They look to the skies everyday-- watching, waiting, hoping for some relief-- some corn, or beans, or rice or oil. To the hungry, how else can the grace of God come except as food?

Jesus was born two thousand years ago. But for far too many people in this world, it is as if nothing at all happened on that night so long ago. In the cities and towns of our world, hundreds of thousands wander the streets right now, searching just as Jesus' parents did, for shelter. Those not as lucky as Mary and Joseph will sleep in the street—perhaps even heve their babies there.. Others will bed down in shelters, in missions, on church gym floors. To the homeless, how else can the grace of God come except as shelter?

Jesus Christ was born about two thousand years ago. But there is less peace in the sky than when the angels sung that night. Despite the end of the Cold War, with the “war on terror the night skies are still filled with warplanes. In our land, and in lands far away, missles still point at enemies new and old. Bombs, chemical weapons, land mines, guns and bayonets still threaten, not only new born babes in Bethlehem, but all of us. To all of us, how else can the grace of God come except in the promise of Christ's coming Reign of peace and plenty and justice?

Jesus seems to be far away-- like the householder in the Gospel for this morning, who left for a far off country. It's true that He warned His disciples and friends that He would be returning to the Heavenly Parent. But hadn't He also promised that He would come back? Hadn't He graced His followers with the abiding and empowering presence of His own Holy Spirit? And hadn't He entrusted them-- and us-- with tasks to perform?

"If you love me, feed my sheep." He said.

Hadn't He literally entrusted His mission, His life's work into the hands of His earthly Body—the church? Hadn't He entrusted His home-- this world-- to those who followed Him, who called themselves by His name? Hadn't they understood-- don't we understand that we have been equip and called to continue that ministry-- to feed the hungry, to satisfy the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to heal the sick, to visit the imprisoned, and organize the oppressed? To theneecy, how else can the grace of God come except through theministry of God's own people?

Hadn't He told them-- and us-- to watch? Didn't He promise that He would be back soon-- hoping to not find us, His church, asleep? And truth be told, isn't that what we are-- asleep in a world that needs to be reawakened? To the needy, how else can God's grace appear except in the witness of Christ's church?

Didn't He tell us not to be anxious or fret about the exact day and hour of His return? Didn't He admit that not even He knew the day and hour? Didn't He make it clear that far more important than all the speculation about when, was our call to watch and wait now, to be faithful doorkeepers, to keep His house safe from violence and war-- pure from the grime of sin and separation between people-- unpolluted by the trash of greed and self-serving and exploitation of human being by human being?

"Therefore, keep awake," Jesus says, "for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cock- crow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: keep awake" The word is Gregoreite, the same word Jesus uses in the Garden of Gethsemane when he begs Peter, James, and John to stay awake and pray with him. “Gregoreite!:” He says, “Stay awake! Stay conscious! As hard as it is, as long as it takes, please don't go to sleep on me!”

It's been a long time since He first came. It's been almost as long since He left, promising to return. And we've been watching and waiting for such a long time. I suspect many of us don't really expect that He ever will literally come back to this world---at least not in our lifetimes.

But the truth is, Jesus Christ comes into this world all the time. He's not really distant at all. He enters into your life and my life all the time. He calls us to acts of charity and compassion and love and mission all the time. He seeks to come into your heart and mine all the time.

He offers us here, at His table, renewed strength for the many challenges you and I must face. In the Bread and the Cup, He brings to us renewed hope for our lives, renewed purpose for the tasks of discipleship, renewed love in His presence.

Sisters and brothers, let us prepare ourselves to celebrate the feast of His birth. Let us invite Him to be reborn in our own hearts and lives. Let us come to His Table and be reminded that He will indeed return once more, to our world. Let us watch. Let us hope. Let us wait.