Hope
Read Mark 13:32-37
It happens every year--what we expect to be a slower-paced summer flies by, and before we know it, it's Labor Day Weekend. Fireworks give way to football, then pumpkins to pilgrims. now, it's all we can do to finish our Christmas shopping and get our yuletide greetings in the mail before the "guaranteed delivery by Christmas" sate. And the reality is, if left unchecked, we'll be right here again this time next year wondering, "Where did the time go?" We get busy with our day-to-day lives, lulling ourselves into a trance-- just trying to make it through the year, letting the important things sneak up on us or forgetting them altogether.
But the Advent season calls us from this daze--from our slumber. It bursts into our passivity and calls us to "stay awake" We've been talking all week about the hope we have because of Jesus; promise to return, and His words from Mark 13:32-37 are a stunning reminder that He will come again. Our Master has departed on a journey, but He's left us with work to do while He's away. And the work we're called into cannot be put off until later because Jesus' second advent will come at a day and hour that only the Father knows.
It's so easy to get lulled into slumber by turning of time, passing by at what seems to be an ever-increasing pace. But this sleepy apathy while we wait is not the life we've been called to live. The Great Commission in Matthew 28--Jesus' instruction to His disciples that's been passed down to us-says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Advent reminds us that we are a commissioned people, granted stewardship of the gospel message. We have the privilege of heralding this message day by day, season by season, year by year, eagerly anticipating the return of Christ. Our Master is away, but He's coming again.