Homily for November 30, 2025

 

Even though we have all gotten upset b/c the meteorologist got it wrong again! We listen, anyway.   Meteorology is a science and an art—they use scientific data to interpret their observations of the atmosphere—and make their own predictions, accordingly.   So, even if they’re not always accurate, we turn to meteorologists to tell us whether I need to bring my umbrella to church or a pair of gloves.   Sometimes we wish there was a meteorologist for the end of time—to tell us if I can put off working on that awful habit of mine.    But there’s no meteorologist for the 2^nd Coming of Christ.

Still, if we stick with this image,   they are patient and hardworking. Meteorologists teach us one of the central messages of Advent: waiting.    Waiting, not in idleness but by doing hard work anyway   doing their best so we’re not caught off guard in a storm or windy day.

The opposite kind of waiting is what the readings warn us about today: sloth.   It’s when we get super-busy with everything   and yet do nothing—at least, not what we’re supposed to be doing.    St. Paul is very blunt to the Thessalonians; he says, for we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.   So, he tells us that it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.   A kind of spiritual sleep (not b/c it’s peaceful)   but b/c we’re precisely falling into carelessness/keeping busy yet avoiding the work needed for our perfection.   We’re slipping into sloth.

That’s what Advent is here to shake us off of.   The invitation says: Come, let us climb the Lord's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob,    that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.   You can’t climb a mountain half-heartedly/ half-asleep!   That’s why Jesus re-emphasizes: Stay awake!   For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Meteorologists work by reading the surroundings to decide how I should act. But I’m not going to prepare for Christ’s coming according to what’s happening in the world.   Jesus compares the 2^nd Coming to the days of Noah.   You couldn’t tell one day apart from the other: one day they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage; the other, Noah entered the ark.   They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.    The day before the 2^nd Coming will be indistinguishable from any other!   And that’s good! Otherwise, we could easily misuse that information.   ‘Oh, I got time for another sin!’   

But what if I die before Jesus returns in glory?   I’ve quoted Ecclesiastes a few times recently.    There is an appointed time for everything… A time to give birth, and a time to die,   but never a time to sin. God never appoints a time for sin; He works in us even when we sin!   God sees all of us as sinners that He might show us His mercy.   Otherwise, we’re self-sufficient and we don’t need Him—but, deep down, we know we need God in our life.

Advent is about waiting—not for a storm we can measure/looking for the signs all around me to know if Jesus is coming soon or if I can cash another pleasure.   St. Paul, once again, tells us bluntly, make no provision for the desires of the flesh. No exceptions.   What Jesus is telling us here is that, to wait for His coming is not so much like a waiting area in a car dealership with TV, coffee, and even pizza sometimes.    Awaiting Jesus’s coming is much more active/like a climber who is going for the top of Mt. Everest!   It’s risky, but they know it’s going to bring them what they most desire,    God’s own instruction for how to walk in his paths and to meet Him when He comes.

Our energies spent reading what everyone else is doing,    are to be used to look at what is happening inside of me.   What are the intentions in my heart/  what motivates me?   If it’s anything short of loving God and loving my neighbor,   there’s room for improvement!   As a preacher, I preach to myself first, b/c none of us here is except from preparing ourselves.   So, standing before God’s mercy in this season of Advent/a season of waiting,   we work hard like a meteorologist (even though we know we don’t always get it right, but we keep trying)/like a mountain climber who works hard/taking risks of being ignored by friends & loved ones b/c of my faith.

Christ’s Second Coming will happen in the most ordinary of days—as His first coming was an ordinary day in Bethlehem for most people.   But only those who were attentive/waited/and listened for the signs/only they knew the birth of the Messiah on a silent night.   This Advent is a time to wait/a time to prepare/a time to evaluate/a time to work hard   b/c the Lord is coming among us again.   He has come/He is here among us/and He will return again—not that we may remain in darkness,   but ‘that we may inherit the great promise of heaven in which we now dare to hope.’