• Be waiting, be watchful, Matthew 24:36-44   (see below)
  Gary in New Bern
   

• How Should We Wait for the Lord? Matthew 24:36-44, Romans 13:11-14, Isaiah 2:1-5,  RevJan
   

• Live Like Today Is The Day  Matthew 24:36-44. By Dr. David Rogne                       
   KEEP AWAKE!  Rom 13:11-14; Mat 24:36-44, by Rev. Rick Thompson                
  WALK IN THE LIGHT! Isaiah 2:1-5, by Rev. Rick Thompson     
   

• Waking From the Slumber, Romans 13:11-14, Nail-Bender in NC        
   

• What Time Is It? Romans 13:11-14, Thomas N. Hall
   

• How Then Should We Wait for the Lord? Matthew 24:36-44, Frank Schaefer

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Be waiting, be watchful
Matthew 24:36-44
Gary in New Bern

Well, the turkey is done - except for leftovers; it's time to prepare for Christmas! Already people are hitting the malls for the "pre-Christmas sales," the stores are playing Christmas music, and are getting their trees and lights put up!

There is something about this time of year - although Christmas is still a month away - still, the lights, the music and all the rest - puts you in a different frame of mind. There's something about Christmas that changes our whole disposition. I was listening to NPR a couple of days ago - they were talking to people who had come in for Christmas shopping. New Yorkers are generally notorious for being a cynical bunch, but on the first shopping day of Christmas, all they could find was holiday cheer. People were even greeting strangers with, "Merry Christmas!"

After the leaves have fallen and the world has become more desolate and cold; after life has taken on a dreary cast and we, too, feel somewhat dreary after struggling through another year - suddenly there is this season that is full of promise for a new beginning, new life. A promise that life can be different, that there are new possibilities for living. Not like the renewal of spring, when that which is dead springs back to life, but a whole new world that seems to come into being - an almost magical world, full of flying reindeer, elves, snowmen and Santa Claus. It's reflected in the carols, in the poems and traditions and stories that surround the season - even in the way that the Christmas story is told.

I think that's what makes the season so exciting to us: we're thinking about the magic of glittering snow - although we're also it won't happen here - covering the drab deadness of the world. It's symbolic of a greater need that we have - a need for a new world, something to cover over and change the drab and not so pleasant realities of this life. We look back to the magic time of childhood, when everything seemed possible, when a new wagon could excite us so much, because it wasn't just a wagon, but also a race car, a fire truck, a space ship exploring new galaxies!

And we see the babe of Bethlehem in that same light too - as the One who is the symbol of hope and new life for us.

Isn't that the stuff of which Christmas is made? And advent is a sign-post, [continue]