Summary: The First Sunday of Advent lifts up a gospel reading focusing on the return of Christ and the uncertainty of when that will happen. We are looking at Jesus' several examples of this in Matthew 24 and his call to be "ready." How to be ready and how to live a balanced life - balanced between living life now and not forgetting our need to be ready when the day of the Lord comes. As people of faith we need to be ready and resolute.
Early in 2025, Benjamin Hall's book Resolute was published. Picking up from his first book, Saved (published in 2022), it continued his story of recovery and life following his being in a car hit by a Russian missile while on assignment in Ukraine. Hall is a British American reporter for Fox News and, at various times, also worked for the New York Times and BBC. Resolute is subtitled, How We Humans Keep Finding Ways to Beat the Toughest Odds.
"Finding ways to beat the toughest odds" could also be a subtitle for parts of Matthew's Gospel. Certainly, it could describe our scripture for this first Sunday of Advent. Throughout Hall's book he used the word "resolute" ten times and a word closely associated to it, "resilience," 67 times. Both words fit in with Jesus' call to be "ready" in verse 24 of today's text. Let's take a closer look at this scripture.
Matthew's message throughout our text today has two main themes stated in multiple ways. The first of these is to emphasize that no one can know when the events he is referring to will take place. "For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." People were going about their lives as usual - eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage - until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away. That is how it will be when the Son of Man comes.
That point is repeated with two people in the field - one will be taken, and one will be left. And again, two women will be grinding meal together - and one will be taken, and the other left. Keep awake, for you do not know when the Lord is coming. His fourth analogy is about the owner of the house. If he had known when a thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.
So, what are we to do? That's the second main theme. Be ready! "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
Now some of you may be thinking, "I thought Advent, the time leading up to Christmas, was a happy time. This doesn't sound very happy." On the first Sunday in Advent for each of the three-year cycle of the Lectionary the gospel reading focuses on the return of Christ and the need to be watching and to be ready for we don't know when Christ will return. So "happy time" - maybe not, but a time that is coming for all humankind. It is a time that's easy to ignore because we don't know when it will be, but Jesus made it abundantly clear that we ignore it at our peril.
In our modern society filled with attention stealers like cell phones, headphones, e-readers, social media and a bazillion other things, there is no lack of distractions to keep our focus off that which is most important. With that in mind, I want to suggest that we all could improve on "paying attention."
Commentator Melissa Bane Sevier notes that "paying attention" is one of the main Advent themes. She suggests several things we should be paying attention to:
The last point above is "be ready." The Boy Scouts of America's official motto is "Be Prepared." The Scouts are to "be ready for any situation or challenge, both physically and mentally." While I don't think Jesus was telling us to be Boy Scouts, I do believe he told us multiple times to be ready for life as it comes to us. In our text today Jesus gave the example of Noah. He built the ark while everyone went on their merry way, not stopping to ask Noah why he was building such a big boat! Pay attention, indeed!
In the text from Matthew, to "be ready" is to continue to do what Jesus taught in that gospel. We can prepare for the final advent less by doing special things and more by living and witnessing as Jesus instructed. What instructions did Jesus give us in Matthew? There is so much: the Sermon on the Mount, healings, calling of the disciples, dealing with the religious leaders, great teaching through parables ... and of course, Holy Week in which Jesus set aside his own wishes and deferred to the Father's will. Death on the cross. The Resurrection. The Great Commission.
We could say that Jesus was teaching his followers to be resolute, (firmly resolved or determined) as faithful believers: paying attention and being ready, through faith in God, for whatever life throws our way.
Jesus' examples of people who were not ready - Noah's neighbors, one left in the field, one left at the grinding wheel and the homeowner who was not prepared for the thief in the night - are so commonplace, aren't they? Just ordinary people going about their lives with no idea what was about to happen to them. It's frightening, isn't it?
An insurance agent would say, "That's why you need insurance! You never know what might happen. You need to be prepared, and this policy (and your premium) will make you prepared." There is truth in that, but not the whole truth. Your doctor will put the emphasis on your health. Your teacher may tell you to get as much education as you can, and your financial advisor will tell you to invest and save all you can. Each of these advisors knows there is truth in what they say, but not all the truth.
Let me tell you about a man who found out about faith and readiness and resilience and resoluteness. "Peter" was a junior high school history teacher. His wife of 15 years, Teresa, was employed at a local business as the personnel director. Their daughter, Becky, was in 5th grade. They had a good house in a nice neighborhood, two cars, etc. They had all they needed, and more. Life was great.
Until it wasn't. Teresa woke up in the middle of the night with a splitting headache. Nothing was touching the pain. All the stuff followed: emergency room visit, multiple brain scans and body scans, brain surgery but some of the tumor was left in because of where it was. Aggressive cancer was spreading. Specialists, and more specialists. And after three months Teresa said, "That's enough. Take me home and let me die among people I love." They did and within two weeks she was gone. Less than four months after that headache.
Peter was able to take the rest of the school year off. During that time, he began to spend a lot of time in the Bible and in prayer and in conversation with trusted friends. He began to question his teaching career, felt a call upon his life to share his faith beyond what he was doing. With help from his family and other friends, and after selling his house and a car and other stuff, he and his daughter left their hometown so he could go to seminary. He was able to finish seminary in two and a half years while caring for Becky and pastoring a small congregation that was used to having student pastors.
Four years after Teresa's terrible headache, Peter was formally ordained as a pastor in his denomination. Becky (now in high school) stood with him at the ordination.
Peter's story could have turned out so badly. He attributed his life now to his and Teresa's faith, his willingness to listen to God and his ability to be resolute and resilient, responding to God's call.