First Advent

This week begins with the First Sunday in Advent; the underlying theme of the week is that of being awake and ready for the Second Coming of Christ. It is a matter of being truly awake. Being awake is not something that can be compartmentalized. If one is awake in one thing, one should be awake in all things.

Being awake is something I hear about often. An irreverent countercultural dictionary called the Urban Dictionary defines being awake (or the past tense, woke) as a reference to how people should be aware of current events using the example, “While you are obsessing with the Kardashians, there are millions of homeless in the world. STAY WOKE.” Being awake in Philadelphia in 2017 has so many levels. Current events are one thing, but there is so much more to being awake in God’s eyes. Being awake in God’s eyes includes everything. It includes all the gifts that God has given us that we know about, and those we don’t because we do not see because we do not see as God sees.

We cannot begin to see as God sees; think about the planet as God sees it; think about our role in it. We drill down into the depths of the crust and extract tremendous quantities of, well, whatever. And then, we process whatever we take out, mix it up, in some cases make it unconscionably dangerous.

Think about water, and how we are so comfortable simply turning on the faucet and taking whatever we need. Folks the world over have chosen to live near water sources and routinely, in ignorance, or full knowledge of the damages, people dump in water. What is it that we dump into the water cycle?

Now, let’s think about our human interactions. How we treat each other is important? Deacon Phil often points out things I need to read and this week he reminded me that our American Exceptional-ism is not of God, but of man. What we do to the least of these, we do to Jesus. What we do to the least of these, we do to God. And the Disciples asked of Jesus and is recorded in Matthew 25, beginning at verse 34: “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Enough said?