Year A
 Isaiah 2:1-5
 Psalm 122
 Romans 13:11-14
 Matthew 24:36-44
 May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

There’s a story…  called What is the World Like?…  in it…  God and a man are walking down the road…  the man asks God…  What is the world like?…  God replies…  I can’t talk when I’m thirsty…  if you could please get me a drink of cool water…  then we could discuss what the world is like…  there’s a village nearby…  go and get me a drink… 

The man goes into the village and knocks at the door of the first house…  a beautiful young woman opens the door…  his jaw drops…  but he manages to say…  I need a glass of cool water…  of course…  she says smiling…  but it’s midday…  would you care to stay for some food? I am hungry…  he says…  [ looking over his shoulder…  ] and your offer of food is a great kindness…  he goes in and closes the door behind him… 

Thirty years go by…  the man who wanted to know what the world was like…  and the woman who offered him food…  have married and raised five children…  he is a respected merchant…  and she is an honored member of the community… 

One day a terrible storm comes in off the ocean and threatens all their lives…  the merchant cries out…  Help me God!   and a voice from the midst of the storm says…  Where is my cup of cold water…  the man got caught up in the ways of the world…  he allowed it to divert his focus…  his mission…  he took his eyes off the ball…

Have you ever watched TV…  and your attention wavers for a moment…  maybe you look at a text on your phone…  or reach for that cup of hot tea…  and you miss something that’s said or something that’s shown…  and what happens next makes no sense and you have to rewind the video…

Or have you heard about those auto accidents…  when someone’s driving…  and they drop their smartphone…  they look at who’s around them on the road…  and decide that it’s safe…  and for one split second…  they bend over at 45 mph and reach down to fetch it…  and in that moment…  in that span of time that almost doesn’t warrant measuring…  there’s an accident…  they weren’t really paying attention…

Have you heard the story about the woman who leaves work at the mall late at night…  and she has to walk through the parking garage to get to her car…  she keeps her car fob in her hand so she can unlock her car just as she approaches it…  but when the elevator doors open…  the garage is quiet…  something just doesn’t feel right…  so she closes the doors and goes back into the mall…  and asks one of the guards to escort her to her car…  and soon thereafter…  another woman is robbed…  the first woman was paying attention…

Then there’s the story about someone who went to their doctor about a pain in their back…  the doctor told them to take some Advil and take it easy…  but this person was aware of their body…  they listened to God inside instead of just to someone else outside…  and went for a second opinion…  this other doctor found a tumor near their spine that needed to come out…

It’s easy for us to hear this Gospel…  to hear Jesus talk about staying awake…  and understand it only as not falling asleep…  after all…  we have the stories in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 when Jesus chides the disciples for not staying awake for just one hour while he prayed in the Garden…  and at the end of this Gospel…  Jesus exhorts them to be ready…  because the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour…  he compares this coming to the days of Noah…  and reminds his listeners that the flood caught off guard…  those without boarding passes for the Ark…  he tells his listeners that to not be alert on the Day of the Lord…  would be like having a thief come at an unexpected moment…  because really…  if you knew the date and time that someone’s going to break into your home…  you’d not only be there…  but you’d call the police to make sure that they’d be there too…

But the Greek phrase that’s translated as keep awake…  really means…  to be or become alert…  it’s about functioning from a fuller state of awareness…  about mindfulness…  about keeping your eye on the ball…  in current jargon…   it’s about being woke…  which not only means being alert to and concerned about social injustices…  but as Jesus said to the crowds in the Gospels of Matthew (16:3b) and Luke (12:56)…  how is it…  that you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky…  but you cannot interpret the signs of the times…

So if we understand the Day of the Lord only as an event in space / time…  as an event in history…  as something we can put on our calendars…  then there will be one specific day and time when Jesus returns…  and those who have not remained aware…  those who have not faithfully practiced his teachings will be caught off-guard…  we need to remain vigilant…  we can’t pull an all-nighter and cram for this…  we can’t prepare for this judgment at the last minute…  especially when we don’t know when the last minute will be…  though many have claimed to know and have been wrong…  but waiting for something…  remaining constantly on guard for something that doesn’t happen soon is stressful…  and vigilance can turn into apathy…

And in today’s Gospel…  with two in the field…  one who’s taken and one who’s left…  two women grinding meal together…  one taken and one left…  it’s easy for us to think about the Left Behind book series…  but if the two men and the two women are doing the same things…  why is one taken and one left…  on the outer…  visible level…  they’re the same…  and if they are…  then I wonder if the significant difference must be internal…  on the level of awareness…  because the meaning of the Greek word that’s translated as taken…  also means…  to take to oneself…  to join to oneself…  and to become it…  not that someone is physically taken away…  but that they develop the kind of awareness that has enabled them to be ready whenever Jesus comes…  and the one who is left behind…  is the one who just hasn’t gotten it yet…

Fr. John Shea wrote…  when…  through the teachings of Jesus…  God’s redeeming presence enters human consciousness…  it becomes the Day of the Lord…  and the Son of Man has arrived…  we may never know when this will happen…  so we must stay awake even though the light wanes…  this breakthrough can happen at any time…  when it does…  and we receive its gracious communication…  we are dry in Noah’s Ark…  are taken into the Kingdom…  and are safe in our own house…

I wonder how many of us have forgotten to get God a drink of water…  how many of us have been caught up in the ways of the world…  though in Advent…  while we’re waiting for God…  God is waiting for us to become awake and alert…  while we’re waiting for the baby Jesus to come…  Jesus is waiting for us to welcome the fulfillment of God’s plan for all of creation…  that can seem like a lot of waiting…  but the Day of the Lord is available to us now…  and we can…  as Ps. 46:10 says…  Be still…  and know that God is God…  we can be attentive to why we do what we do…  to what’s said and what remains unsaid…  and then we will be like a rock…  which can withstand any storm… . so during the remainder of Advent…  while we wait…  let’s choose to respond not to the tumult of the world…  but remain rooted in the loving Word of God…  and then we’ll finally see… what the world is really like…