Live in the Day
One of my father’s old jokes was that God created time so everything did not happen at once. We often can feel that way, filling our lives with so many things to do. We often complain that there is not enough time in the day to do all that we need or want to do. We have heard and said many things about time, like time is money, or time waits for no one. Our lives seem to revolve around the clock. I once read a book – one of the most difficult books to understand that I have ever read – that suggested time does not exist. Time, if you think about it, is based upon the motion of the earth. One day is how long it takes for the earth to rotate on its axis. A year is the time it takes the earth to orbit the sun. It is the pattern set up by God from the beginning of creation. It also has been the subject of human pondering for thousands of years. The Psalmist, thinking on mortality, reminds us that, “A thousand years are but yesterday to God... for our days pass away under your wrath, our years come to an end like a sigh... so teach us to count our days” (Psalm 90). It is not unusual, then, that our texts for today talk about the Day (or days) of the Lord.
Isaiah is talking to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. People who looked out on the landscape of history and worried about the powerful nations that gathered about them. Some thought that their time was short and God had abandoned them. God’s message to them, Isaiah tells them, is that one day all nations will come to Zion and God will judge between nations and peace shall reign and tools of war are made into tools of care. Yet the people ask when this will be. In their restlessness they wander away from God and try to make their own judgment and peace. Jesus alludes to this in his remarks in Matthew. If you read a bit in between the lines he is suggesting that those who are left have no idea that they will be left. We all believe that we use our time for what is best. Jesus warns us, though, that we may not be and need to be ready.
As we read this we wonder how it fits into our lives. We confess that we have been made ready not by our own actions but by the work of Jesus. What then does Jesus mean when he tells us to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man? We note that Jesus’ two examples are of people working and their work is to produce sustenance for others. Paul tells us to put on Jesus Christ. He is calling us to imitate Jesus each and every day of our lives. What imitating Jesus looks like in your life will be different than for another. But your actions will come out of the same desire. A desire to proclaim Jesus to the world by sharing God’s love because God has first loved us. That is what Paul is telling us. Do those things that can be seen in the light of day not those that must be hidden in the dark of night. The works of faith and love. Works that imitate Jesus. We do these works not out of necessity but out of thankfulness for Jesus’ gift to us. We dedicate our days and all that we do in them to him. This Advent as we wait for Jesus, spend some of your days in prayer and contemplation so that you will be ready to share the peace and joy that can only come from God.