Be prepared!

So it’s the first Sunday in December and instead of cute angels and shepherds, we get Jesus talking about Doomsday.  Fun?  Not likely, where’s the tinsel and shopping? Or maybe it fits more with the Black Friday student protests against excessive shopping?

Every time we come to Year A, the Matthew year, we don’t have a lot of stories of Mary and Joseph and there are no shepherds watching over their flocks by night.

It’s a reminder that we as Christians spend our weeks leading up to Christmas reflecting on what it means to prepare our hearts and minds for the Coming of Christ.  And this scripture is about being prepared for the tough stuff, the times when disaster strikes, when one will be taken as suddenly as the flood took Noah’s neighbors, and another will remain still doing their daily chores, work as usual, but in the twinkling of an eye, their whole world will be turned upside down. 

Interestingly enough, Jesus doesn’t say that his followers will be taken up while unbelievers will be left behind or even that his followers will be the ones left behind.  No bumper stickers here needed – you know, the ones that read, ‘in case of rapture, this car will be driverless’.  No certainty, no knowledge of when, even Jesus doesn’t know when. The focus is not on how to be saved or how to save others, it is only on being prepared.  Jesus doesn’t even tell us what to be prepared for.  He even, in the previous verse, said it would happen in his disciple’s lifetime, and woe to folks if it happened in the winter or to pregnant moms to be.  The key message for Jesus was to be ready, vigilant and alert at all times. 

What does that mean?  The only thing I can think of is to be ready to live out our Christian witness boldly when the going gets rough. 

I saw a play in New York last month, “Comes From Away’ that shows a good example of this.  It was based on real people, interviews two Canadian theatre students had with folks who had been in Gander Newfoundland on 9/11.  One moment it was a small town having casual chats in Tim Horton’s about the schoolbus strike.  Everyone knew everyone, and the police officer knew who would be speeding and where they worked.  The next moment everyone had the news on and were watching in shocked silence.  It brought back memories of my own moment, driving home after dropping off the kids, turning the radio on and sitting in disbelief thinking I was listening to a radio play. Like War of the Worlds.  I remember phoning Tim and saying I would meet him at the university Blood Donor Clinic as we both have O Positive blood.  Even the blood donor clinic didn’t know when I called to book the appointment and I told them to be prepared for an influx of people.  Sure enough, the place was bustling and crowded and there were even television cameras there to interview us donors.  What a hectic time.  But we went into action as did Gander, and we all helped where we could.  Just like the bystanders on the London Bridge who ran to stop a terrorist, we all did what we could to help our fellow humans.  We were prepared to care and help.

Or maybe an even better example is of the folks who helped take care of AIDS patients when everyone else was treating them like they were carriers of Bubonic Plague.  The name calling, the hatred, the fear, and the sense that ‘those kinds of people deserved such a terrible fate’.  And how it was a death sentence for anyone who came in contact with them.  But nurses, doctors and volunteers chose not to be afraid but to comfort and care for these people, some even contacting the disease themselves before we knew enough to have everyone wear gloves.

Thank goodness it’s not like that every day.  But I wonder what we need to be prepared for next. 

Whether it’s job lay offs of nurses and lawyers or protests by children or sightings of Canada Geese heading back to Baptiste Lake because of the snow storms in the states, we see signs that change is around us and we must be ready to act in Christian ways. 

Ways of courage and hope, that dream of a better world, where God’s will is done here on earth, where swords are beaten into garden tools and humans will give up waging war on each other.  I found myself watching the fireworks here on Friday and wishing that all the gunpowder in all the world could for once and for all be rounded up and only ever used again for fireworks and not for shooting humans.

Chances are I and hopefully you will never use a gun on another human, but instead we will be prepared to live in hope that every person will experience peace with their neighbor.  It’s hard work but it is doable.  People do change.  AIDS is now treatable and people who were first diagnosed are now able to live normal lives, if they get the medication in time.  We don’t treat them like criminals any more.  And the passengers in Gander thought they’d have a terrible time and ended up making lasting deep friendships.  The schoolbus drivers and the mayor didn’t solve their conflict overnight, but they worked together side by side for the common good.  The Muslims were treated with dignity, the foreigners with respect.  And the gratitude of people around the world keeps pouring into that little town, helping provide scholarships and inspiration the more their story is shared.  That kind of inspiration continues to grow and spread and help us all be a little more prepared, come what may, to respond to life’s challenges with courage and compassion, just as Jesus would have hoped.   This Advent let us prepare to love a little deeper and go the extra mile to be a community of hope and love.