I am sure it will be no breaking news to anyone that we humans spend a large portion of our life on earth simply waiting, waiting for something over which we have little or no control. It is probably one of the most frustrating feelings anyone can have because by nature we are action-oriented; we want to do things, mentally or physically. However, we do wait nine months to be born. We expect that sometime in our 80’s we will die. Then, in between those two parameters we continue to wait: To grow up, to finish school, to get a good job, to do a good job, to retire…and then what? More waiting. Some of the things we wait for in life do happen for us, others do not. Nonetheless, we have no other option than to wait.

In Raymond Brown’s splendid work on John’s gospel, he makes the point that even Jesus waited because he was convinced that the kingdom of God was close at hand. “You will know that the kingdom of God is coming close when the blind see, the lame walk and the poor have the good news preached to them.” So, with that, Jesus, in some sense, was struggling to hurry the onset of the kingdom of God. He wanted to do his part to make this event happen even in his own time.

In his preaching, however, he continually made the point that waiting, by itself, is not enough. What is needed is vigilance, being on watch for God’s coming, not necessarily at the “end times,” but in the here and now.

In some sense, I believe Jesus is saying “If the kingdom has not yet come, then we need to go about the business of making it come in our own day and time. The kingdom does not come spontaneously: Each age is responsible for the questions and challenges of their own time. In that sense, then, the kingdom is always coming but is not present yet. It’s part of the old philosophical question of the already and the not yet. The kingdom is partly here, but not completely here.

Waiting around aimlessly, therefore, is not an option for the Christian. The kingdom comes every day. Indeed, Jesus says, it is already within you, already part of the ongoing action of this world. So, vigilance is the important point here, always being alert for whatever changes are going on. Time is important; events are always taking place in time that, in themselves, have some meaning or the meaning that we put into them. In some mysterious manner, the kingdom comes at our pace to the degree that we are concerned about events that are happening in our age and time.

Vigilance, vigilance is the central word. “Gird your loins” (put on your trousers) Jesus, says. “Light your lamps,” there’s work to be done.

But then there is that other important Advent word, prepare, prepare ye? You will notice that it is an active verb, do the hard work of preparing.

Preparation events are happening around us every day. I’m sure there must be a large staff at the White House that prepares for the coming of important personages. Physicians prepare scrupulously for a surgery; lawyers spend long hours preparing their notes for a trial. Students spend years preparing for that final Ph. D. exam. Had we known how to prepare for the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, we might have prevented the deaths of over 3000 people. The person who is not vigilant, who does not know how to prepare even for the ordinary, every day, events that take place in our daily lives, has some problems.

The question, however, is this: What sort of preparedness is called for in the season of Advent? Obviously, it is not the sort of short-term preparation that happens at the White House. Statesmen and women come and go each day.

I believe that the preparation called for in Advent must come from the inside: It is the sort of attitude of mind or spirit demonstrated in the scriptures in this Sunday’s liturgy in the character of the prophet Baruch, John the Baptist and Jesus. All their efforts were directed toward the events of their times. They saw issues that needed to be addressed and they addressed them. They also died for them.

As for ourselves, living in this age of history, as we do, Advent preparation must be for the eternal coming of the living word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ. This world in which we live is waiting for just such a word of good news: The cessation of war, attention to the poor, the diminishment of terror on our streets, et cetera.

Finally, it must be said that this Advent preparation and waiting, would be all for naught if it were simply limited to Advent. What then happens to the rest of the year? Advent, in some sense, then, needs to be a model and a paradigm for the entire year, indeed for all of life. The Christ continues to come with the invitation to follow Him where the blind still do not see; the handicapped do not yet have access, where those without justice are still waiting. Human needs never seem to end, which means that our waiting and preparedness must never slacken until the Lord comes finally with the word that the kingdom is now.

The scriptures: Baruch 5: 1-9; Philippians 1: 4-6, 8-11; Luke 3: 1-6