Stay Alert, Stay Awake, Keep Watch
“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields,
keeping watch over their flock by night.”
Luke 2:8
Advent is one of my favorite seasons in the church year. It is a time of waiting, but not passive, laid-back waiting. The waiting we experience during Advent is an active time of being alert and awake as we anticipate the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus at Christmas, the Son of God incarnate, the Word made flesh. During this active waiting of Advent, we also focus on being prepared for the coming of Christ, the coming of the kingdom of Heaven, as He returns at the end of time.
Advent is a time to keep watch just as the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks when the angel of the Lord came to them to announce the birth of Jesus. It is a time to stay alert, to listen and watch, and be ready. In Mark 13: 32-33, Jesus was telling the disciples about the end times and says, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.”
I served in the Army during Desert Storm and there was a period of time that we were in the desert, in the time of preparation, before the actual combat began. During that time, most people were able to sleep at night, so in my unit we always had an officer and an enlisted soldier on night watch. Through the night watch, the enlisted soldier manned the radio and field phone and the officer was there to handle any issues that might arise. It was important to stay awake and be alert. It was hard to stay awake and alert during the long, quiet hours of the night. But it was important to keep watch, to anticipate and be prepared for anything that might happen.
Similarly, it is hard in these times to remain focused on being alert and awake during the season of Advent. It may be the distractions of the secular world rather than the quiet of a desert night that make it hard to keep alert during Advent. But, as we journey through this season, let us remember that Advent involves preparing for two comings: God coming to earth in the infant baby Jesus, whom we await at Christmas, and Christ returning to earth at a time we do not know. Advent is the time for us to keep watch, be alert, to stay awake, so that we are prepared and to continue to put our hope in our loving God who comes to us in Jesus Christ.
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