Year A Advent
First Sunday of Advent
Matthew 24:36-44

Contextual Background:

Advent opens with a call to stay awake. In first-century Judea, under Roman rule, people lived under the weight of fear and despair. The temptation was either to withdraw or to fight back in ways that mirrored the empire’s violence. Jesus urged another way: to stay alert, not in fear but in hope, watching for God’s presence breaking in. Today, our society’s religio tells us that life’s meaning is in competition, consumption, and production in a winner-take-most economy. Advent interrupts this narrative with a counter-story of trust, dignity, and anticipation.

Within the Jewish Tradition:

The prophets often called the people to watchfulness — to expect God’s action even when it seemed delayed. Jewish communities under foreign rule cultivated practices of hope that kept them rooted in covenant trust rather than imperial fear. Advent emerges from this deep well of waiting on the God who acts in history.

The Challenge Then:

The challenge for Jesus’ hearers was to resist the empire’s narrative of domination and violence. To stay awake meant to live in a different story: God’s story of justice and peace, even when Rome seemed all-powerful.

The Challenge Now:

Our challenge is similar. Fear drives many to hoard, exclude, and weaponize politics, while cynicism tempts others to withdraw. Advent invites us to watch for God’s story breaking through — to evaluate our politics and economics by their outcomes: do the vulnerable flourish, do neighbors find dignity, does creation thrive?

Implications for Leaders & Communities:

• Leaders can embody active hope by lifting up stories of compassion, justice, and mercy that already show God’s reign breaking in. This can include telling positive stories about other groups, religions, and non-profits.
• Communities can resist consumer liturgies by reclaiming Advent practices of prayer, service, and generosity.
• Together we can witness that God’s story, not the economy’s story, is the one that holds us together.

What I Am Learning:

Hope is not a passive waiting but an act of resistance to fear and cynicism. Staying awake means seeing through the false religio of competition and practicing trust in God’s unfolding justice.

The Question I’m Sitting With:

How do we stay awake to God’s presence without being consumed by fear or distracted by the noise of consumer culture?