It’s Time to Act: an Advent Reflection for the First Sunday of Advent, 2025
by Michele Naar-Obed, Oblate of St Scholastica Monastery
Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44
In some ways, I find these liturgical seasons a bit difficult to deal with. I feel like it boxes me into seeing these times and events as linear. To see these seasons in chronos time, and not in kairos time, is really hard when you are talking about the Divine.
So, with that, we are taught that this season of Advent is about a time of preparation for an arrival. And not just any arrival, but the arrival of the Divine into our world. In our time which we see in linear terms, we attempt to make sense of this by looking back to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and looking forward to his eventual return.
This is where things don’t quite line up for me. Yes, I see the significance of remembering and recalling those memories into my psyche, but what does not line up is the belief that the birth of the Divine into the world was a one-shot deal and will eventually happen again as a separate event for which we in this chronos period of time are called to prepare. If I believed in that sequence, I would not be able to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus, or that Jesus is in fact here now and can be found walking, living and breathing amongst us in this chronos and kairos moment.
Clarence Jordan sums this up beautifully: “The resurrection of Jesus was simply God’s unwillingness to take our ‘no’ for an answer. He raised Jesus, not as an invitation to us to come to heaven when we die, but as a declaration that He himself has now established permanent, eternal residence here on earth. He is standing beside us, strengthening us in this life. The good news of the resurrection of Jesus is not that we shall die and go home to be with Him, but that He has risen and comes home with us, bringing all His hungry, naked, thirsty, sick, prisoner brothers with Him.” [i]
So, what does that mean in the readings we have for this first Sunday in Advent? Let’s start with Isaiah’s vision and prophesy in Chapter 2. Isaiah speaks of a vision he had during the violent and turbulent time of the neo-Assyrian empire and its expansion, which directly threatened the two Hebrew kingdoms. The northern kingdom of Israel fell and was sent into exile by the Assyrians. The southern kingdom of Judah, where Isaiah ministered, faced repeated invasions and threats. Isaiah’s prophecies often addressed the Assyrian threat, prophesying the fall of the northern kingdom and the challenges faced by Judah, including a siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrian army.
Amid this turmoil and violence and corruption and military madness, he saw in a vision all the peoples of the nations streaming up to God’s holy mountain to listen and learn, to be open to God’s teachings, and to walk in God’s ways. He further saw the people beating their swords into plowshares, laying down the weapons of war, and converting them into tools to promote peace and cooperation and love.
Many theologians will say that this points to the time of the coming of Jesus and the ushering in of the Divine into a human body living amongst us on earth. And in this birth of the Divine becoming human, we will be given a roadmap to follow through the examples and teachings of Jesus. We can find that in the Sermon on the Mount.
The next two readings suggest that Advent in our time will move us to prepare for the second coming of Christ. We are to stay awake, to watch, to clean house, to be on constant alert because we never know when that second coming will happen. But we now, right here in the year 2025, have been taught that Jesus is already here and that Jesus, the Divine, can be found in the marginalized, the oppressed, the outcast, the stranger, and the poor and in the victims of war and violence.
Here lies the challenge. How will we live this time of Advent right now? Do we sing “Oh come, oh come, Emmanual,” and light candles and pray and wait for our political and religious leaders to clean up the mess? Or do we recognize that the Divine is here with us, inspiring us to turn the weapons of our time into plowshares and into expressions of peace and love and compassion, and guiding us to clean up this mess with God at our side.
My prayer on this Saturday night, on the eve of the first Sunday of Advent, is to light the first candle, to illuminate our darkness and keep us on the path of God. Jesus tells us, “Be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Matthew 24:44). He gives us the strength and the courage and the faith to transform the swords of our time into instruments of peace. Into plows, to grow and share food with each other. Into hammers, to build homes for all. Into looms, to spin and weave clothes for each other. Into books, to teach each other. Into medicine, to heal each other. And into keys, to unlock the prison gates.
We need to do more than watch and wait for Act 2: the Second Coming. We light the candle tonight, kindle the fire within us, and wake up tomorrow morning certain that Jesus the Divine is right here with us and ready to get his hands dirty.
[i] Clarence Jordan (2005). “The Substance of Faith: and Other Cotton Patch Sermons”, p.26, Wipf and Stock Publishers
Isaiah 2: 1-5
This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In days to come,
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain
and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it;
many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths.”
For from Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and impose terms on many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
one nation shall not raise the sword against another,
nor shall they train for war again.
O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!
Romans 13:11-14
Brothers and sisters:
You know the time;
it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.
For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;
the night is advanced, the day is at hand.
Let us then throw off the works of darkness
and put on the armor of light;
let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day,
not in orgies and drunkenness,
not in promiscuity and lust,
not in rivalry and jealousy.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.
Matthew 24:37-44
Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
In those days before the flood,
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage,
up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.
So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.
Two men will be out in the field;
one will be taken, and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill;
one will be taken, and one will be left.
Therefore, stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”