Staying Awake in a Sleeping World – First Sunday of Advent

“Staying Awake in a Sleeping World”

Just like it was in Noah’s time, that’s how it will be when the Son of Man returns. Before the flood came, people were living life as usual—they were eating, drinking, getting married—right up until the very day Noah went into the ark. They never realized what was happening until the flood swept in and carried them all away. That’s exactly how the coming of the Son of Man will be.

Two men will be working out in a field; one will be taken and the other left behind. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.

So stay awake. You don’t know the day your Lord will come. Remember this: if a homeowner knew what time of night a thief was going to break in, he would have stayed up and prevented the break-in. In the same way, you must be ready—because the Son of Man will come at a time you aren’t expecting.

-Paraphrase of Matthew 24:37-44

Advent Begins in the Dark

Advent does not begin in Bethlehem. It begins in the dark. It begins with a warning, not a lullaby. Before we get to sing of angels and infants, the lectionary drags us into the memory of Noah, into a world drowning in its own violence, into a people so numb that they didn’t realize the flood had already begun. And Jesus, standing on the threshold of Advent, whispers to his disciples…and to us…“Stay awake.” The first shock of the season is not joy…it is judgment. Not condemnation…but clarity. Not nostalgia…but the announcement that God is coming and the world as we know it is not prepared.

As It Was in the Days of Noah

Jesus says people in Noah’s day were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage…ordinary life carrying on while the foundations of society rotted beneath their feet. This is not a critique of celebration. It is a critique of amnesia. They lived as though the suffering around them didn’t matter, as though injustice wasn’t rising like water at their ankles. And I can’t help but wonder how Jesus would describe our days. People eating and drinking while prisons overflow and death row keeps its grim rhythm. People marrying and giving in marriage while the homeless freeze under bridges lit up by Christmas decorations proclaiming peace. People going to work, going to school, scrolling their phones…while the poor, the queer, the undocumented, the forgotten are crucified by systems that claim innocence. The floodwaters weren’t the start of destruction…they were simply the moment people could no longer pretend the world was fine. As it was in the days of Noah, so it is now. Not because God is angry, but because humanity keeps falling asleep.

One Taken, One Left

Then Jesus gives us two haunting images…two men in the field, two women grinding grain. One taken, one left. This is not a rapture blueprint. It’s a revelation…God’s arrival divides those who were awake from those who were sedated by the world’s illusions. God doesn’t arbitrarily choose who stays and who goes…we choose by the posture of our spirit. Some recognize the movement of God breaking into history and step into the flood of newness. Others cling to the old order, the dying systems, the false comforts…and so they remain behind with everything that is passing away. The question of Advent isn’t “Will Christ come?” The question is, “Will we notice?”

The God Who Breaks In

Jesus deepens the urgency with a strange metaphor…if the master of the house had known when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake. But the prophetic twist is this…in Advent, God is the thief. Not because God steals, but because God breaks in. God violates our locked doors. God interrupts our routines. God slips into the world through cracks we thought were secure and exposes what we treasure…our comfort, our control, our allegiance to unjust systems. God is the thief who steals away our complacency. God is the burglar who breaks into the carefully arranged rooms of our lives and overturns the furniture of our fear. Advent is a holy breaking in. And Jesus tells us plainly…be ready, because God does not honor the boundaries we erect to keep the world at a manageable distance.

The Prophetic Work of Advent – Staying Awake in a Sleeping World

This is why Advent begins with a jolt. It is not a countdown to Christmas…it is a confrontation with truth. It is the season when the Church must admit that we have learned to sleep through suffering. We have become experts at ignoring the cries of the vulnerable, at insulating ourselves from the pains we do not want to witness. But Advent says, Wake up. The waters are rising. Build an ark of justice. Build an ark of compassion. Build an ark wide enough to carry all the people the world has thrown away. Don’t wait for the flood to force you into action. Don’t wait for the crisis to awaken your soul. The Son of Man is coming, and he is arriving in every place we have refused to see him…in prison cells, in migrant shelters, in hospital ICU rooms, in protest lines, in cold tents under overpasses. God comes first to the places religion forgets.

The Hour You Do Not Expect – Staying Awake in a Sleeping World

And Jesus ends with the most unsettling promise of all… “At an hour you do not expect.” We expect God to come dressed in beauty…instead God comes wrapped in need. We expect God to come with power…instead God comes through people who have none. We expect God to come in comfort…instead God shows up in chaos. When we least expect it…when despair convinces us nothing will change, when exhaustion tells us to give up, when injustice seems immovable…that is precisely the moment God breaks in. Not to threaten us, but to liberate us. Not to leave us behind, but to pull us forward into the realm of God that is breaking through the cracks.

Staying Awake in a Sleeping World

So here we stand at the edge of Advent, with a world cracking apart under the weight of its own violence. But Advent insists that God is not waiting for us to get our act together. God is moving. God is coming. God is already at the door. So stay awake. Stay awake to the suffering of others. Stay awake to the possibilities of hope. Stay awake to the disruptive, liberating, boundary breaking presence of the One who insists on showing up exactly where we least expect…and exactly where love is needed the most. The Son of Man is coming. Not to destroy, but to disrupt. Not to condemn, but to awaken. Not to abandon, but to make all things new.

Amen.