We know the schedule: four Sundays … the second one for a church tea, the third one for choir concert, and then the pageant for culmination. We may have a schedule -- but in fact the new world is coming at "an unexpected hour" (Matthew 24:44). The rush of God’s rule is impending, and Christians are "on the alert." This is not Orange Alert in fear; it is, rather, glad expectation. These readings ponder both preparation and expectation.The preparation is delineated in Romans 13. Paul urges the avoidance of "reveling, drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, quarreling, and jealousy" (verse 13). The mad rush of "Christmas preparation" drives us to self-indulgence and enough fatigue to make us edgy and quarrelsome. The alternative for Paul is to be unlike the world and not consumed by our "desires."
The preparation may match the expectation. It is expected, with the coming of God’s rule, that there will be disarmament and no "learning of war" (Isaiah 2:4). Along with the big arms race there are many lesser "wars" -- in church, family, and community -- that require disarmament. The psalm invites a yearning for peace: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" -- and Baghdad, and Kabul, and Canterbury (for Anglicans), and Geneva (for Presbyterians), and Wittenberg (for Lutherans), and Azusa (for Pentecostals). And Rome, maybe above all for Rome. Waiting for peace means preparation for peaceableness. Advent is a chance to receive a world quite unlike this one. It will be given!
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