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Connections&
December 2, 2001--First Sunday of Advent
It is now the hour for you to wake from sleep. The night is advanced, the day is at hand. Romans 13:11-14
"Stay awake! For you do now know on which day your Lord will come."
Matthew 24:37-44
'All night long& '
Remember pulling "all-nighters" in college--cramming all night for that 8:30 exam, finishing that term paper due to your professor by 10 a.m.? Before you realized it, the 14 weeks of the semester were over--and a mountain of papers had to be completed and exams passed. So, compelled by the fear of flunking out and fortified by caffeine, you read and memorized and typed and highlighted until dawn.
Did you ever find yourself driving all night for an important meeting or event? Last minute complications or a canceled flight meant driving all night to be there in time. Or maybe you've had to be up early for an appointment or meeting. You're so concerned about the outcome, about your presentation, about oversleeping that you wake up every 15 or 20 minutes. You eventually accept the reality that you will not be getting much sleep this night until all is completed and finished.
And many of us know the anxiety of keeping vigil all night at the bedside of someone we love: the couple awaiting the birth of their child, the spouse pacing anxiously in the hospital waiting room, family members offering what comfort they can as a loved one slipped into eternity. After a long night, life is transformed as morning dawns.
CONNECTION: These "short nights" we have all kept are all experiences of Advent, the first season of the liturgical year that focuses on the last days. Our lives are a constant Advent: The precious and limited time we live is but a "short night" in which we have much to do and complete before the morning of eternity dawns. Advent calls us to "stay awake" and not sleep through the opportunities life gives us to discover God and the things of God. Advents calls us to "watch," to pay attention to the signs of God's unmistakable presence in our lives, to live life expectantly not as a death sentence but as a gift from God.¦
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