I always think that this text from Mark’s Gospel could have been written expressly for the beginning of a sermon.

A flight timed to take off from Tel Aviv airport at 7:00a.m. is bad news. Because of the heightened security the check in time is always three hours. Jerusalem is an hour’s drive from the airport, so it means a 2:00a.m. wake up call. The question is do you stay up and wait for 2:00a.m. and forego any proper sleep, or do you try and get some sleep and be woken up in the middle of the night? Last Monday night I opted for the latter. The wakeup call came at 2:00a.m. – and it took a good half hour before brain and body were functioning in any sort of co-ordinated way. Perhaps I should have stayed awake.

Staying awake is the word of our text, and one of the great Advent themes – wakefulness and watchfulness. As you know well enough the season of Advent is concerned with the coming or Advent of the Lord.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux pointed to three Advents of the Lord. Firstly, His Advent into our world, born as a child – the coming we celebrate at Christmas. This season of Advent is a preparation for that coming. St. Bernard points to two other Advents of the Lord. His Advent is made known to us every day in our prayers, in the sacraments, in the scriptures and in the circumstances and events and the people of our lives and in the life of the world. His advent is always near in every place and person moment in our lives. The Lord’s great and final advent will be in the future and nobody knows how or when that last and glorious advent of the Lord will be – it’s in God’s hands. The question is are we awake? By that I mean are we fully aware, ready and prepared for any one of his three Advents?

Two years after the 9/11 attack on the twin towers of the world trade centre in New York a congressional committee submitted a detailed report on America’s lack of preparedness. They described how the authorities had failed to be alert and on guard. How they had missed the signs and the signals of impending doom. They made strong recommendations on how to be ready for the next attack. The message of Advent is about our readiness, our preparedness for the coming of a Saviour. It’s worth being ready and awake to welcome him. Let’s think about those three comings of the Lord at Christmas, everyday, and at the end, and consider who we can be awake for those comings.

I came across this the other day: ‘Don’t miss Christmas. The innkeeper did because he was too preoccupied with his business. The Jewish leaders did because they couldn’t be bothered to go to Bethlehem and see for themselves. King Herod did because he was threatened by a baby.’

You don’t need me to remind you how easy it is for us to miss the truth of Christmas. It’s easily buried beneath the secular Yuletide of busyness and booze. The Advent message of watchfulness wakefulness and preparedness can so easily be subsumed – even for us – beneath all the other things that we have to do. Rev. Elaine was telling me the other day that during Advent she is taking a Christmas Crib around the schools in her patch and in each class on successive days of Advent there will be a moment of reflection around the crib. At least those kids will have some idea of whose coming we celebrate at Christmas – other than Santa Claus. We did a similar thing within the congregation at Shifnal about three years ago. It’s a way of making space for the Lord and his coming. A time to reflect upon the meaning of it all.

For us Christmas is about the birth of the Son of God and the saviour. We dare not risk missing out on that. Keep awake spiritually, find time, make space this advent to prepare for the coming of the Lord the Son of God the Saviour. And he comes to us every day. His Advent is always near.

The door bell rang, a man, agitated and dishevelled stood there. ‘I’m homeless’ he said.  ‘I don’t want money, I just want you to ring the Salvation Army Night Hostel in Birmingham. Speak for me and tell them I’m on my way for a bed for the night -  and can I have a sandwich?’ I was in the middle of something and busy – it wasn’t a good time. But! ‘Inasmuch as you did it or did it not to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, says the Lord, you did it or did it not to me’. That meeting was an Advent of the Lord.

We meet the Lord every time we pray. We meet the Lord in the scriptures. We meet the Lord in our worship. But unless meeting with him in these spiritual ways prepares us to meet him in the world and especially in those like my friend on the doorstep then we are still half asleep.

We meet here in the centre of the town for prayer and worship and here we meet the Lord. But do we notice him in the young people around this church every day in the week? Do we notice him in the lonely and the sad, in the homeless and those who are worn out with the pressures of life? How can we as a Church better serve them and their needs here in the town centre during the week? First we have to be awake to the call to serve the Christ whom we see and meet in them. And we have to be awake to the opportunities we have as the Church here in the centre of town. And be prepared to do all that it takes to make the best of those opportunities to meet the Lord when he comes in these people and to serve him in serving them every day. And then his final coming in glory.

I gather that an alliance of Agnostics and Atheists under the leadership of Richard Dawkins the evangelistic atheist of our times have clubbed together to launch an advertising campaign under the banner: ‘There is almost certainly no God, so enjoy your life’. They present us with an idea of a God who is there to catch us out as a stern judge at the end of life or at the end of time. When we speak of the coming of Christ at the end of time as saviour and judge and king what are we saying?

The language of the Bible as we saw in the Gospel reading for today [Mark 13. 24-37] is full of the startling and terrible and bloodthirsty apocalyptic imagery of the time. It’s language beloved by Jehovah’s Witnesses and blockbuster movie makers alike. What can we make of it? What can it mean to speak of Christ’s final Advent? I think it’s about the full and complete and total establishment of Christ’s kingdom of love and righteousness and justice and peace. On earth as in heaven. How that will come about I have no idea. But we are moving towards it.  That is the end to which creation is moving. End not as in the end of all things but end as in completion and final purpose. In the end all will be as God intends it to be in the Advent of the reign of his Son. And we can keep awake by doing our bit and working to prepare for it by living lives of justice and peace and righteousness and love. So set your alarm. Heed the wake–up call. Or better still stay awake. For the Lord is coming at Christmas, every day, and at the end.

Let us welcome him!