November 30, 2025

 

Suggested Readings:

Isaiah 2:1-5

Psalm 122

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:36-44

 

 

The word “Advent” comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival”. Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas.

 

In the time of Jesus roads were at best dusty, rocky paths. It was the custom when a monarch was going to travel that people prepared the roads for travel by sweeping the dust and clearing the roads of any debris so that the monarch would have a more pleasant passage.

 

On this first Sunday of Advent, we are reminded that we need to prepare our hearts and minds to again hear the good news of Jesus’ birth and prepare ourselves for his return. The selection from Romans reminds us that we are to “put on Jesus Christ.” To put on Jesus Christ means that we are to reorganize and reprioritize our lives to reflect the nature and lifestyle of Jesus. We are admonished to put off the works of darkness and “put on the armor of light.” The children of God are children of light (see 1 Thessalonians 5:5).

 

The ancient custom was to sweep dusty roads and remove debris. The practice in our lives must be to clean out the dust and debris of selfishness, hatred, bias, and distrust and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” We are discipled to someone or something. The person or thing that demands my loyalty is the thing to which I am discipled.

 

Jesus declares that the time is short and we need to be ready for his return at any moment. Few of us live in that state of readiness. After all, we reason, people have been looking for Jesus to return for two thousand years. We have time. Time, however, isn’t the issue. The issue is living in such a fashion that we have nothing to hide or be ashamed of. The disciple of Jesus Christ is obvious to any observing person. The disciple of Jesus Christ loves God totally and loves others as themselves. There is no getting around that. It is fundamental and unequivocal. One cannot love God and hate a fellow human being (1 John 4:20).

 

There is a lot of garbage flying around social media and various news outlets proclaiming racial superiority and demeaning those who do not look and sound like us. This trash needs to be swept from our lives, it is ungodly. We need to model the Christ whom we claim to love. As we prepare to hear the good news of Jesus’ birth, we are required to examine our actions and attitudes in light of what we see and hear of Jesus in the Gospels. We read stories of an inclusive, empathetic Savior who had room in his heart and time in his schedule to reach out to those considered “less than” in the society in which he lived. Jesus sat at table with his enemies and detractors. He was open to touching lepers and accepted the ministrations of a woman considered a sinner (Luke 7:37). This openness to others and unselfish love is painfully lacking in the society in which we live.

 

Before we place a star on the Christmas tree, we would do well to “put on Christ Jesus.”