A Different Kind of Watchfulness

This Advent message challenges us to reconsider what it means to truly watch and wait for God's presence. Drawing from Matthew 24:36-44 and the story of Noah, we're invited to move beyond anxious vigilance and crisis-watching into a deeper spiritual attentiveness. The disciples wanted a checklist, a timeline for the end times, but Jesus offers something radically different: an invitation to notice where God is already at work in our world. In our age of constant notifications and breaking news, we've become expert catastrophe watchers, yet this hyper-alertness to crisis can actually blind us to God's surprising entrances into our daily lives. Noah's generation wasn't condemned for wickedness but for obliviousness—they were so absorbed in routine that they missed the world shifting beneath their feet. The call here is profound: we're not called to be sign readers but God seekers, not waiting for the end but watching for the beginning that's always happening around us. Isaiah's vision of nations streaming toward God's mountain reminds us that transformation begins with recognizing invitations rather than threats. This Advent, we're challenged to become midwives to God's coming, participants in birthing forth God's reign, watching not with exhaustion but with patient attention that notices where hope is being born.