This is an Advent sermon from 1983. It mentions missing the boat on buying Apple stock. Hindsight being 20/20, one dollar invested in December of 1983 would be worth about $450 now.

The gospel text for this sermon is Matthew 24:42, which likely puts it into the First Sunday of Advent in year A of the Revised Common Lectionary.

WATCHING OUT AND WATCHING FOR - 1 Advent A (11/27/1983)

Matthew 24:42: “Watch, therefore, for you do not know on what tilay your Lord is coming.”

Dear friends in Christ, grace & peace. . . .

HINDSIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20. That old saying becomes more true as We live out our lives. When we make a mistake, well-meaning friends take us aside and tell us (after the fact) how we should have done things differently (hindsight is always 20/20). Our kids ask us why we didn’t buy stock in Apple computers a few years ago so we could have cleaned up in the stock market. (Hindsight is always 20/20).

We can see things so much more clearly when We look back, because our knowledge of what is happening and going to happen at any given moment is very limited. We just can’t know everything, and our concerns of the present moment can be blinding . . . We can’t see the forest for the trees (that’s another old expression). We see what was important, but often after the fact, just because we weren’t Watching for the right things.

That’s why I am refreshed by the season of Advent. Advent is just made for busy people, and people who have trouble seeing the forest for the trees, and people who get tired, people who get discouraged. I feel sorry for churches that don’t observe a season of watching and waiting and preparation – this is a special time of blessing for us as Christmas approaches. Jesus tells us: “Watch, therefore for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” William Barclay, a great scripture commentator, says that these verses are a “warning never to become so immersed in time that we forget eternity, never to let our concern for Worldly affairs, however necessary, completely distract us from remembering that there is a God…” After all, although there certainly is a warning in these words of Jesus, there is also good news. Who of us would want to miss something very important? We surely would not want to miss God when he is in our midst! So we hear the good news to watch, because He is coming, “Don’t miss a good thing!”

THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO WATCHING. First we have to watch out for mistakes, for false guidance, for dangers in our lives and in the world around us. How many of you are sleepwalkers? (I won’t have you raise your hands–it’s kind of embarrassing) It’s also scary to be a sleepwalker, because in the middle of the night, you might find yourself standing at the top of a stairway, or even outside your house. We need to watch out because many of us are moral sleepwalkers - - we wake up sometimes to find that we have gotten into moral predicaments unawares. This happens to us as a nation - for example the Vietnam war was something that we sort of sleepwalked into as a nation - - nobody paid much attention to it until many of our sons and brothers and friends began to die there. -Up until then, it was a far-away issue that was buried on page six next to the cookie recipies. As individuals, in business dealings, gossip – Hopefully, we have learned through these difficult experiences to be awake and watchful, watching out for the needs, and hurts and crises of others which affect us. Jesus literally tells us to wake up, to keep a sharp eye and watch out.

On the other side We also need WATCH FOR! The Old Testament prophets were very aware of this kind of watchfulness. They knew the promises of God and tried to get the people’s attention to Watch for God’s hand at work in history, to see in the events of the world signs of God’s new and exciting creative activity. Saint Paul was this kind of prophet when he said: “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” He was the prophet to invite all to watch for the wonderful presence of God. Jesus too is a prophet when he says: “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” – something new and big and wonderful is happening.

Remember what I said about “Hindsight is 20/20”? Also, remember how difficult it is to see the present reality, “the forest for the trees”? Remember, God is with us at every moment. He is creating, sustaining, redeeming, healing. But He also is often hidden. Luther said that God wears a mask, he is the hidden God, Wonderful in his hiddenness- yet often leaving us with a feeling being alone. We have trouble knowing what to watch for as We await God. Scripture gives us clues: Jesus says “In as much as you have done it to the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me”. We find God in the face of the hungry, the homeless, the forgiven.

Christmas is a time when we like to look back- -to Bethlehem, to our childhood, to whatever. And this is good; it also is the easier kind of looking (Hindsight is 20/20). The harder looking is what we are called to do in advent – watching out so that we might not be caught off guard, watching for the presence of Christ in this moment and in the future. Luther found that watching for God in the present moment, the “hidden God” was most difficult but also most rewarding. May you be blessed in these Weeks of advent With a sense of God’s presence in your life. Patiently watch and wait for God and you will come to know the truth of the old hymn that says:

“No ear may hear his coming, but in this World of sin, Where meek souls will receive him, Still the dear Christ enters in.”

Even so, Lord Jesus , quickly come. Amen. +Now may the peace of God which passes a . . . . .