Isaiah 2:1-5 / Romans 13:11-14 / Matthew 24:37-44
We have come to the first day of the month of December. This is the first day of the last month of the year. And looking at the next 31 days, we can expect a busy busy time ahead.
But first things first, we need to look for those Christmas decorations. It’s only 25 days to Christmas and we better get started with the decorations.
But things are not going to be so straightforward and we have to be prepared for that.
Even as we put up that outdoor Nativity scene and the Christmas tree, there were some issues. Some lights didn’t work, some parts don’t fit, and some things were missing.
So when we are putting up the decorations at home or in office, and if we find the top half of the Christmas tree and the bottom half is missing, then we just have to settle for a miniature Christmas tree.
And if we find the bottom half but the top half is missing or have a problem, then maybe we have to settle for a Christmas bush. We can still have the lights on it and do something creative out of it.
Whatever it might be, the age-old wisdom saying tells us to “expect the unexpected”.
Yes, we have to expect the unexpected, not just in putting up Christmas decorations, but expect the unexpected as we put up our lives expectations.
Certainly we have expectations in life. We expect to have a white and bright Christmas, our children to do well in school, to get a big fat year-end bonus, and all in all we expect to have a good life.
But will that be so? Are we prepared to expect the unexpected?
And are we listening to what Jesus is saying in the gospel, that we are to stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that we do not expect?
And Jesus makes us recall the story of Noah. Before the Flood, people were eating and drinking, taking wives and husbands, right up to the day when Noah went into the ark and they suspected nothing, till the Flood came and swept them all away.
Added to that is also the image of a burglar in the night. These are uncomfortable and disturbing images. That is not what we expect to hear as we begin this festive and holiday month of December.
But that is not bad news as we might be inclined to think. In telling us to stand ready and to expect the unexpected, and to look and think deeper about the things around us, Jesus is telling us this:
That in preparing to expect the unexpected, we can be open to the God of surprises, the God of joyful surprises.
One of the decorative plants for the coming festive season is the Poinsettia. The plant’s colours of red and green make it a pretty decorative plant for Christmas.
There is a story behind the popularity of this plant for this season.
There was once a poor Mexican girl called Pepita who had no present to give to the baby Jesus at the Christmas Eve Services. As Pepita walked to the church sadly, her cousin Pedro tried to cheer her up.
He said, “Pepita, I'm sure that even the smallest gift, given by someone who loves Jesus will make Him happy."
Pepita didn't know what she could give, so she picked a small handful of weeds from the roadside and made them into a small bouquet. She felt embarrassed because she could only give this small present to Jesus.
As she walked through the church to the altar, she remembered what Pedro had said. She began to feel better, knelt down and put the bouquet at the bottom of the Nativity scene.
Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into bright red colours, and everyone who saw them were sure they had seen a miracle. From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the 'Flowers of the Holy Night'.
The shape of the poinsettia flower and leaves are sometimes seen as a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus. The red colored leaves symbolize the blood of Christ. The white leaves represent His purity.
So as we hear this story, maybe we are expecting to hear of a miracle, a happy ending, and indeed it was a happy ending. So it was up to our expectations. But is there anything that was unexpected?
The poinsettia is actually a weed that grows in the ditches and wild places of South America and Mexico. Because this lowly, common plant became so striking around Christmas each year it has been used to celebrate the holiday in South America for centuries.
The poinsettia is well-known not for its flowers but for its brilliantly colored leaves. The flowers themselves are “unremarkable”, but the top-most leaves change to colours of red, pink, coral or white as the days get darker and shorter.
And that is rather unexpected isn’t it? So it is not so much the flowers, which usually get the attention, but rather it is the leaves that are attractive.
And that is the pleasant surprise, because not only a lowly weed was elevated to such a high status, it is not so much the flowers but the leaves that catch the attention.
So as we begin the season of Advent, let us find time to be still and to be quiet, so that we can be prepared for the unexpected pleasant surprises that Jesus wants to give us.
It is these unexpected pleasant surprises, like how the poinsettia leaves turn from green to red, that we can believe that swords will be turn into ploughshares, spears into sickles, the profane into the profound, the secular into the sacred, as we begin our Advent preparation.