"Be alert at all times."

So Jesus tells us in our Gospel text for this First Sunday in Advent. I'll be honest here ... sometimes I'm in church and when it comes time for the sermon I find I can barely keep awake, much less alert. And maybe that's not so bad ... except I'm the preacher! So this staying alert thing has always been a bit troublesome to me.

I was driving alone on Thursday evening, going to our house in Grafton for a couple of days. There was very little traffic on the Taconic, and I was tired, but I was more alert than usual. The reason? My daughter was driving in the car behind me. I knew the shape of her headlights and I kept checking my mirror to see if she was there. On a particular stretch of highway, the headlights began to recede in the distance. I slowed down. I went around a bend in the road and slowed down some more. I pulled over. Two car came by; neither hers. I was beginning to panic.

Just as an aside, two weeks ago I preached a sermon about Ariano's Trattoria in Mahopac. The restaurant with the motto, "Don't Panic." Sorry Ariano. I began to panic. You parents understand. You youngsters? Sometime in the future you're going to have a V-8 moment when your child isn't where you thought she'd be; a V8 moment - ah, so that's what pastor was talking about!

At any rate, I called Sara's cell phone. No answer. I got back on the Taconic, made an illegal U-turn, almost hoping a trooper was there so I could explain the situation. Then my cellphone rings. "Where are you Dad; I passed you about ten minutes ago?" And all this time you thought my hair color was age related. I now had to make another U-turn, this time praying no trooper was there. I have to tell you - tired as I was - I was alert; alert and elated! Please don't rat me out to Ariano.

"Be alert at all times." This is always the theme of the First Sunday of the Church Year. Awake; alert. And God knows that is not always an easy attitude. One of the saddest stories of scripture is when Jesus went to pray during the hours before his death, and his closest disciples could not even stay awake 'til the end of the ten o'clock news.

"Be alert at all times."

And not because the end of the world is near - although, who knows? Which might well be the point. But this Advent admonition to stay awake and alert is to help us decipher the presence of our God ... who not only came into the world in long ago Bethlehem, but to the presence of our God in the midst of the joys and the sorrows of everyday life; God in our midst through all the years and all the tears and all the fears.

Every year we are reminded what Advent is about. It is not the Church's attempt to portray Ebenezer Scrooge. While our neighborhoods get brighter and brighter because of all the colorful lights ... churches which observe Advent seem a bit darker by comparison. Advent is a time of waiting, and hoping, and staying alert. We won't encounter God, necessarily, in a manger. At least not the second time around. And we all know how easily Jesus gets lost in the hustle and bustle of this holiday season. "Jesus, I thought I was following you - but I must have passed you at Kohl's 'cause I can't find you."

Advent is a time for properly preparing the children - and when it comes to Christmas, we are all children. There are Christian Advent calendars and each day a little cardboard window opens to reveal a scripture reading or religious theme that brings us a day closer to the day we celebrate the opening of the stable door. There are Advent coin folders ... and each day a quarter is slipped into the slot, bringing us a day closer to Christmas, as we share a bit of ourselves with the less fortunate. Each day, or each Sunday, we light another candle ... and the light of just one more candle pushes back the darkness of this world just a little bit more. No, we don't sing Christmas carols during our Advent liturgies ... because, well - it is not yet Christmas. For everything there is a season. You see, the central theme of Advent is not only getting ready for Christmas, the celebration of a special birth that once took place; Advent is preparing ourselves for the coming again of our Lord at some future time. The central theme of Advent, however, is a heightened awareness of God's presence at this time and place ... in the ordinary things of life.

"Take a look at the fig tree," Jesus said to his disciples. And who knows, maybe Thaddaeus or Bartholomew took a gander toward the garden and saw that fig tree for the very first time. They passed the fig tree often ... but now, with Jesus calling attention to it, they saw it for the very first time! You know what I mean. We see things and sometimes we really notice things. And Jesus is telling us to be alert and take notice of the world around us - not only that we might be ready for the Lord's coming - but that we might take notice of all the ways that God is with us in the here and now.

Our God surely is a surprising God. A waiting Father - at life's window peering anxiously for each one of us. Beyond that, a Savior who searches us out in mysterious ways. In a cradle; upon a cross. More startling, perhaps, Jesus comes to us in the gentle waters of Baptism and in the grains and grapes of Communion. And Jesus will one day come again. Stay alert. Unlike Tim on the Taconic, don't let Jesus pass you by unawares.