Listening to the words of Jesus at times is not easy to understand or figure out. It would be akin to listening to Coach Bill Belichick in a coaches-only meeting speak about what’s supposed to happen on this defensive play or that offensive play. Most of us would ask, “What language is he speaking?” The words of our Lord in this Gospel on the 1st Sunday of Advent are not over-the-top million-dollar words to understand. “Be watchful! Be Alert!” Okay. Easy words. “You do not know when the time will come… What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” Pretty basic words. But try figuring out what Jesus is really saying. Be watchful for what? A vaccine? That sounds good. The sooner the better. Return some semblance of normalcy to a passing world, where life passes by in a flash. “Be alert!” he tells them. Be alert for what? For someone to show up at midnight? Be alert for the owner of the house to return? That play is really hard to figure out. The language is basic; no multi-million dollar words. But the idea, the concept, the concrete answer and full understanding is not so obvious. They can be used – these words of Christ - in a thousand different contexts. Be alert when crossing a busy street so you don’t get flattened by a Mack Truck. Good advice. Be watchful for your family member to arrive home safely after a long trip. A loving a caring attitude. Be alert for signs of depression in a youngster who’s been “unsocialized” by adults because of the adults’ intense fear of a virus. That’s a useful thing to be alert for. Be watchful for signs of drug abuse or any abuse, and all other addictions that break hearts and can ruin faith in God within families. Be watchful and bring them to some peace through determination and care. Be alert for many dangers, physical and spiritual. Be watchful for numerous pitfalls as we journey through this God-forsaken world that God created so beautifully. Be alert for a bad homily! I suspect that all this sort of alertness and watchfulness that touch on everyday parts of our lives, they still do not capture the understanding of what our Lord speaks to today. That this play he’s calling and setting up with his disciples is a play that is altogether different, and most unexpected. Where we need to think outside the box. Our understanding of what Jesus means by these very simple words that point to a complicated idea, to grasp what he’s teaching here, means that our understanding must be divine. That there are times in our lives when thinking as humans, or thinking as a Democrat or Republican or any other weird sort of politics, will leave us way back there somewhere…when our Savior is calling us way up here in front of him. Where God is front and center, and not our politics. So, what’s way up here in the context of “Be alert! Be watchful!”? Our understanding of ourselves, the greater purpose of our lives, and where this entire show is going, is that our alertness and watchfulness are centered in Christ Jesus. Jesus tells them to be alert and watchful for him, because he’s coming back. He’s the gatekeeper, inviting us all to walk through his gate, and not go back to that village of pagans, where all us Gentiles came from. The one word not present in this Gospel is the word “return.” But the entire scene centers on this word. Return speaks to our faith in three ways. First, he’s returning at the end of this human experiment. At the end of time, when time is no more. When time will no longer be wasted. In the words of St. Augustine that capture this truth so well, he wrote that Jesus is returning whether we like it or not. It’s good that our Lord’s Second Coming is beyond our control. We would likely do something to prevent it if we controlled the consummation of the world. Second, his return to his disciples in the most personal way means his resurrection. “I’m coming back to you after they kill me,” he says, “and we’ll be dancing in the streets and shouting for joy, because the only thing killed will be death. Don’t give up hope when they tell you I’m dead. Don’t allow their lack of alertness and watchfulness to adversely affect your life. Because I’m returning to you, and I’m carrying you forward with me.” And third, what Advent is all about; be alert and watchful – again – for his return in a crib in a smelly barnyard. Don’t ever tire of the Word becoming flesh. That never gets old for a person of faith. For a faithless person it does get old. The word is Incarnation. Be alert, be watchful, and be ready to be “incarnated” into the human body of God’s Son. We are one with him in his birth. God reveals his human face in Jesus. And when Christ returns at the end, and raises our bodies to be like his, we will be way up there in the house of the Gatekeeper. God keeps his promises. I finish with the words of St. Paul in today’s reading from 1st Corinthians: “God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Amen.