Such alertness is seen in the fabled Methodist minister whose vision of Christ coming to visit his church was so convincing that a call was hastily put in to the Bishop. "He's coming today, what should I do?" the immediate reply was, "Look busy."

There must be more to being expectant than being caught up in an endless round of activity. Today's liberating message is that God chooses to come to us even in our worn down apathy or our strung out frenzy. God comes in history at Bethlehem, and God comes at the end of time. Because our lives are found between those events, we are to regard every moment as the moment of the Lord. God comes continually to us.

The Advent of Bethlehem was the living reminder that in the fullness of times, when the age is pregnant with despair and hope, God comes in history. It was the worst of times. Darkness draped the land. The land was ruled by Rome; the Voice of God seemed quiet; factionalism reigned. Yet less obviously it was the best of times. As Dr. James Stewart has pointed out, the earth was being prepared for good news that would change the world: the Pax Romana, the Roman Roads, etc. made it possible for the Good News to ring out in ways that would have been impossible a few years before.

God's coming was not only in history, but through humanity. If God wills to complete history and redeem humanity, the reclamation process cannot be done by One who disdains the limits of time and flesh. Rather God fully enters into them so that they may be made new. Accordingly, Jesus came in flesh, blood, shape, size, weight; moreover temptation, loneliness, disappointment, pain, hope -- He was human.

Those who were awake responded not only to One who came in the ebb and flow of history and the flesh of humanity but in the hiddenness which demands faith. When the Sovereign God comes to us it is not on our timetable; it is not in the way that "makes sense" to us. Even though it was the fullness of time, those who were to expect a Messiah were caught off guard.

Mark does not give us nativity scenes, angelic choruses, and light shows. He does give us the word that applies to God's re-creative invasion into human history -- "Suddenly." Mark uses the word over and over again to show the birth, life, and death of Jesus, catching us off guard.

But it's more than timing. It is the Incarnation, God dwelling with us, that proves God's ways are not our ways. It is Kierkegaard's "scandal of particularity" come to life: not a conquering hero with portfolio and entourage, but a bawling red-faced baby! God will come like that, watch out -- you never know how and when that God will appear unannounced, uninvited.

The message of Advent is not only the way in which God came, but the way God will come. For here in Mark 13 the accent on Staying Awake is on the end. This misunderstood emphasis on the end of time has been maligned as unimportant, impractical, and highly implausible. It is none of these. It is crucial to our understanding of life as purposeful and not random, headed toward culmination and not meaningless extinction.