December 2, 2025
Advent 1: Here Comes the Teacher
Learning to Watch in a World of Turmoil
Advent begins with a surprising invitation. Instead of starting with angels, shepherds, or a manger, Matthew takes us to a passage that feels anything but seasonal. It’s Matthew 24, Jesus calling his followers to stay awake, pay attention, and remain alert to God’s presence.
At first glance, it may not feel like Advent. But this text gives us what we most need in this season: not a prediction about the future, but a posture for living in the present.
A Posture, Not a Prediction
Jesus’ words have often been reduced to a countdown toward the end times, yet that’s not the heart of this passage. His words are about formation, not forecasting. They are about learning to live with holy attentiveness.
Matthew’s first audience heard these words in the shadow of crisis. Jerusalem was heading toward destruction. Life looked ordinary on the surface, but underneath everything was unraveling. In that tension, Jesus says:
Stay awake.
Stay alert.
Live ready.
Not ready for doom, but ready to notice God breaking into the moment. Ready to see what we usually overlook. Ready to live from hope rather than fear.
This is the Teacher forming a way of seeing. Advent begins with this reminder: God shows up in the turmoil, not apart from it.
God With Us in the Swirl of Life
When we think about the presence of God, we often imagine moments of peace, clarity, and stillness. Yet Jesus teaches that God is just as present in the swirl, when life feels chaotic, uncertain, or painfully ordinary.
Turmoil has a way of capturing our attention. The news cycle, disagreements, exhaustion, fear, grief, change, it all demands to be noticed. But when turmoil becomes the center of our story, hope fades and fear takes over.
Jesus reorients us:
- Don’t sleep through what God is doing.
- Don’t assume chaos means God is absent.
- Don’t miss hope because you’re looking in the wrong direction.
The invitation is simple, but not easy: practice a posture of watchfulness.
The Habits That Keep Us Awake
John Wesley described the practices that shape our spiritual lives as means of grace, habits that keep us awake to God’s activity. They aren’t checkboxes, they’re rhythms that sharpen our spiritual vision.
- Prayer
- Searching the Scriptures
- Worship
- Self-examination
- Community
- Compassion
- Obedience
Each is a way of saying, “Lord, help me stay awake to Your presence.” A question we’ve asked again and again on the podcast captures the heart of this posture: Where have you experienced Christ’s presence today?
When you ask that question daily, something shifts. God’s presence becomes less abstract and more real. More visible. More grounding. More hopeful.
The Hope Hidden in the Ordinary
Jesus’ imagery in Matthew 24 pushes us beyond simplistic expectations of how God will show up. If we’re only looking for the dramatic, for the clouds to part or the world to stop, we might miss the God who comes quietly.
What if Jesus shows up the way he did the first time?
As a vulnerable child.
In a hidden place.
In the ordinary moments where grace breaks in quietly.
If we’re only looking toward the heavens for a Savior on a white horse, we may miss him in the stable.
Advent invites us to watch for God in the small, the overlooked, the everyday.
Leading with Attention, Not Anxiety
For Christ-centered leaders, watchfulness becomes a pastoral gift. Leaders walk through conflict, grief, change, and uncertainty right alongside the people they serve. The temptation is to let the turmoil become the story.
But Jesus invites us, and the people we lead, to tell a different story.
A story where hope is possible.
A story where God is with us.
A story where Christ remains the center.
Leaders who stay awake help others stay awake. Leaders who notice God’s presence help others see it too. When we lead from Christ instead of chaos, hope becomes visible.
A Simple Advent Invitation
So here’s the invitation for this week:
Stay awake to Christ’s presence.
Don’t let turmoil steal your attention.
Look for God in the swirl of your everyday life.
And if you lead others, help them do the same. Help them find where God is already at work. Help them center their lives not on fear, but on Christ.
Advent begins with watchfulness.
Not with anxiety, but with hope.
Not with predictions, but with presence.
Not with fear, but with the Teacher who forms us to see the world clearly.
Christ is here.
God is with us.
Hope is already breaking in.
Stay awake, and watch.