Click here to sign up for daily motivational text messages!
...
Click here to sign up for daily motivational text messages! ...
Mettle maker #486: Get Tough
In the grand scheme of things, when compared to years past, we have pretty easy go of it. Are things hard? Sure. Is it true that the “official” poverty line is $32,150 but in reality it’s more like $140,000? Probably. But we aren’t being forced to give quarter to British soldiers, many very common diseases that were once incurable are now curable or eradicated, and as of 2012, obesity now kills three times more people than starvation, and there are no natives out there who, if they capture you, will scrape the skin off your living, staked out body with a sharpened seashells (and then stand outside your home and mock your family if you cried out in pain before you died).
Prior to the industrial revolution, the average manual laborer worked so hard that they ate 6,000 calories a day without getting fat, and no country in the world had a life expectancy longer than 40 years.
Trust me. We’ve got it easy.
May I suggest that we need to work on toughening ourselves up just a shade? See the video below. Go slow. Watch this video also, and this one too. Start slow and work at it. Don’t make excuses, but don’t try to build Rome in a day. Little by little, day by day, bit by bit, and you will get there.
Want to fight like an old-timer? Click here to sign up today for our distance learning program! In other news, the new t-shirts are in. If you want to make a donation to the charity, we can definitely get you one! Just click here.
Holy Eucharist is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for First Sunday of Advent, 11/30/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5, Psalm 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:37-44
Matthew 24:37-44 World English Bible
As the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, 39 and they didn’t know until the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.
We do not know if Christ will come while we live or after we have passed. Perhaps, as Jesus describes in today’s reading, he will come while we are living and we will be taken with him into the new heavens and the new earth. Or perhaps he will come after we have passed and, if we knew him and followed him while we lived, our graves will be opened, we will be given glorious bodies, and we will walk with him in the life to come.
Either way, we will live with him in his father’s house. Jesus says in John 14:1-3, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Yes, there is uncertainty as to when Christ will come again to earth. Yes, there is uncertainty about what it will be like and how it all will work. We can easily be overwhelmed by this uncertainty. But we also know a great deal. And if we focus on what we know, the uncertainty melts away. And here’s what’s miraculous: what we know for sure far outweighs any uncertainty. And furthermore, what we know explains why these readings are assigned to the first Sunday in Advent.
What we know is that Jesus is not dead but alive. He entered into his creation as a newborn baby, born to a virgin and placed in a manger. This is the holiday season of the Incarnation into which we enter today. We know that he gave his life for us, rose from the dead, and gave us his Holy Ghost to stand by us, protect us, inspire and direct us – and therefore we know that he is alive and still with us. And this means that we can be with him in prayer every moment of every day. We do not need wait to see if he will come while we are living. We can be with him now in prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving.
Yes my children, we can be with him in his Father’s house – this house of worship in which we are now gathered – and praise him together today. Not in a time and place of uncertainty, but in a real space now. There is no need to wait.
St. Paul in today’s reading says, “Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Let’s do that today.
The prophet Isaiah says in today’s readings, “let us walk in the light of the Lord!” Let’s do that today, now, and always!