Advent and the Kingdom: Are you ready?
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” – Matt 25:13, Amos 5:24
Learning never ends. As we revisit the question – ‘Are you ready?’ – we begin a learning series on the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ: it is not just a season in the Church Calendar, but a reality, that Jesus Christ came and is coming again. Charles Wesley’s musical announcement in the hymn ‘Lo! He comes’ is quite dramatic: with clouds descending, thousand thousands attending, robed in royal majesty… At His coming, some those who will be ready will join him in the clouds and ascend to enter eternal joy and peace. The Lord left us with the assignment preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God to get people ready for that Day. He told many stories to illustrate that the Kingdom is near, and we continue those stories. He used every possible opportunity to draw the attention of his listeners to the Kingdom message.
Readiness for the Advent means readiness for the Coming of the King Jesus Christ who will usher in the Kingdom of God per-excellence fully. When it comes to advent-readiness, there are many illustrations around us that make the point clearly to anyone who has ears to hear and eyes to see. Climate change offers one illustration – that dinosaurs failed to adapt to a fundamentally new climate, and they became extinct; and technological trends affecting business offer us many more such illustrations. Businesses that do not adapt to a new climate become extinct – whether it is in transport, marketing, banking, school… Kodak will suffice to illustrate the effects of these technological disruptions:
When Steven Sasson at Kodak introduced the very first digital camera in 1975 with 0.01 megapixels, everyone laughed at him. Kodak had all the patents for the digital camera, yet they went out of business because of it. They did not intentionally embrace and develop this new technology. How could this happen? Simple: short-term thinking instead of long term planning. It would have taken long term vision on behalf of the executives at Kodak, to beat the future and be a top player in the digital world. Their only focus during this time was selling more chemicals and paper (old technology) to fulfil the current film demand at the time. The short term thinking strategy failed them. The digital age overtook them and left them behind, lonely, broke and bankrupt!
The business lessons are greatly applicable to even longer term planning – into eternity; indeed it only serves as an illustration. The warnings Kodak received and ignored are similar to what God’s prophets have spoken again and again to God’s people. Jesus himself called on us to keep watch, waiting eagerly, even when no one knows the day or the hour. His concern from start to finish of his ministry was the Kingdom of God – Kingdom-readiness. Oh be ready when He comes.
God bless you.