Sermon on Matthew 24:36-44
Pastor Jennifer Garcia
Blessed Advent, and a happy new church year!
Now that we’ve eaten our pumpkin pie and dusted off our greenery, we’re kicking off this new church year with a reading that doesn’t exactly scream holiday cheer.
In fact, it almost sounds like a horror movie: with your coworkers getting whisked away without warning or as if by closing your eyes even for a minute, you might be left behind.
It sounds kind of like the idea of the Rapture, an understanding of the end of the world developed a little over 150 years ago from a rather obscure passage in 1 Thessalonians that talks about people being “caught up in the clouds” to “meet the Lord in the air.”
Whether you’re familiar with The Late Great Planet Earth or the Left Behind series, the idea of the rapture and the apocalypse has captured the imagination of many in our culture over the years.
But like we talked about a couple weeks ago, “apocalypse” doesn’t mean “disaster” or even “the end of the world.” It means “unveiling” or “revealing.”
So, what’s revealed here?
Let’s start with Noah. Jesus reminds his followers of the people that lived while Noah was building the ark. They were going about their daily lives doing normal things, and then they were swept away.
A global flood is not a happy image, of course, but Jesus is using this story to illustrate that people won’t know the time of Jesus’ return. It’s not about the flood, but about not knowing when something big will happen.
When you consider the people who are working in the field and one is taken and one is left in light of the Noah story, the one who is taken is more like the contemporary of Noah who is swept away than some righteous person who has been raptured. The one who is taken is caught unawares, like the people who weren’t on the ark. The person who is left is still working in the field or is busy grinding meal, just like Noah was busy faithfully building the ark.
Maybe this is what Jesus is revealing here:
No one knows how much time we have left. Tomorrow is not promised to us.
And still, we trust in a loving God who does promise the coming of the Son of Man. In the Gospel of Matthew, the phrase “the coming of the Son of Man” is a way of saying “the fulfillment of the Reign of God” or that time when sin, death, and suffering will be no more, peace and justice will prevail, and God’s perfect love will have won.
These promises are a gift God gives to us. During this Advent, we’re going to get the chance to reflect on many of God’s gifts.
Gifts are signs of love. Part of the excitement of gifts is the anticipation: something good is hidden, and our imaginations run wild with the possibilities of what this sign of love will contain. Part of the joy is in the waiting—the waiting of the receiver of the gift and the waiting of the giver, who is anticipating the delight of the receiver.
Advent is a season of waiting—waiting to celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas and waiting for Christ’s coming to us again at the end of time.
But Bernard of Clairvaux from the 12th century wrote of another Advent: Christ’s presence in our lives every day.
As much as our Gospel reading talks about what is far past (the people who didn’t pay attention to Noah) and what will be at some unknown point in the future (the coming of the Son of Man), what Jesus is concerned about is how we spend our days.
Jesus warns his followers to keep watch—to be aware and focused on what matters.
And Jesus also describes people who are at work when he returns. He describes people farming or grinding grain—not people sitting around waiting for Jesus to show up.
Have you heard the tongue-in-cheek phrase about people who are so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good?
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t meditate on the fulfillment of the Reign of God—far from it! God gave us imaginations for a reason, and how are we supposed to work with God to make earth more like it is in heaven if we can’t imagine what that would look like?
And also, God calls us to work for justice and peace and mercy and love in the world now. Someday, all will be well, but right now, people are suffering, and we are called to do what is in our power to alleviate that pain now.
So, God gives us promises that give us a sense of what the Reign of God will be like. They give us hope that things will be as they should be one day, and they give us a vision of how we can help get a little closer to that reality. These promises are God’s gifts to us.
If much of the delight of gifts is in the waiting, both for the giver and receiver, can you imagine God’s delight in making promises to us?
Listen again to these words from Isaiah and imagine God’s pure joy at sneaking God’s precious people a glimpse of what the Reign of God will be like:
“2In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
3Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”
Throughout scripture, God gifts promises to God’s people throughout time and space. God gives us hints at what the Reign of God will be like. God in Jesus gives us a sneak peek at how living into God’s mission in the world can transform our lives. The Holy Spirit gives us nudges and glimpses into how we can participate in making the world a little more as it is in heaven.
Along with God’s promises, God gives us an invitation to create with God a better, more just, more loving world.
Advent isn’t about an idle waiting, where we tap our feet and sigh and check our watches, waiting for Jesus to come back.
Advent is an active waiting—a clinging to God’s promises in the midst of the world’s suffering and putting our gardening gloves on each day to plant seeds of the Reign of God that will sprout in mercy, branch in justice, and fruit in love.
We don’t have to wait until December 25 to unwrap God’s promises to us. They are for us now. Let them flower in your heart as we work together with each other and God to plant seedlings of heaven here on earth.