What Pastor Jon Preached on Sunday, November 28, 2010

First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 2:1-5 • Psalm 122 • Romans 13:11-14 • Matthew 24:36-44

[Jesus said to his disciples:] "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

“You must be ready, for the son of Humanity is coming at an unexpected hour.” (Mt. 24:44) This is what Jesus wants to tell the disciples as he nears his death. “You must be ready…” Jesus foretells in his farewell address in Matthew that even after he dies, rises and ascends, he will come again. He will not leave us behind. But we do not know when that will be. We will need to be watchful, and ready. But even Jesus does not know when that will be. “…for the Son of Humanity is coming at an unexpected hour.” It is rather fear-inducing to realize Jesus could return anytime. But to wrap up ourselves in concern over when exactly that will be can debilitate us.

There is still plenty of worry being stirred up out there about when Jesus will return, or when the end times will arrive. Even now that all the prophesies surrounding the year 2000 are now well past, cultural voices still shout messages claiming the date and time of the end of the world in films like 2012 and the Left Behind novel series. It can be very easy to begin to wonder and fear about the questions such voices raise: what will happen to us when Jesus returns? Will my loved ones and I be together? What will happen?

They are valid questions, but questions we cannot know the answers to for sure. Even as we may ask them, our futures do not belong to our fears. Our futures rest in the hands of Jesus, the one who has conquered death, who promises new life, the one in whom we place our trust both in the present age, and in the age that is to come.

So where does that leave us in the meantime? What are we to do? “Keep awake…” Jesus says. (Mt. 24:42) Be in the present. Watch. Be aware. Jesus’ hands hold our future so that we can pay attention to the ways in which he is stirring among us…now. Rather than worrying about the end times, we can look to the present times, where Jesus is at work in us, bringing healing to a hurting world that calls out for God’s justice and mercy.

With all that may worry us about our futures, our hope and our witness this Advent season is that Jesus is coming to us, here and now, calling us to seek out where he is real in our lives. This season’s gift of space and freedom to watch for Jesus comes now because our future has been sealed in his power. So how is Jesus coming into our lives this Advent? He comes to give us a wake-up call to where we may find him in our world, and to where he lives in our lives.

Sometimes that wake-up call comes quite suddenly and frankly. For Martin Luther King, Jr., it once came in a midnight wake-up phone call to his residence in Montgomery, Alabama at the age of 27: “Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out and blow up your house.” Years later, King recalled his thoughts to himself after that wake-up call. He remembered the difficulty of comparing his newborn daughter’s smile, with the prospect of someone killing her. He remembered that at that late hour, he could not call upon his parents in his distress. King remembered that he discovered a power that would help him find his way. He said, “I had to know God for myself [in that moment]. I bowed my head over that cup of coffee. Twill never forget it. I prayed…and I discovered then that religion had to become real to me…I could hear a voice saying, ‘Stand up for peace. Stand up for truth.’”

It may not be a call threatening murder, but the challenge of this apocalyptic first Sunday of Advent comes to us: will religion, will faith and will Jesus become real for us too this Advent season? What is it that we hear a call to stand up for, as King did? What relationship have perhaps been overlooked and need tending to in our lives this Advent? What values have perhaps not been a part of family life as we wish it would be? ‘Tis the season to hear that wake-up call, and to reflect and examine how religion—how Jesus—is real for us, and where we most desire Jesus to become real in our lives and in this world. There is joy in this discovery process…but it does not come instantly…it takes time, intentionality and reflection, which is why these four weeks of Advent preparation are so important.

As Jesus speaks to his disciples before his death in Matthew, he does point to several places where he promises to show himself—where we can look, if we are trying to see Jesus’ real presence in our lives, here and now. One place he promises to come is in the unexpected faces of the faces of the “least of these”, the poor, the outcast, the stranger, the naked, the hungry, the prisoner…these whom we may have left behind, but whom he promises never to leave behind. A few words later after Jesus warns about being watchful, he speaks of his return and of his blessing upon those who cared for “one of the least of these who are members of my family… [As you have done unto them, so] you did it to me.” (25:40) The “least of these” is where Jesus promises to become real—not in the bright lights and commercial jingles and gift-buying, but in the most people we can imagine.

“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” (24:42) This Advent, as we light the candles on the wreath, open the doors on the calendar and take up our daily devotional practices, Jesus invites us to take a journey of exploration, to wake up from those ways in which our faith has been sleeping, the ways in which Jesus could become real once again for us—as if for the very first time. For Jesus who holds our future in his hands, for Jesus who comes at the end of time in glory but also who reveals himself among us in the present, here and now; for Jesus who comes to reveal that the mercy of God is for real and that his just righteousness will never leave behind even “the least of these”…we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come, and find us awake and ready to receive you.” Amen.