First Day of Advent
Matthew 24:36-44
“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Creator. 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.”
A New Home
When I was a kid, I was absolutely terrified of the apocalypse. The thought that at any given moment, everything could be totally normal, everything would be fine, and without warning, everything could erupt in total chaos, is not a thought that a young child should have. A cursory reading of Revelation will fill your mind with stars falling out of the sky, dragons rising up out of the ocean, and terrifying otherworldly beings coming to destroy everything. It’s horrifying, it’s terrible, and it just doesn’t make sense that God would allow something like that to happen.
The events in Revelation, taken literally, are mind-boggling, and as I’m sure you’ve realized by now, I have pretty active imagination, so these thoughts about the end-times led to many sleepless nights as a young boy and a teenager. It doesn’t bother me so much anymore, because I don’t think the world is going to end that way, and if I’m being honest, I don’t think it’s going to end in my lifetime. Or at least, that’s what I’m hoping for.
One particularly unsettling part of the apocalypse is the Rapture, a moment when those who are worthy are whisked away into heaven while everyone else is left behind. It’s a provocative idea, and one that is deeply ingrained in our culture. The Left Behind book series about the rapture became quite popular when I was in high school, and it was even adapted into a movie in 2002, starring Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains. More recently, in 2014, HBO developed a show called “The Leftovers”, which portrayed what the world might be like if 2% of the world’s population simply disappeared overnight. It’s eerie to think about, and you can’t think about it without wondering if you would be in the group that was taken, or in the group that was left behind. Of course, whenever I thought of that scenario, the hope was that I would be one of the lucky ones, whisked away before all the bad stuff happened. But, there was never any guarantee of that.
The idea of the Rapture is fairly new, it only really started to be taught and discussed in the 1800s, but it didn’t become widespread until the 1900s. And, there’s good reason for this: There actually isn’t a lot of biblical evidence for the Rapture, despite what we might think about today’s gospel reading, which is often used as a proof text for the Rapture. The particular verses in question are 40 and 41, “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.” It pretty much describes the Rapture scenario that some people have been imagining for the last two or three centuries. But, context is everything. Because, if you read verses 36 through 39, you’ll see that the writer is actually comparing this scenario to the time of Noah and the flood. And, if you remember the story of Noah and the flood, getting swept away was bad. Getting left behind was good. Likewise, as a people living under Roman rule, and familiar with Roman military practices, they would have understood that being left behind was preferable to being taken.
So, if this text isn’t a prediction of the Rapture, then what is it? Before people started trying to pinpoint the exact date of the end-times, it was understood that the date, the time, was unknown, and that it was supposed to be unknown. Verse 42 says, “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” And verse 44, “Therefore you must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
This state of unknowing isn’t supposed to cause fear or wariness in those who follow Jesus. Instead, it’s a call to keep watch for how Jesus is alive in the world right now, to keep watch for the miracle of God in the world right now. The world is a different place from what it was before Jesus was born, from before Jesus died and was brought back to life. The same old rules don’t apply anymore. Kindness is more important than strength, sharing is more important than hording, fairness is more important than power. Things aren’t the same as they used to be. Are you ready? Are you watching?
Our Advent theme this year is Blessings Abound, and I want to talk about one of the biggest blessings that God has given to us, this beautiful planet that we call our home. Every bit of food that you eat, every drop of water that you drink, every breath that you take, comes from this blessing that God has given us. But, we haven’t done a good job of taking care of it. We haven’t done a good job of taking care of the gift that God has given to us. Now, rapture theology is partially to blame. When your understanding of God and the world is that the worthy will be taken to paradise, while the unworthy will be left to suffer in the chaos that follows, then there’s no point in taking care of where we’re living right now. In fact, you could argue that we should mess it up even more, so those unworthy people will really get it!
But, that’s not the message of this text, and that’s not the message that Jesus shared with us, when he was alive. In Matthew 25, the chapter that follows today’s gospel reading, Jesus said, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” And the people asked him, when did all of those things happen? And Jesus said, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Jesus is telling us to look for him here, here on Earth, in the faces of those who need help. That sounds like we’re supposed to be working to create heaven here on Earth, right here, right now. All of these theologies about how Earth is a temporary home and how heaven is our permanent home, undermines Jesus’ message, and devalues this gift that God has given us.
We always talk about how the church is the body of Christ. What if we are supposed to be the second coming? What if we are what God is doing in the world to change things for the better? We have to be present. We have to see the people around us. We have to be a part of God’s work in the world. And, we have to care about the world, too, because it’s the only world that we have. It’s the world that we’re leaving to our children. It’s the world that God blessed us with. I’m not waiting around for the rapture, and I’m not waiting until I get to some so-called permanent home before I do what Jesus is telling me to do. Jesus is telling us to pay attention, and is calling us to do the work, right now. Today is Hope Sunday, and we are the hope for the world. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
