6th Sunday after Pentecost
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.
Watching Bats
For a few short and magical summers when I was a kid, my family shared our home with a dozen or so bats who decided to spend their daylight hours under one of our eaves. This eave was part of the second story roof, right next to the chimney, and one of the support slats was just a few inches from the chimney wall, forming this perfect little nook for the bats to sleep in.
When we discovered that bats were living there, we got very excited. For family vacations, we would often go to national parks, where we would camp, and hike, and raft, and occasionally, take a tour of a cave. At almost every cave I’ve been to, the tour guide or ranger would talk about their bats: how many lived in the cave, the different species of bats that lived there, and of course, how important bats are for the environment.
So, the fact that we had a little colony of bats living under our eave was really exciting, and we started sitting out in the yard as the sun was setting, so that we could watch the bats fly out for their nightly insect hunt. We would all look up to that corner under the roof, next to the chimney, and wait for the bats to fly out. Bats are small, and dark brown or black, so if you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to miss them, especially if there aren’t a lot of them, and if they only fly out one at a time. So, we would watch their nook with rapt attention, and any time one would fly out, we would all point and gasp as it quickly zoomed over our heads and then disappeared beyond our field of view.
The first bat would always come shooting out unexpectedly, and there were generally a few minutes between the first one the next. As more bats flew out of the nook, they would come out faster and faster, until the final one flew away, and we would wait, hoping for another one, until enough time had passed that it was obvious the show was over for the night.
The whole thing only lasted about twenty minutes, so you had to pay attention, or you would miss it. Of course, the consequences of missing the bats were pretty small; nothing bad would happen to you, and there was always the next night. But, this is not the case for today’s gospel reading. Sometimes, not paying attention can be dire. Sometimes, if you’re not paying attention, you can be snatched away.
Matthew 24 is often used as a proof text for the Rapture, the idea that in the end-of-days, a certain segment of the population, those who believed enough or were good enough, would be snatched away into heaven, leaving the unworthy behind. Verses 40 and 41 read, “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.” Depending on how you look at it, this could very well be describing the Rapture as we have come to know it today. But, taking a verse out of context can get you into trouble, because if we read verses 36 through 39, we see that the writer is actually comparing this scenario to the time of Noah and the flood. And, in the story about Noah, getting swept away by the flood was not a good thing. If you were a person in that story, you would very much want to be one of the people left behind.
On top of that, the people listening to Jesus during this time were also living under Roman rule, so they would have at least a passing familiarity with the Roman military. Being taken by the Roman army often meant a lifetime of slavery, so anyone listening to Jesus say this would understand that being taken was bad, and that you would want to be left behind, which is the opposite of how this text is used by those who believe the Rapture is coming.
While it may seem like the Rapture is a pretty standard part of Christian theology, it’s actually a fairly new development. People only really started to talk and teach about it in the 1800s, but it didn’t become widespread until the 1900s. The reason for this is that the Bible doesn’t really say very much about a Rapture-like scenario, and even the few texts that people like to use as evidence for the Rapture, such as Matthew 24:40 & 41, don’t seem to support the idea either.
So, if this text is not prophecy about 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 and the time would not be known, and that it wasn’t supposed to be known. So, it’s kind of strange, to me, how many groups of believers have formed over the last few decades around people who claim to know when Jesus is going to come back, when Jesus explicitly states that the day and the hour will not be known. 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.” So, when we claim to know something that God is telling us we cannot know, are we trying to outsmart God, or is this an example of our hubris and our need for control?
Jesus didn’t say these things to scare us or give us anxiety. It was a reminder to follow his teachings, because we just don’t know when he’s going to come back, and we’ll have to answer for our actions when he does. It reminds me of how children behave as Christmas draws near. They know that how good their presents will be, or if they get any presents at all, depends on their behavior. So, in November, it’s time for everyone to start acting like good little girls and boys, even if they didn’t really think about it before that. It’s because they know the exact date that they need to be good by: December 25th. Imagine if we knew the exact date and time that Jesus was going to come back. I think a lot of people would just do whatever they wanted, even if it’s bad, thinking that they’ll have plenty of time to make up for their bad behavior in the years leading up to Jesus’ return. But, I can also see a lot of people having the complete opposite reaction. Knowing they only have a year or two left, they might throw caution to the wind and have no inhibitions at all. Everything’s going to be ending soon, so why not? Can you imagine the chaos?
Instead of wasting our time trying to figure out when Jesus is coming back, we need to stay alert so that we can see how Jesus is alive in the world right now. Jesus came into the world for a reason. He came to shake things up, to upset the status quo. Jesus came into the world to change things.
When Jesus came, God’s people expected a warrior king, someone to overthrow their oppressors and reestablish their kingdom. What they got was so different and unexpected, so much so that a lot of them didn’t recognize him as the Messiah. Refused to recognize him as the Messiah. Instead of a soldier, they got a baby, and then that baby grew up to be a healer and a teacher. Instead of riding in on a war horse, he came riding a donkey. Instead of affirming the long-held belief that might made right, he taught us mercy, and generosity, and kindness. Have you seen the changes that Jesus brought with him? Have you seen the changes that Jesus made in the world through his teachings, his miracles and the resurrection? Are you alert? Are you watching?
We have to stay alert to the signs of Jesus around us, as well as our own actions. What are we doing with our lives? Are we alert to the impact that we’re having on the world around us? I remember one time I was driving down the coast from Seattle to San Francisco, and I decided to stop at a cave system in Oregon. As I was buying a ticket for the next tour group, the ranger asked if I was wearing any clothing that had been inside of a cave east of the Rockies within the last year, because they were trying to stop the spread of a fungus that was killing the native bats. And, I realized there was a very good possibility that the jacket I was wearing was the same one that I had worn when I visited a cave in Kentucky less than a year prior.
I had to go back to my car and put on a different jacket, which I was more than happy to do, because I like bats, and I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt them. But, it was an example of the impact that we have on our world, this world that we have to share with the bats, and the birds, and all of the other plants and animals. Are we alert to what we’re doing? Are we watching?
The Rapture may not be a real part of Christian theology, but the second coming definitely is. We always say that the church is Christ’s body in the world. So, what if we’re the second coming? What if we are the ones who are supposed to change things? We have to be present. We have to see the people, and the plants, and all of the life that’s around us. We have to be a part of God’s work in the world. Jesus is telling us to pay attention, and is calling us to do the work. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
