Advent One 1998

Sermonhelp.Com

Sunday November 29, 1998
Matthew 24:36-44

Focus Text: "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." [24:44]

THE ARRIVAL

My wife and I went to see a movie which had been recommended by friends. I don't recall the name of the film, but it was billed as one of those action filled thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat with suspense. We settled in with our soda and tub of popcorn -- supper!

There was a couple in front of us and apparently the guy had seen the film before. We weren't more than ten minutes into the film, did not yet have the popcorn down to the rim when the fellow in front of us leaned over to the woman with him and said of the couple on the screen, "He kills her at the end!" I said to my wife, "Let's go."

Have you ever had the experience of reading a novel and someone walks up to you and says, "You wanna know what happens?" There are some people who do read a few pages and then go to the end to see what happens, but most of us like our stories to have a beginning, a few twists and turns and then an ending. Preferably an ending along the lines of, "...And they all lived happily ever after."

[Speaking of happy endings, during this Advent season -- probably close to Christmas, the Jimmy Stewart film, "It's a Wonderful Life," will be on television for the umpteenth time. This film is my one exception to watching something when I know the ending. It is a "must". When my wife and I did our pre-marital counseling, I included my non-negotiable insistence that we watch this film every single year. (In return, I do garage sales!) I recommend adopting family viewing of this film as a high priority experience of the Christmas season. Why? Generosity wins out over greed, honesty wins out over dishonesty, love and faithfulness pay off and the good guys win out in the end!]

***

Having said that... there is a problem with our gospel reading for today! It doesn't fit. We begin the year of Matthew in our lectionary reading and suddenly we find ourselves three whiskers short of the end of the gospel according to Matthew!

This is the first Sunday of Advent, which is the first Sunday of our season of preparation for Christmas. Christmas is the beginning of the story. Advent and Christmas is about getting ready for the birth of the baby Jesus, the journeys of Mary and Joseph and the visit of the three wise men with their gifts for baby Jesus.

Yet, today's reading has Jesus talking about the end of all things. It isn't weeks or months before his arrest, trial and crucifixion -- it is days! What were they thinking? The people who organized these readings? I couldn't say, because I've never talked to anyone on the commission for the Revised Common Lectionary.

BUT... there is something that makes sense. You know the saying, "Familiarity breeds ______________ [contempt]. And if familiarity does not breed contempt -- at least it may breed complacency. Isn't that true?

This is the first Sunday of Advent. The church is just beginning its journey into the Christmas season. Meanwhile, you have been hammered with "Commercial Christmas" since just before Halloween, if not longer. It is so easy to settle into holiday mode and just drone on through the season. It is all so predictable and stressful. Shopping to do, family to entertain, meals to prepare, gatherings to attend and cards to address. Yikes! You've been here before -- right?

The manger and baby Jesus. The Christmas play at church. The advent folder to fill with quarters. The doubling up of committee meetings before the holiday. Choir practice and youth group parties. Oops... Sunday School pageant needs a Sunday!

And does our reading from Matthew say, "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit?" [Matt. 1:18]

No. Not at all. Here we are very near to the end of Jesus' ministry with Jesus talking about the great crisis that will bring history to a climax. Like the flood wiped out the people in Noah's time -- so the "coming of the Son of Man" will be. This is not the "peace on earth and goodwill toward men" we've come to expect in the Christmas season.

Why are we beginning at the end of Matthew when Advent is preparation for the beginning of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ?

***

The key issue in Matthew's text is that we need to be ready for the arrival of Christ. True the coming in this text is the "coming again" of Christ at the end of time, but this should serve to call us to attention. No -- it is not the usual scripture we think of when we think of Advent and Christmas, but perhaps we are too quickly lulled into the predictability of it all. Let Matthew call us to attention. "Keep awake! You don't know when Christ will show up at your front door!" [v.42 - adapted]

Let the text call us to three actions -- to watch, to wait and to worship.

WATCH

"The Arrival" was a 1996 science fiction film starring Charlie Sheen, an astrophysicist whose passion is directed at watching the stars. Radio telescopes are directed at the heavens with the hope that somewhere beyond this terrestrial ball there exists an extra-terrestrial intelligence which will communicate with us. On one wall of Sheen's laboratory is a poster which says, "ARE WE ALONE?" The whole film is based on waiting, listening and expectation. It is one of a whole genera of films in which there is an expectation of a "message from beyond".

Charlie Sheen is simply a modern version of the Magi. The world has been watching for millennia for a message from beyond. The fact is that God has been trying to reach us for millennia and "The Arrival" that really counts took place almost 2000 years ago in Bethlehem! The tragedy is that the frequency with which God has tried to reach us is matched only by the frequency with which humanity quits watching and listening for the Lord.

As the Christmas season comes upon us -- sometimes not unlike a freight train -- may we "watch" for the Lord in all that comes our way. We might even ask the question: "Where is Christ in this?" Frequently! Watching for the Lord means that we keep our spirits open to the possibility of the arrival of the Lord at any time, in any person, in every experience -- especially when it is so easy to get lost in the clutter.

WAIT

As Charlie Sheen in "The Arrival" spent hours listening for a signal from the heavens and as the Persian priest spent hours watching for a sign from the heavens, so we need to patiently wait for the voice of God in the daily grind. Especially when the grind can grow and multiply as the days of this season go by.

There is much waiting to do as these weeks go by -- isn't there?

+ Waiting for family to arrive
+ Waiting in the checkout lines
+ Waiting to get those cards all addressed
+ Waiting for the credit card limits to rise (And they will!)
+ Waiting for the bills to arrive in January (And dare we say it...)
+ Waiting for it all to be over once again!

Just when all this waiting is about to get you down, there is another kind of waiting that can refresh and renew. Isaiah puts it this way, "... those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Matthew's text enjoins us to wait for the appearance of the Lord. For you and me today, this means waiting for Christ to appear -- or arrive -- in all the ordinary, everyday events of our lives. Do you see Christ in the homeless and helpless? In all the gift giving and receiving that will take place during these weeks -- is there somewhere you can wait upon the the Lord -- see the Lord -- and reach out with a gift? If you wait patiently and look very carefully during these next days and weeks, you will surely see Christ.

WORSHIP

Now here's the point of all this watching and waiting -- worship! The declaration of your soul that God is worthy. It is the Persian priests who undertake a journey to bring gifts of homage to the Christ.

When you watch the daily experiences of Advent and wait for Christ to arrive in the face of a child, the need of a friend or the plight of a destitute person -- worship God and bring a gift.

I have this amazing, laughable fantasy. It is a strange dream... I see the sum total of all that will be spent during this Advent season by Christian people. Then I see 50% of that becoming worship -- that is to say -- a gift. Perhaps a gift for the work of those who work for the homeless. It might be a gift to one of the missions we support as a church. Maybe there is some bit of brokenness in our land that will especially touche your heart as your look for Christ in the face of the world all around us this season. And you will be moved to be generous as God was generous toward us. Wouldn't that be an amazing "Arrival" of Christ?

Advent is about anticipation. Anticipation of the arrival of Christ. It might very well be that Christ will arrive for us in some new ways this Advent season and perchance God will be worshiped in a way that will feed a new surge of joy into the Christian family!

Notes On The Text

As already discussed in the sermon, the Matthew passage used at the beginning of Advent is out of context. The point of the pericope is watchfulness and readiness in light of the coming of the Son of Man. It can be applied to the season of Advent, but that is tangential to the core of the text.

This is not only true of cycle A, but also of cycle B when the reading for Advent 1 is from Mark 13 and in cycle C from Luke 21. The three synoptic teaching passages on eschatology are variously debated as being from a single source such as an "Olivet Discourse" -- or from separate collections of apocalyptic sayings combined with separate sources. The relationship of the synoptic accounts remains a subject of debate.

As with the apocalyptic literature which flourished in the centuries before and after Jesus, the interpretation of these accounts has been fraught with extreme divergence. A key to approaching the texts is Matthew's beginning to toady's lesson: "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matt. 24:36) The critical issues for the disciples is watchfulness and faithfulness in light of the coming of the Son of Man -- not cleverness in interpretation of the eschatalogical sayings.

Two quips have informed my own understanding of these passages. When asked "When do you think Christ will return?" My answer is always, "Not a moment too soon." Secondly, when asked about my view of the millenium ( with pre-millennial, post-millennial and a-millennial versions and all their children available) I reply with the old line that I am "pan-millennial" which being translated means, "I believe it will all pan out exactly the way God wants it to!"

Alternate Sermon Ideas

When Dawn Breaks Eternal ~ Romans 13:11-14

This text has the same eschatalogical implications as does the gospel text -- however, you might use it to address the notion of "darkness" that fills the land in terms of spiritual and moral darkness. Tie in Isaiah 9:2 and its corollary in Matt. 4:16 (The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-- on them light has shined.) An outline for this would be:

1. The Need for Light
Night is far gone.. give up works of darkness. There is ample material this year for an exploration of the "works of darkness"

2. The Need To Wake Up
Verse 13:11 ... time to wake up because our salvation is nearer now. One way to treat this would be to look at how the coming of Christmas can serve as a "wake-up" call when we look seriously at what is happening around us. (Crisis in government -- honesty -- crisis in schools with children killing children -- it really is time to "wake-up!")

3. The Need for a "Put -On"
Discuss what it means to "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ in our time, in our neighborhood, work place, school... That would make for a great celebration of Advent and Christmas!

When the World Finally "gets it!" ~ Isaiah 2:1-5

"Ain't gonna study war no more..." What a wonderful Christmas gift to the world it would be if everyone finally woke up and said... "This isn't working -- let's learn from God how to live and then turn all the instruments of destruction and hell into tools of development and healing!"

The vision of this passage is filled with an image of peace that can fill our eyes with tears. How much do we need this vision in the world today? Ask the children of Belfast or Bosnia or the Sudan. And when will the children stop suffering? When we learn to "learn of the Lord" and "walk in the light of the Lord." Look at the passage in terms of:

1. 2:2 The house (abode) of God will be lifted up

2. 2:3 The word of God will be lifted up

3. 2:4 The peace of God will be lifted up

4. 2:5 The light of God will be lifted up

Worship Helps

Call to Worship (Based on Psalm 122)

Leader:   I was glad when they said to me,
People: "Let us go to the house of the Lord."
Leader:   Here we gather, in this place,
People: To pray for the peace of your people, O Lord.
Leader:   May the shalom of God fill our hearts and our world,
People: As we journey toward the birth,
             of the One who brings peace!   Amen.

Prayer of Dedication

We begin our Advent journey, O Lord, with the awareness that no gift, at any time, in any place can compare with your gift to us. O use the gifts we bring to open our hearts more fully to that which is ours in Christ. Amen.

Benediction

May the peace of God be with you and fill the days of this season as you go from this place. May the light of the Lord shine upon your path and the joy of the Lord be your strength. Amen.