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A Thief
In The Night Series:
Coming Attractions Matthew
24:36-44 First
Sunday of Advent, Year A A sermon preached at First UMC, De Queen, AR on
December 2, 2007 by the Revd David S Williams 1988 The year was
1988 when an “apocalyptic frenzy” took hold of the little house-church I had
come to know and love. We were given time tables, dates, and a map of what
was to occur when Jesus returned to
rapture the church. And of course,
those left behind would have to
endure the worst kind of persecution known to humankind. This “rapture”
teaching was all new to me. “Rapture” sounded more like “rupture”, and
honestly, this so-called “teacher of prophecy” created such a stir that it began to rupture that little life-giving
church. I recall receiving a booklet entitled, “88 reasons why Jesus is
coming in 1988.” I don’t even remember a single one of the reasons. But I do
remember the Billy Graham Crusade came to Seriously, we
were told by this soothsayer that
Jesus would quite literally come back on such and such day, sometime around
the lunch hour and we would leap up into the sky to meet him in the air. The
prospect of leaving my sneakers
behind simply scared me spit-less. But there I was sky-gazing and a mixture of emotions
came over me. Those of us who
came to the faith in the evangelical tradition may know the power of such
“apocalyptic frenzy.” It quite literally scared the be-Jesus out of about
twenty teenagers in that little house-church in 1988. We heard stories about
the signs of the times and were
exposed to the fanatical movie, A Thief
In The Night. When it was all
said and done, and the frenzy was over, and Jesus hadn’t return, and we all
had to go back to school and struggle with peer pressure and the trials of
adolescence, out of the twenty or so youth that made sure they got their heavenly passport, I’d say only about three of them remain in the church
today living the Christian life the best they know how. After all, who can
blame them for chunking the whole Jesus-thing after being deluded into
believing such false claims of Christ’s second coming return? Left Behind Later on in
life, a friend of mine shared his own experience growing up as an evangelical
Christian. In his church he recalled stories of hearing the most blood
curdling, hair-raising sermons on topics of the last judgment, hell, and the
second coming of Christ. After the evangelist came through town it was hard
to go to sleep without thinking you might get left behind. He was usually
greeted by his mother when he came home from school. But one day he came home
and mom was nowhere to be found. He began to call out her name and then he
realized the car was in the driveway, the lights were on, and the cup of
coffee was still steaming. Panic set in. He actually believed that Jesus had returned and he had been left behind. He called his
dad’s office and dad wasn’t there. He called his married sister’s home. If
Jesus had returned, he knew she was
going. The phone rang and rang – no answer. He began to cry. Jesus had returned and he had been left behind. And before he
began to run down the street frantic, screaming in sheer terror, the phone
rang. And it was the pastor from the church. And he thought, “O no! He missed
it too!” (my good friend and spiritual mentor, The Revd. Jeren Rowell). The season of
Advent turns our attention to the last things, the end of life as we know it,
and the parousia, or the return of
Jesus. The texts strike both a dreadful
note as well as a hopeful one. However, the parousia is not meant to scare the be-Jesus out of young teenagers. It is the
teaching of the church of the hopeful reality that God has not left us to our own devises, that
God has not given up on creation,
that God will not allow powerful
politicians thwart God’s good purposes, and that God will triumph over evil once and for all
time. And as people of faith we are privileged
to participate in God’s clean-up
plan. Jesus Response: Ignorance And
Exhortation Today, on this
first Sunday of Advent, the disciples come to Jesus inquiring about the end
world, the signs of the times. “Tell
us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the
end of the age?” (24:3). Jesus’ response
is two-fold: ignorance and exhortation. “I don’t know, but know
this …” For Jesus it will
not be wars and rumors of wars,
Armageddon rumblings in the But Jesus
doesn’t know. He pleads ignorance. He says, “The angels don’t even know the answer to the when question.” So Jesus offers a word
of exhortation. “Don’t fear
what you hear on CNN. Don’t be shaken or alarmed. Remain vigilant. Be
prepared. Because you don’t know when the time of God’s in-breaking reign
will come to powerfully intervene in this present evil age. It will be like a
thief in the night, plundering and destroying the old order; ripping off what gets in the way of recognizing the signs of God’s reign in the world. I don’t know when
that will be, I don’t know the answer to your question, “When?” I don’t have
the blue-print, the time-table, the crystal ball that will give the answer.
But know this – you need to be ready, prepared; you need to keep the faith.” Jesus Urgent Appeal That is the
most important question, you know. Not, “when, what time, how?” Rather, “What
will disciples do in the meantime?” “How should we prepare for the coming Christ?” Make
no mistake, Jesus is not diluted by
timetables and predictions and
Jesus is not disillusioned by the
reality of evil in the world. Jesus believes that God will bring all things
to completion in God’s good timing. So Jesus makes his appeal urgent. The end
will be abrupt. When we least expect it. ü
After
the Cotton Bowl, we will be having a good time, celebrating, toasting the
championship win, and like a cataclysmic Katrina our good-cheer will be swept
away with sorrow. ü
We
will be at work, in the office, talking to a client about the insurance
claim, we’ll be on the tractor with the hired hand, plowing the field, we’ll
be at city hall preparing the speech for KATV, then, like a kidnapper sneaking in snatching friends and family away, the news will turn to the
topic of “missing persons.” ü
We built
in steel door jams, installed the alarm system, but while we were away, a
professional thief will break-in and rip us off of all the stuff we cling
onto, the things we think we will be able to take with us. Remember, Two will be in a field; one will be
taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal; one will be
taken and one will be left.
Like in the days of Noah, folks were
enjoying life and laughter, eating, drinking and marrying. So we too,
spend our days having breakfast, dropping off the kids at school, driving our
commute to work, taking an elevator to 105th floor, returning a
phone call, planning a wedding, planning a vacation. Then a flood comes, a
hurricane or a plane crashes or a bomb explodes and plans and people alike
are turned to ash. When we least
expect it, when we are caught off guard, the end will come. Remain alert,
awake. Be ready, prepared. Invitation: Make Preparations That is what
the season of Advent is concerned with, not
to scare us, to disable us with dreaded fear. Rather to probe, to
motivate, to ask the right question, “How are you preparing for the coming Christ?” The three
parables that follow this passage give us a clue to making our own personal
preparations (24:45-25:30). Being prepared means to pursue God’s agenda for
this world; actively participating in acts of justice and mercy each and
every day of our lives – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the
prisoner, welcoming the stranger, sharing life with the lonely. Jesus’
exhortation to be prepared, to stay awake, remain vigilant is a call for all
of us to keep the faith as disciples and to hope beyond reason to hope that
this old world is indeed coming to an end making room for God’s new realm on
this earth; to actually live as though God’s realm is already becoming a reality in our world through our lives of
Christian faithfulness. The greatest
temptation that poses a threat to faithful discipleship, especially during
Christmas time, is not so much
rampant evil, rather the easy
distraction and busyness of the day in and day out routine of mall shopping,
Christmas buying and commercialism. These are not problematic in and of themselves. But
they can consume our attention to the signs
of God’s presence that matter most.
Pastoral
theologian, Seward Hiltner, used to tell about the state-run mental hospital
where truly hopeless cases were relegated to a back ward. The psychiatrists
and other medical staff avoided this ward, making only the bare minimum of
calls and writing off the patients there as unsalvageable. Then a women’s
group from a local church began, as a matter of compassion, to visit the patients
in this hospital. No one bothered to tell them that the patients in the back
ward were abandoned cases, so they
visited them regularly, bringing flowers, fresh baked cookies, prayer,
cheerfulness and mercy. Before long, some of the patients began to respond, a
few of them even becoming healthy enough to move to other wards. At one level,
this was merely a church group doing what church groups do. At another level,
it was a sign of the times. In the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, our world
is more uncertain than we like to admit. We live under the delusion that
things are stable, predictable, secure. Yet we grow old, we move toward
death, all things are in flux and little lasts. Teach us to live our lives
aware of our limits, realistic about our finitude, so that we might rest only
in your love, so that we might secure ourselves only in your gracious power.
And give us the discerning ability to see the sign of the times, to discern
what really matters and the grace to do something about it. In the name of
Jesus Christ our coming King we pray. Amen.
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