Matthew 24:37 - 44
There are two misconceptions about
advent. One is that it is a penitential season, which we should
treat like Lent. When I was growing up, we actually did, and it was
referred to as “little lent” because it wasn’t as long, I
guess. The second is that its purpose is to prepare us for
Christmas. That’s true in a way, but it would be more accurate to
say that it prepares us for the second coming of Jesus Christ. If
you listened to the readings you heard Isaiah describing the world to
come, a beautiful vision. But the Gospel is another story. Jesus is
not the sweet baby in the manger, nor is he the crucified one or the
one who is risen. Jesus compares himself to a thief in the night,
someone who moves about in the shadows. And the message is, Keep
watch! We don’t know when the end will come.
The Gospel of Matthew as it came to us
was composed about 80 years after the birth of Christ. A father of
the Church, Papius, stated that Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew,
and people translated it into other languages as best they could.
The oldest copies of Matthew’s gospel that we have are in Greek.
Matthew was an old man when he wrote his gospel. He had seen lots of
Christians, even other apostles, pass away. In the beginning
everyone expected Christ would return soon, but it was clear that
this was not happening. Matthew writes his gospel to emphasize his
own theological insight.
There are Christians who see in this
gospel the idea of “the rapture”. When we hear about the two in
the field, one being taken and one remaining; and the two women
working in the kitchen, one being taken and one remaining, they
believe that the ones taken are whisked up to heaven, and the rest
of mankind is left behind. But Jesus says that it will be as in the
days of Noah -- the ones who are saved stay on earth; they have been
paying attention and watching, and their reward is to remain on
earth. They are the ones whose task it is to build a new earth.
They are the ones who live as though Christ is coming, even though
they don’t know when.
What does it mean to live this way?
Because that’s the way we are being called to live. I think it
means that we have to recognize that we are in danger of falling
asleep; that we have been asleep. We pretty much go from day to day
without much change except to add years to our life. But advent says
we aren’t paying attention to the things that really matter. We
can’t solve the world’s problems, it’s true. But we can throw
ourselves into something meaningful, something that brings the reign
of Christ closer.
It means that we should give up our
certainties. When I sit and visit with elderly people, it’s common
for them to express apprehension for the way the world is going, and
long for the days long ago. All of us when we are young don’t
sense the passage of time and the irrevocable changes that take
place; We live in a false certainty that tomorrow will be like today.
I drove past a nearly empty mall the other day, and realized that
when I was a teenager, there was no such thing as a shopping mall;
and now they are fading away. Nothing can be counted upon to stay
the same, nothing in this world.
Advent means that we should be
prepared to be robbed. Jesus compares himself to a thief and he
wants to rob us of everything that stands between him and us. What
is it for you, for me? Self-righteousness? Complacency? Anger, being
unable to forgive? There are many false gods that we cling to, often
unaware that they are false. But Jesus wants to take them from us so
that we worship only the true God. That’s the thing that’s so
awesome about our God -- he is unpredictable, he is unexpected. He is
the Lord of the Universe who becomes an infant; he is the miserable
failure of a Messiah hanging from a cross who comes back from the
dead in triumph.
Matthew’s whole gospel is a
meditation on what theologians call “eschatology”. This means
that what Jesus promised is already here in one way, but not yet, in
another sense. He is already here in his body, the Church. We don’t
think about it much, but if you know something about history, you can
see that since the coming of Christ the world is being gradually
transformed. Slowly and painfully, it’s true, but in Jesus’ time
slavery was common, there were no hospitals or universities; People’s
choices were limited by their race, social class, religion -- even by
their father’s occupation. And even though we think of science as
agnostic, it is only because of the Church that there is such a thing
as science. Women had no real rights. There was no social network
for the people who could not cope with the world. The average life
expectancy in the world, not just the United States, is 72 years;
during Jesus’ time, it was 35 years. If we look at all the
changes, they can be traced to the action of Christianity on the
world. I don’t deny that things could be a lot better, and that
there are still people and places who haven’t been reached yet.
But Jesus through his church continues to transform the world into
the one Isaiah described.
So Jesus is here already but not yet.
You and I are part of his body. We have been left behind to continue
transforming the world. I hope when my life is over I will have done
my part. I hope you hope for that as well.
