Advent 1 Matthew

Happy New year. We begin a new church year.  With the new year we begin reading through another Gospel.  We are finished with Luke for a while and now on to Matthew.  The Gospel for which our church is named.

Some years ago, my family was visiting for Thanksgiving.  On Black Friday we took around the rural Hudson River Valley.

At a fourway stop, 4 cars came to a stop.  Trapped in the middle of the intersection was a turkey.  It did not know which way to turn to avoid danger and looked as panicked as a turkey can look. 

Poor thing. As it went for a morning stroll, it must have thought with a sigh of relief.  Well. I made it through another year.  Here’s to smooth sailing until next November.  Out of no where there came 4  NJ drivers also known as the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. Danger was everywhere.  

It is estimated that 40% of all Americans have social phobia. Psychiatrists know that there are all legitimate things to be afraid of but that intrusive thoughts amplify the danger and paralyze people causing much pain and suffering.  

Part of the problem is that the real dangers that lurk around us are displaced into fear of things that we will probably never encounter.  In fact most people do not die from the thing that they fear the most. 

When Jesus is talking about the end times, he knows that his disciples are anxious about the future.  He speaks of events that are cataclysmic, meaning disasters, mass shootings, hurricanes, burning buildings in Hong Kong and Famine in Gaza.  Two are working and one is taken, the other left behind- Jesus says.  Something that happens everyday.

Christian fundamentalist after the cataclysm of the civil war and in its aftermath developed a theology that things were so bad that Jesus is going to come at any moment to take every good person away and leave the bad behind.  

It is understandable from what they were going through that they would think this.  The problem is that the scripture does not say this.  This passage instead acknowledges the truth of everyday living.  There are disasters and there are moments when a person is with us one day and gone the next.

The thought that this rapture must happen all at once is just not true.  In fact our reality is that people are being raptured, taken away everyday.

I am 64 years old and I promise you that in the next 40 years and probably less, Jesus is going to come for me. 

Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and at the heart is his promise that when he comes he “will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (24:31). Everything else that is said must be heard in light of this promise. And we know this. We regularly try to protect ourselves against personal disasters. Not only via the salutary instruments of life and medical insurance, but also by a host of other ways: perhaps by not taking a risk (in Church) on a dream for fear of failure, or by shielding ourselves from possible disappointments in life or relationships, or by numbing ourselves to the pain of others lest it haunt us with the possibility of our own loss.

We know life is precarious, unpredictable. What do you most fear about the future?

We were created for more than fear because Jesus, whose coming birth we anticipate, has promised to always be both with us and for us.

The “that day” of the text refers is the promise of Jesus coming when he will “gather us." Three times in this lesson, at beginning, middle, and end, the promise of his coming is a refrain that structures and underscores the surety of God’s promise in this Messiah: “The Son of Human-kind is coming”

This promise does not insulate us from an uncertain future, but it does promise that we will not face that future alone. Come hell or high water – and this seems as appropriate a phrase as any to capture much of this chapter – Jesus will be at our side, granting us courage in the face of life’s adversities and remaining with us even through death, drawing us into new life.

If we believe this is true, then what might we dare? What might we venture or risk, knowing that all loss and disappointment, as difficult as they may be, are also occasions to experience more deeply the healing presence of the one who came, who comes, and who will come again, always for us and all the world?

As the days grow shorter and the darkness grows, we light Advent candles each week to remind us that we do not face the darkness alone but that, indeed, the light of the world has come, shining on in the darkness to illumine our lives and lead us forth not in fear but courage … and even joy. 

This passage is surely a challenging one, but perhaps it provides an opportunity to name some of the anxiety of this challenging life and, in light of Jesus’ promise, to leave that anxiety behind.

In light of this promise, let’s close a sermon or service that anchors us in Jesus’ promise of presence and blessing, the one thing that is sure and certain amid all the uncertainties of this life: 

Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us… Amen.