[cymbal clanging] “WAKE UP!”
Just like that, Advent disrupts the lull of Ordinary Time.
The lectionary drops us into the Gospel of Matthew as we begin the new church year, but instead of following good order and beginning “at the beginning” in its first chapter, today’s Gospel is from the twenty-fourth chapter, closer to the end of the Gospel. It is intentionally disorienting.
Matthew’s Gospel was written in the 80s or 90s, in the last quarter of the first century, and throughout this Gospel, Jesus is presented as a “new Moses,” one who will deliver Israel. The Gospel itself is structured around five discourses, perhaps as an imitation of the five books of the Pentateuch, and today’s reading is part of the fifth and final discourse, sometimes called the judgment discourse or apocalyptic discourse.[i]
It is tempting to suspend what we know and only listen to the texts with anticipation for the birth of Christ, but, just as it had for Matthew’s audience, the first coming of Christ has already taken place, so now we are waiting for the second Coming. Here, Jesus speaks “about the end time and the stance the community should take as it awaits.”[ii]
In his speech, Jesus recalls how, in Genesis, the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil, and only Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. (Genesis 6) The community was not paying attention to the commandments of the Lord, and they were swept away.
But Jesus doesn’t recall the story of Noah to evoke fears of destruction. Instead, he reminds his disciples of the story of the flood because of how it ends. The story of Noah ends with a new covenant, a re-newed relationship with God where God promises to
“15 … remember [the] covenant that is between [God] and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, [God] will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” (Genesis 9)
From the beginning of Scripture, God covenants with us, promising to be with us in all circumstances, and inviting us into relationship with Him.
New Testament scholar Jim Boyce writes, “Promises by their very nature always come as a surprise.”[iii] And in Advent, the surprise is that the warning Jesus gives us to “keep awake” is Good News.
This wakefulness isn’t the wakefulness that has you listening to every bump in the night and checking the locks on the doors.
No!
This is the excitement you have on the morning of the first day of vacation, or when you have something on your calendar that you are eagerly anticipating, or that of a child on the morning of their birthday.
Shaken out of our complacency and comfort, and delighted by what the promise holds, we are called to continuously keep watch for God with us because that is what God has promised.
In each of his discourses in Matthew, Jesus addresses what it means to be a disciple, or follower of Jesus, and, here, there is a call for repentance and readiness that accompanies this call to watchfulness.
Repentance is not simply apologizing to God and to others for our mistakes. In his 95 Theses, Martin Luther writes, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Repentance is not a finite action, to be checked off and forgotten, but a way of living that continually faces our fears and pain;
and, this is critical,
reminds us that we are created for more than our fears and pain.
We are created for more than our fears and pain.
Which brings us back to Noah and his ark, and to the workers in the field. God is present with each of us, but God is also present in our community and in our relationships with each other.
Advent faith is enlivened and embodied in community.
The miracle of the coming Christ makes a difference in our lives because it grants us the freedom to dare or to risk, confident of God’s immanence.
When our fears would have us withdraw or scatter, God calls us to gather two by two to reclaim our life in Christ and proclaim the Good News;
When our pain would have us hide in darkness and loneliness, God calls us into the light of Advent that expands each Sunday of the season until it shines brightly on the Nativity.
We are in this messy life of humanity and discipleship, of repentance and companionship, together.
God creates us and loves us
and is relentless in restoring us into relationship with God,
with each other and with the world.
So, as we enter Advent, we are being asked, are we ready for this kind of relationship? For this faith that yokes us one to the other, and to God?
Let us pray…
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;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
[i] Enter the Bible. “Matthew”, www.enterthebible.org/newtestament.aspx?rid=2.
[ii] Donald Senior. Matthew. p. 265
[iii] James Boyce, Working Preacher, www.workingpreacher.org.
