Matthew 24:37 - 44
"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
The Gospel reading for the first day of Advent is a call to readiness. To hear it, I first of all have to un-hear it.
In the church of my youth, this passage was used as an evangelism tool. There was even an evangelistic movie that was popular at youth night events which depicted groups of people going about normal, daily activities. Suddenly one person from among the group would disappear. Several scenarios all had the same result: One person, always the "Christian" would disappear, while all the "heathen" youth would remain. The goal of the movie was to scare persons to faith in Jesus. If Jesus came to gather his people, no one wanted to be left behind.
More recently others have traded on those same ideas -- and gotten ridiculously wealthy doing so -- by marketing for the masses passages like this one.
[Intermission: During my college years I asked a youth leader why he felt the need to scare young people to Jesus. It seemed like faulty motivation to me, especially when I saw that a number of those who were "scared to Jesus" didn't "stay with Jesus." His reply was that it was better they get scared to Jesus than not to come to Jesus at all. I contended that being "scared to Jesus" was probably not "coming to Jesus" at all, and made authentic relationship with God even more difficult down the road for these young people. I still believe that.]
So first of all, do what you need to do in order to un-hear this passage. Read it without baggage from your past. Hear it without the whispers of some other Bible interpreter shaping your listening. Just listen to what it says without the interpretive baggage you're carrying with you.
The passage is about preparedness. It affirms the watchfulness and alertness that are inherent in getting ready.
There are different ways to get ready for some event. One is to quit what you are doing and simply wait. Some folks take this track. Through the years as the "second coming" of Jesus has been proclaimed and heeded, persons have quit their jobs and looked to the skies. In the days of my youth I remember the group who stopped working and climbed atop their houses to wait for Jesus, apparently wanting to meet him from the housetops before the rest of us on the ground could greet him.
To sit idle on a housetop or in a field or even at a church's altar is one way to wait and watch.
But another way to wait and get ready is to do what you do, to continue in whatever life is about for you, but to do so with a sense of mindfulness and watchfulness. The tip-off is that in "the days of Noah" persons were engaged in everyday activities, in eating and drinking, marrying and loving, working and tending responsibilities. It is possible to do those things without any sense of mindfulness or watchfulness, and so to miss the advent of Jesus.
The point, though, is that in these very mundane and ordinary life-events the presence of Jesus is experienced. It doesn't necessarily have to be the Bach concert, or the stunning Gothic architecture, or the beach at sunset, or the chorus of "Shout to the Lord."
I believe the Gospel really gets at watchfulness and awareness. They are the spiritual disciplines few people want to talk about. It is difficult to be present where you are to life as it unfolds in you and around you. It takes time and intention to cultivate the capacity to notice and be watchful, to live mindfully.
In fact, I believe that the obsession in some circles with the Second Coming of Christ is a shield to buffer us from the discipline of a daily, moment-by-moment attentiveness to the presence of Christ in the world. It is so much more glorious to envision some grand, heavenly scene accompanied by trumpet blasts and fanfare, angel masses and disappearing Christians. In reality, I think the coming of Jesus is much more subtle, much more ordinary.
Besides, by focusing solely on a glorious second appearance of Christ in our world, we act as if there has been this huge vacuum in our world between his birth and his future mysterious "second coming." While the Christian spiritual tradition insists that he has come and will come, it also does not overlook that he continues coming back into our world at every millisecond. He comes and shapes and creates all things momently. So his Second Coming -- in glory -- may be a pretty big deal, but his 459- gazillioneth coming into our every day is a pretty big deal, too.
So you must be ready. You must watch as you eat, as you talk, as you play. You must be alert. Today, Jesus will come in ways and at times you do not expect him.
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