Text:   Matthew 24:36-44

Prayer:

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son, Jesus Christ, came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever.  Amen.

                                                Collect for the First Sunday of Advent, BCP 

Sermon

It’s a simple question:  what are you waiting for?

The answers can be equally simple and direct.

• I’m waiting for Christmas.
• I’m waiting for the safe delivery of my baby.
• I’m waiting for spring.
• I’m waiting for retirement.
• I’m waiting for a cure.
• I’m waiting for something to happen.

By nature, human beings are not patient.  And put in a society like ours where change is omnipresent, patience seems to be in short supply.

The early church eagerly awaited and expected the coming reign of God when Christ would return and establish his kingdom on earth.  However, by the fourth century AD, it became very obvious that Christ was not returning as early as expected.  And so the church called for a renewed sense of waiting and expectation.

Advent is a time when we are expressly called to remember and to look forward:

• To remember the event of history when God broke into history in Jesus Christ and personally intervened to save humankind.  From what you ask?  From themselves, from the enslavement of evil and from death. These realities of present earthly life were never meant to be part of God’s original design when the world was created.  Human beings and the world itself was intended to be a rich garden of plenty, where God and humans communed without barriers and where eternal life was part of God’s desire for humanity. Through human disobedience, evil and death entered the world and God’s saving intervention was needed.
  
  
• To look forward to the time when God in Christ would return and make all things new again; when the world would be completely healed and the kingdom of God established for and over all.

So here it is--the time between times, the remembrance of things past and the anticipation of things to come.

In our text today, Jesus describes the nature of our waiting.  We are to be filled with expectation and hope, alert and not asleep, active and not passive.

We are called to live our present days in the light of the coming day.  Christians like everyone else live in normal time (chronos) of hours, days, weeks and years.  But inside that chronological history, we discern moments of God’s special intervention in God’s time or season (kairos).  Christians believe that the birth of Christ was just such a time.

Our time (chronos) and God’s time (kairos).  The difference is crucial.

In Matthew 24, the writer gives a whole chapter to the sayings of Jesus which express the importance of this distinction.

The earlier verses indicate the need to keep vigilant and not to get misled in our human (chronos) time.

• Messiahs will rise up and claim allegiance.
• Human strife will be commonplace and wars will occur everywhere.
• Natural disasters like earthquakes and famines will happen in various places.
• Persecution, betrayal, apostasy will characterize followers of Jesus, but those who persevere and endure will be saved.
• They will be scattered through out the earth and their good news of the kingdom proclaimed to all people.
• Then one can look for and expect the end. 

By the way, this has been the basis of modern missions.  The desire to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the world is in part motivated by the desire to fulfill Jesus’ words here in Matthew.

And yet, we are told that just because the conditions are met, we cannot predict Jesus’ return; the date still remains uncertain.

But about that day and hour (chronos) no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matt. 24:36)

It will be a surprise as it was in the case of Noah when the great flood occurred amid the normal course of life. So also will it be in the time to come when people are planting or reaping or women grinding grain at the mill. Jesus’ return will be a surprise.The Son of Man will come at an unexpected hour.

This assertion has unsettled many people.  I remember as a young boy coming home and finding no one there.  “Left Behind.”  Oh no, almost panic time until finally someone else came home and put my fears aside.

But Jesus says, this is not the time for fear but a time of anticipation.

Keep awake; stay awake; be ready--all Jesus’ commands for how his followers are to live in this time between times, when everything is in upheaval and the world around us threatens to come apart at the seams.

Look for God’s kairos to intervene in our chronos.  Look for God’s light to invade our darkness.  It is not surprising that the church chose to celebrate Christmas near the shortest day of the year.

How do we do this?  How do we continue to look for God’s light in such darkness?

1. We don’t give up doing the ordinary business of the day.  e.g. escape to a mountain, stop working, etc.  “Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives.”  Matthew 24:46
   
   
2. We make sure that the work that has been accomplished is not squandered.  “if only the owner stayed awake and guarded the house.” Matthew 24:43
    
3. Live positively “putting on that which is Christ’s and laying aside the works of darkness.”  “Put on the armor of light.” Romans 13:12.

   Continue to pray for those who need to experience the saving grace of
   Jesus Christ. 
   Continue to work for peace in our community and beyond.
   Continue to hope in Christ and look toward the one who promises to
   come and come soon.

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