WATCH AND WAIT!
A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk
Harundale Presbyterian Church
Text: “You do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” (Matt. 24:42)
First
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There’s a saying amongst our office staff that as soon as Halloween comes we’re off and racing through the holidays. We could actually call that time the time of “HallowthankChrist,” that is, Hallow from Halloween, Thank from Thanksgiving and Christ leaving the Christ in Christmas. For the staff the time from Halloween through Christmas is oftentimes a blur, a blur of activity, since so much is going on in the church. There are so many programs and services to plan, and it seems as though we not only get one bulletin done when another is waiting on the drawing boards.
So, here we are this morning, with Halloween and All Saints Day behind us; we’re in the midst of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and today is the First Sunday of Advent. In other words we’re in the midst of HallowthankChrist, zooming our way towards Christmas Family Night, which is next Sunday, on to the Lessons and Carols service, which we’ll celebrate on December 19th, Christmas Eve which falls on Friday this year, then my last Sunday with you, which will be December 26th, with a reception being planned for afterwards.
In the midst of all this busyness we hear Jesus this morning telling us to watch and wait “for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” But let’s back up a bit, because there’s a lot going on before he gets to that point. In the first place, no one knows when that day will be, “neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son.” This is a very important admission for Jesus to make, because it shows how very human he was. One of the vexing questions throughout history has been how could God send God’s son to live on this earth without assuming some sort of extraterrestrial or extraordinary powers that would make him more godlike and less human? So, the argument has been, if that were the case then we don’t have someone just like we are, tempted as we are, forsaken as we are; that somehow Jesus just pretended to be like we are, which falls pretty short if we are to identify with him as human as we are. But here Jesus does identify completely with all of us and testifies to his complete humanity in that even he is out of the loop when it comes to “what day your Lord is coming.”
Next comes Noah! The point about Noah is what’s going on while he’s busy building the ark. “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.” In other words, while Noah was busy building the ark they were going about their business. They didn’t have a clue what was going to happen, which should say two things to us. The first is all those people who’re “rapture watchers,” who predict that this sign and that sign are sure signs that the rapture is going to occur at some predictable point in history are way off base. They don’t have a clue and they haven’t had a clue since Noah’s time. Jesus is pretty sure that no one knows, just as no one knew in the days of Noah, when God’s going to act in some cataclysmic way.
The second thing it has to say is directed towards those people who because they can’t wait for the coming of the Lord refuse to get involved or go about their business of daily living here and now. Those people refuse to read the newspaper, don’t bother to watch let along get involved in the news of the day. They live as though this life doesn’t much matter to them, as though they’ll begin to live when they get to heaven. Well, those people are in for a big surprise, because that life in heaven is going to reflect in a big way how they lived this life on earth. So Jesus tells us to go about our business and don’t look for clues, since they’re probably unreliable anyway.
Remember those days when you were expecting a call from someone. It could be a repairman to tell you when he’d be by to fix whatever was broken. It could be a business deal you had to consummate and would wait for the bank to call or your broker to call or the real estate agent to call. It could be a relative you hadn’t heard from for some time and who said they’d call you at such and such a time. Whatever, remember how you’d sit at home and couldn’t go anywhere for fear you’d miss the call. You were pretty well home bound until the call came in. Well, no more; now you just take your cell phone with you and are free to go about your business.
Here’s what happens with Jesus’ next illustration. Two men are out working in the field. One has his cell phone on, the other doesn’t. The call comes in, “one will be taken and one will be left.” The same applies to the two women who’re grinding meal together. One has her cell phone on, the other doesn’t. The call comes in and “one will be taken and one will be left.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we cared enough about receiving a call from God as we seem unable to live anymore without our cell phone to our ears? At any rate, we get back to the point where we began, with Jesus saying, “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
Last week I told you how someone had broken into Jimmy Cutter’s house and demanded money from him when he was asleep. How frightening that must have been for him. Well, Jesus next illustration could be just as frightening. “But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into.” One of you suggested that we should get four or five of our biggest fellows, each armed with a baseball bat and watch the house while Jimmy slept. Wouldn’t whoever entered, bent on taking some money from Jimmy, be in for a big surprise when those four of five guys would emerge out of the shadows with those bats in their hands? At any rate, Jesus’ last illustration has the same sort of impact, with his point being, “Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
So, how do we watch and wait this Advent season? This week in the mail you’ll receive this Advent devotional published by the Congregational Mission Division of the General Assembly. We’ve sent you one in the past and many of you said how much you liked it, since it helped you daily read and think about the many ways God has an impact on your lives. So, we’ve decided to send it again in the hopes that daily you’ll take time to reflect on the many blessings God sends our way. In that way the season will be focussed on where it should be, on God entering our lives in a very personal and very human fashion. As we said on Thanksgiving Eve Jesus gives us a very hands on image of God. God holds nothing back in sending us the Christ. As we concentrate, even if for only a few minutes a day, on what the birth of this Jesus has to do with us, then we’ll be a little closer to the hour when the Son of man is coming.
And in the meantime it will also give a focus to all of the other busy-ness of the holiday season. There’s no escaping the blur of HallowthankChrist, that’s a fact. But if you consider that Halloween begins with All Saints Day, and Thanksgiving is all about giving God thanks for the many blessings God sends our way daily, and Advent really is about preparing us to welcome the Christ child again into our lives, then at least the blur of HallowthankChrist has all the underpinnings of our Christian experience and that can’t be a bad thing. So, watch and wait. God is all about being involved in our daily lives!
Thanks be to God,
Amen