Hold Off On the Eggnog

Advent 1

Isaiah 2:1-5

Matthew 24:33-44

There are lots of different signs that we are entering the Christmas season.  Christmas lights are up on some homes.  Christmas music is playing on the radio.  The stores are crowded with shoppers.  And before long, the holiday parties will begin.

But for me, the surest sign that Christmas is near is the appearance of eggnog.  You don’t drink eggnog on a hot July day after mowing the yard.

How many of you are drinkers of egg nog?  I have imagined what it tastes like, and just imagining it kind of makes me gag.

Young people – let me give you a warning about underage drinking: DO NOT attempt to buy eggnog.  They will I.D. you at the store.  And you can’t buy if you’re underage (meaning 59 or younger).

Well, however you mark the arrival of Christmas celebration, I want to invite you to hold off celebrating just a little bit longer. 

Before Advent lets us settle into the joy of the Christmas story, it reminds us that the God who has already come to us in Jesus Christ will come again.  And just as Jesus’ first coming required watchfulness, so does his second coming.

And I know what some of you are thinking.  We’re in the holiday groove.  We’re headed for the most festive, holy, joyful time of year.  It’s hard to hear these early Advent warning texts.  It’s tough to focus our energies on getting ready for the Lord’s return.  To be honest, I feel the same way.

The word “Advent” just means “coming” or “arrival.”  And it has a kind of double meaning.  God “arrives” among us first in the birth of Jesus.  But God will also “come” again, this time utterly triumphant and glorious, surrounded in light for all to see and victorious over all enemies, even death itself.  This will be the “second coming” of Jesus Christ.  And in this second arrival, God will bring to completion, to fullness, the kingdom begun in Jesus’ first coming.  Today is the day we’re called to remember that we’re living between these two arrivals.

Now when we talk about Jesus’ victorious return to establish his kingdom of love once and for all, there are two unhealthy extremes.  Perhaps you will be able to see yourself lining up more on one side or the other.

Some Christians don’t think the second coming matters that much.  We never get too concerned or worked up, because we’ve decided that there’s not that much at stake.  We hear all this talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ, and yet life seems to go on and on and on.  And most of us live fairly long lives.  And so there’s always more time.  So frankly, you can spare us the urgent warnings about the coming of the Son of Man, because we’ve already decided not to get too worked up about it.  This extreme is marked by indifference or apathy.

“The Son of Man is coming like a thief in the night?  Ok, but the Chiefs play at 3:30pm today.”

On the other hand, some Christians think the second coming of Jesus Christ is the very heart of the gospel.  They think the Lord’s return is at the center of everything, the most interesting and vital part of Christian faith.  They are convinced that the Bible passages about Christ’s return in glory and judgment are by far the most interesting and important passages in the entire Bible.  And they pay attention to preachers and prophets who are constantly pointing out that we’re in the last days.  That the world is about to end.  The problem with most people obsessed with the second coming of Christ is that it all seems driven by anxiety and fear. 

They’re watching the future but it is driven more by paranoia than hope.

One of my good friends was a very hard working, very disciplined, very conscientious young student.  He always did his best, and always worried about his academic performance.  Once, when we suggested he should relax and enjoy life, he told us what his parents had told him.  “Colleges look at your grades all the way back to kindergarten!”  Then of course I had other friends who were just the opposite.  Nothing about school got them worried or excited.  Their goal was to see how little they could do and still get by.  At one extreme was an unhealthy obsession.  At eh other was indifference and laziness.

Now about the Bible’s promise that Christ will return – which are you?  Are you the person living constantly in worry and anxiety about how recent news events suggest the Lord’s return could be any day now?  O are you the person who has basically written this promise off as meaningless? 

Our reading from Matthew 24 is part of a larger series of warnings by Jesus to his listeners.  Though Jesus’ first arrival was quiet, humble, and meek, the next “coming of the Son of Man” (as he calls himself) will be different.  “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory” (24:30).

And so Jesus warns us to be ready.  OK, you might say, I’ll be ready.  Just tell me when.

Well, here’s the catch.  Jesus doesn’t tell us when.  Rather, he calls us to an ongoing watchfulness.  He goes to great lengths to discourage us from trying to discern or fathom the end of things.  Don’t even try it.  It’s not a matter for you to explore.  Even God’s angels don’t know God’s timeline.  Even the Son, Jesus himself, having given up the privileges of his divine status, does not know what the Father alone knows.  Don’t waste time trying to predict the last days.  Just invest your energy in a watchfulness that you can sustain.

I find this to be welcome news.  The life of faith doesn’t require that you get everything figured out or have all the answers.  Perplexity and ignorance are part of the journey.

Jesus uses two stories to help make his point about watchfulness.

First, he refers to the destruction that overtook people during the days of Noah.

           

Jesus invites us to imagine something that Genesis doesn’t say much about.  He asks us to imagine the bustling normality of life just before the flood waters came.  They were eating and drinking (that is, engaged in daily sustenance); they were marrying and giving in marriage (that is, they were planning for the future).  They didn’t see anything coming.  It came all of a sudden and “took them away.”  It was utter destruction for those not prepared and watchful. 

           

To further make the point, Jesus pictures the different fates of those prepared and those not.  Two guys will be working together in the field.  They’re friends.  They share many things in common.  And yet at this day, one will be taken, the other left.  Two women will be grinding together at the hand mill.  But one will be taken away, the other left.  Both scenarios picture people taken by surprise during the most ordinary of daily activities.

           

(By the way, it is not completely clear whether being “taken” means “taken away to destruction” or “taken safely out of harms way.”  It depends on whether the analogy is to those “taken away” by the flood or to those “taken away” safely by Noah’s ark.)

Second, he refers to the experience of having your house robbed.

           

How many of you have ever been robbed?  If someone wants to rob you, they don’t call you ahead of time to make an appointment.  They attempt to enter quietly, at a time no one expects..  Now Jesus seems to be comparing the Son of Man’s coming to the experience of a thief robbing a house.  And that seems odd.  But he’s making a very particular point.  What both events share is the element of surprise.  The element of wishing you had prepared and been on the watch.  But there is certainly a negative tone to this image of the thief robbing a house.  And that is part of Jesus’ point.  For those who are not prepared, the “coming of the Son of Man” will be an unwanted and unwelcome surprise.

So how do we respond to Jesus’ warning?  How should we shape our lives so that we’re ready for his glorious return at an unexpected hour?  And how do we live in this readiness without becoming paranoid, fearful, and anxious?

We throw open our hearts to God’s love today.  We allow our lives to be rearranged by God’s love today.  We begin to realign our plans and desires with God’s kingdom of love today.  We start getting rid of whatever it is in our lives that doesn’t fit with God’s kingdom of love.  And we begin some new things that we know God’s love calls us to. 

The kind of watchfulness Jesus calls us to is the realization that there isn’t any time to waste.  We don’t have time.  Now is the time.  Today is the day.  There is only time to be exactly what God has called us to be: people whose lives have been shaped and formed into lives of hope and watchfulness.