Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44
December 1, 2013
© 2013
Through Advent we read from the Hebrew
Prophets, as we did from Isaiah 2 this morning, about God’s promise of a new
day of peace. Viewed through a New Testament lens, we see them as pointing to
Jesus and celebrate them with his birth. Now 2000 years since Jesus’ birth and
perhaps 2700 years since Isaiah’s prophecy, we are still waiting for peace.
Regina
How are we supposed to be in constant wait
for 2700 years? I can’t barely wait for my wedding in just a few short months.
There are so many conflicts and struggles all
around the world: Syria, Pakistan, Egypt. For the children of the next
generation after mine, they do not know a time where we have not been involved
in a war.
Did you realize that on the Homeland Security
System that there is not a place for no risk of terrorist attacks just low.
Yet we can’t help but yearn for Isaiah’s
vision in our lives and those of others. The words of verse four are on a wall
near the United Nations Headquarters. “They shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
Norm
Micah 4:1-3 is almost identical to Isaiah
2:1-5. They were contemporaries. Did one borrow from the other or did they both
quote the same poem of hope? Joel 3:10 repeats the line about swords and
plowshares, but we don’t know when he wrote.
Is it better to
treat the promise of a coming peace as a feel-good message that we can all
rally around, endorse, mention in a prayer and raise a glass to, or to proclaim
along with our hope the reality of its long-standing absence?
In Matthew
24:36-44, Jesus said even he didn’t know when God’s hope for the future would
come, but it would be a surprise.
Regina
“But about that day and hour no one knows,
neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Norm
37For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the
Son of Man. 38For as in
those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all
away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Regina
40Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will
be left. 41Two women will
be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left.
Norm
42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your
Lord is coming. 43But understand
this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief
was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be
broken into.
Regina
44Therefore you
also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
Regina
This text may seem uncomfortable for some of
us. It asks us to live in readiness yet with the knowledge that the coming of
Jesus will be at an unexpected time.
Norm
Jesus’ reference to the days of Noah does not
mention the evil that brought God’s judgment on them but that people were
engaged in ordinary daily life and were surprised by the flood.
Jesus spoke to our fear of being abandoned, We
don't want to be abandoned. We want to make the cut, get the invitation,
receive an acceptance letter, make the team, and be part of a family. We don't
want to be abandoned.
Alyce McKenzie who teaches at Perkins School
of theology at SMU tells of a grown woman who still tears up at the memory of
being 7 years old on a family trip and being accidentally left behind at a gas
station as the family station wagon drove off. She remembers the feeling of the
concrete under her thin-soled sneakers, the smell of gasoline, the family car
growing smaller and smaller in the distance, the sound of someone crying that
turned out to be her. They came back as soon as they noticed she was missing,
but the memory of those minutes remains.
We have a hard time living with joyful
expectancy when what we hope for seems so distant and unattainable.
Regina
We live with this constant promise. Sometimes
we doubt it and other times, we know it to be the precious truth. We have the
opportunity to live as Christ taught us, live as an example. We can teach those
around us how to wait for that beloved promise. Church as a waiting community
teaching example for culture
Norm
Jesus repeatedly urged being awake, alert,
watching in readiness. How do we prepare for a promise? Promises always come as
a surprise.
The surprise may be that Christ is already
active among us. Part of watching is looking for the hidden signs of Christ’s
present hope.
God reveals enough about the future to give
us hope, but not so much that we do not have to live and walk by faith day
after day.
Our society just can’t wait but starts to
inundate us with holiday frenzy disguised as Christmas earlier and earlier.
Advent is a counter-cultural call for waiting and anticipation. Advent is
rehearsal of waiting for God’s hope.
Regina
9 year old “good fellows” Christmas
One of my favorite theologians, Walter
Bruggemann summed up the season of Advent this way, “Advent invites us to
awaken from our numbed endurance and our domesticated expectations to consider
our life afresh in light of new gifts
that God is about to give.”
Norm
Here we are on the first Sunday of Advent and
we feel like the student who joked on the second day of class “I’m already 2
weeks behind.”
6th grade Christmas with Mom home
from hospital.
Don’t knock yourself out trying to create the “perfect Christmas” (and
be so frazzled you can’t enjoy it), but wait for God to surprise you.
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