Sermon: The Unexpected Arrival

Date Preached: Sunday December 2nd 2007 - 1st Sunday of Advent

Bible Reference: Matthew Chapter 24, Verses 33-44

I’m sure you’ve been there on a sunny summer’s afternoon – chilling out with the family, last minute barbeque on the go, dishes unwashed; books and magazines, coffee mugs and biscuits lying around: the sort of cheerful untidiness any family can produce in about – half an hour. Suddenly there’s a ring at the doorbell – it’s the posher side of the family – mum had said they might be in the area and might call in, but as sometimes happens you’ve completely forgotten! Oops. 

Well you can imagine the next five minutes – calmly suggesting the visitors go into the garden for a little while – to get a good look at the new vicarage from the outside – and then getting into whirling dervish mode, mobilizing the family to tidy everything up. Within minutes all is clear (although where it gets hidden in nobody’s business), everything is tidy – Joel retreats into his bedroom, tea - in proper cups and saucers- is produced and the visit goes ahead.  

Well you can tidy a house in a few minutes, if you absolutely have to – but what you can’t do is reverse the direction of a whole life or a whole culture. By the time the doorbell rings on this one, you’re too late. That’s what this passage in Matthew  and the next one is all about. 

On the one hand, a great many readers have seen here a warning to Christians to be ready for the second coming of Jesus. We’ve been promised in the first chapter of Acts and in the first letter to the Thessalonians and many, many other passages, that one day, when God remakes the entire world, Jesus himself will take centre stage. He will ‘appear’ again, as Paul and John put it. And since nobody knows when this is going to happen, it’s vital that all Christians should be constantly ready. 

On the other hand, many readers have seen the warning to ready for their own death. Whatever precisely you think happens immediately after you die – and that’s a subject devout Christians have often disagreed about – it’s clearly important that we should be ready for that great step into the unknown, whenever it is asked of us – and things that happen at points certainly put that reality into perspective for us. That’s one of the many reasons why keeping short accounts with God – not hanging onto stuff and letting it fester – through regular worship, prayer, reading of scripture, healthy self-examination and Christian obedience – that’s why it matters as much as it does.

You can read this passage in either or both of those ways. Often the voice of God can be heard in scripture even in ways the original writers hadn’t imagined – though you need to hang onto a clear sense of what they did mean, so’s not to abuse scripture and make it prove all kinds of things it clearly doesn’t. That’s why we’ve spent time trying to read the gospels as they would have been heard by Luke’s and now Matthew’s first audience. And so it seems we’re going back to the great crisis that was going to sweep over Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside at a date unknown to them – although we know it to be AD70 – at the climax of the war between Rome and Judaea. Something was going to happen that would devastate people’s lives, families, whole communities – something that was both a terrible, frightening event and also, at the same time, the event that was to be seen as the coming of the Son of Man – the parousia – the royal appearing of King Jesus himself. And the whole passage says that it will be the swift and unexpected sequence of events that will end with the destruction of Jerusalem and – the Temple.

 What’s the point of the passage? 

Well first nobody knows when this is going to happen – they just know it’s sometime within a generation. Second life will go on as normal right up until the last minute - & that’s the point of Matthew’s parallel with Noah – a flood that came to sweep everything away when ordinary life was carrying on as if nothing was going to happen.

Third (and we’ve had this before, haven’t we?) it will divide families and work colleagues down the middle. ‘One will be taken and the other left’ probably doesn’t mean (as some have suggested) that one person will be taken away by God in some kind of supernatural salvation, while the other is left to face destruction. If anything, it’s the opposite: when invading forces sweep through a town or village, they will take some off to their deaths, and leave others untouched. You might have caught ‘Schindler’s List’ last weekend where the Camp Commandant picked off the Jews, killing them arbitrarily. 

The result – and this is something Jesus is anxious to get across to his disciples – who must have been really puzzled as to what was going – is that his followers must stay alert and awake, - like people who know that there are going to be surprise visitors coming sooner of later, even if they don’t know exactly when. 

The next warning we have – about the thief in the night explains what this means in more detail. (and we’ll just mention this as we finish).

This warning was primarily directed to the situation of dire emergency of the first century – after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and before all his prophecies about the Temple all came true. But they ring through all the years since and into our own day. We also live in turbulent, precarious times. Who knows what’s going to happen next week, or next year. It’s up to each church, and each individual Christian, to answer Jesus’ question. Are you ready? Are you awake? Am I? 

We’re pushing forward together – and I was reminded, to keep alert – not just because of a soggy cheque that probably shouldn’t have arrived – given that it was dropped by the postman on the church hill at on a weekend,

(for readers - £1000.00 kindly donated towards the church’s Restoration Appeal in the first week of its launch – found on the drive by the Churchwarden’s daughter!) 

- but by a combination of events that suggest that the “dark powers that be” aren’t particularly enamoured of a community of Christians getting serious about mission and outreach – about deepening in their discipleship and love for one another. So here’s a serious ‘big fat slap’ as one of my northern student friends from Oxford used to colourfully put it – to keep us honest, prayerful, considerate – alert and watchful, but calm – amidst the turmoil of change and challenge. 

I am a great fan of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I’ve always enjoyed the book (or books) – and read it three times in total (it’s a long read), but the release of the three films over the last few years really brought the book to life.

Although a great proportion of the story is focused on two hobbit characters - Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee - and their mission to ensure the destruction of the ring which all sorts of questionable characters are trying to get their hands on because it’s the key to total domination. (I shan’t spoil the plot for those who haven’t seen them!) But there’s a sub plot to the story - a continuing theme running underneath. And it’s the story of Aragorn (played by Vigo Mortensen). Over the course of the three books we come to realise that Aragorn is the heir to the throne of a kingdom called Gondor. And the victory that is won by Frodo with the final destruction of the Ring at Mt. Doom (oops, almost gave the ending away) - well anyway this will not be realized until Aragorn is crowned king.

Today is Advent Sunday – ‘advent’ a word derived from the Latin word ‘adventus’ meaning ‘coming’ or ‘arrival’ – it’s all about the coming of the King. In the same way as the Rings, although it’s right to focus on Jesus, and his redeeming work of salvation on the cross there is, nevertheless, a sub plot that underlies everything that’s going on. For the victory that is won by our King - Jesus - with the destruction of the power of death has its ultimate realization when Jesus returns as King over all.
AMEN