Sermon Text: Matt 24.36-44 Title: "WAKE UP!!!"

Preached: November 29, 1998 (First Sunday in Advent)

If I knock on your door, I will not bring a gospel tract: I am not a Jehovah's Witness. And I am not a Seventh Day Adventist either. I do not talk about the impending end of the world, I know almost nothing about "trib positions," and I will not agree with most of the popular interpretations of the book of Revelations. Oh, and I do not have a bumper sticker which reads, "In case of Rapture, this car will be unoccupied." (Though given its age and state of health, it probably ought to have some kind of warning printed on it.)

I am telling you all this because the gospel passage we heard this morning contains the phrases which have led to the belief by many charismatic churches in the "Rapture." They take verses 40 and 41 and posit that at some point God will suddenly take away the good people from the bad, like a child picking all the blue parakeets from the pet store cage, leaving the green ones to suffer for their lack of color righteousness. While Matthew certainly has in mind something along those lines within those two little verses, it is more important to note that the larger passage, even as much as all of chapters 24 and 25, is more a warning about human behavior and the justice of God. In other words, to over-emphasize two verses leads us to miss the point of the wider passage.

Then, understanding that I am not a Witness nor an Adventist, you might want to ask: "Well, then Andy, why read this passage?"

The easy answer might be that the passage is in the lectionary [the schedule of scripture readings, jointly selected by many denominations, including the American Baptists]; yet still I could have chosen Isaiah 2, also in the lectionary. A better answer is that I believe that the Matthew passage as a whole talks about something which we need to hear. For, despite the image of 40 and 41, of people disappearing, the overall passage is about staying awake in our faith, and aware of the possibility that the Christ might appear in our midst at any time. So, today, we read this passage about waiting in expectation for the coming of Christ, to help us prepare for our celebration of Christmas.

For our society has stopped preparing for Christmas. Instead, from the time Halloween is over, advertisers and stores and everyone they can influence begin Christmas. They play Christmas songs and sell Christmas CDs and put up Christmas decorations. But the only countdown of days is the number of shopping days left. And

the only talk about waiting is when people say "I just can't wait for it all to be over." We have surrendered the idea of advent -- of waiting watchfully for Christ to arrive.

The lectionary places this passage on the first Sunday of Advent rather deliberately. Today we are not to begin celebrating Christmas. Today we are to begin anticipating Christmas. Like Mary, waiting patiently with child, we are to begin a period of expectation -- the child is coming, the Christ has been promised, we will see our salvation any day now... any day now... any day now... but we ARE going to have to wait together watchfully, and to discover God within the waiting.

I wonder what it would mean for us to take seriously a passage such as our gospel lesson this morning. Can we take it seriously without going out with tracts and knocking on doors, warning folks that God is coming to pick out the best and leave the rest? Can we live this passage without one of those bumper stickers on our cars? I believe we can. For the lesson centers, really, on verse 42: "Keep awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." Whenever we live in expectation, we are taking that verse lesson seriously.

"Keep awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." The verse raises two questions for me, for the people of First Baptist. How shall we wait watchfully? For we need to know when we are waiting in a preparatory way, and not just killing time. And: What should we look for as the arrival of Christ? If we are watchful, we need to know what to watch for.

I believe we wait watchfully when we are attending. Please understand that I do not mean showing up for worship, though I will never discourage that either. I mean attending as in "Attending Physician" -- the one who is there in person, taking care of the person. We are waiting watchfully for God in human form, when we are attending to God, God's word, God's call to us, God's creation, God's people. When we attend to the parts of God we find around us, then we are being attentive; we are being watchful. When we work to do God's will, we expect to see it happen. When we seek to see God in other people, then we will discover God. When we pay attention to God's activity in our lives, then we will recognize when God is moving among us.

Shall I be clearer? If I look for Christ in every person I meet, eventually I will see Christ. If I look for God working a plan out among the people of First Baptist, eventually I will see God's movement. But if I stop looking for God, stop waiting watchfully, stop paying attention, I will miss the coming of the Lord.

So then, preacher, what should we look for? A harder question. The end-of-time passages that the Witnesses and Adventists emphasize tell us to look for storms and earthquakes, fires and flood, wars and rumors of war. Yet, we have had many storms between then and now, and several earthquakes too many. We have had devastating fires and terrible floods, and war never goes away. Yet Christ has not come back the way the passage seems to predict. Except... well, except that the passage makes a strong point that despite all these indicators, no one, not even the angels, it says, will know when exactly Christ will return. But I believe there is a sign.

We are a community which has begun waiting, rather seriously waiting, for a renewed coming of Christ. We have, perhaps, even begun attending God, in the hope of seeing the salvation of the Lord. Today I wonder, as we enter Advent, preparation for a baby who was born two thousand years ago, I wonder what it means to have a baby presented before us, a child in our midst, a sign of hope. I wonder what Chloe [infant dedicated on November 29, 1998] means for First Baptist. And I wonder if we can see Christ within this child. With so much concern for the future of our mission, so much worry about whether the labor done by so many for so long will disappear from this place, is not every child in our midst a sign of Christ? Is not every child of our congregation a Christ child sent to redeem the hope of our congregation? I don't know, for no one knows the day nor the hour. But I can hope.

Advent is beginning, a season of preparation for Christ's coming. As we wait watchfully for the coming of Christ, let us watch attentively, expecting God in unexpected ways, in the hope of redemption. We will listen for the knocking, and know that the one who has come brings more, far more, than a tiny tract.