This is the first Sunday of Advent, Year A. Today’s sermon texts are Matthew 24:36-44, Isaiah 2:1-5, and Romans 13:11-14.
Advent begins with a series of apocalyptic readings, anticipating Christ’s second coming as we prepare to celebrate his birth.
Do you have a bucket-list? What kind of goals do you want to accomplish during your lifetime?
One of my bucket-list items is visiting every continent. So far, I’ve been to Europe, Africa, and obviously North America. I’ve also been to South America, or at least Belize and Guatemala in central America, which is almost South America.
This spring, Christin and I are going to visit her sister in New Zealand, which is almost in Australia. Really, I’m not planning these trips very well to make it to each continent, but it’s a nice goal to have.
Another bucket-list item for me is getting published, like writing a book or a major article. What’s on your bucket-list? I’d also love to invent something. What about you? Maybe it’s travel, maybe it’s something with a family member, maybe it’s learning a skill.
The thing with bucket-lists is that for most of us, we don’t know how long we have to accomplish them. Oh, we have some idea, some expectation of how many years our lives might be, but there’s so much that can change, so many variables. We can’t know the future. That’s what today’s readings are talking about.
There’s a billboard on Highway 20 on the way from Waterloo to Dubuque saying “Many plan to repent at the 11th hour, but die at 10:30.”
I’m not talking today about repentance or some kind of question like “If you died tonight, where would you go?” As children of God, we can be confident God has already claimed us in baptism. Jesus has already done the work of salvation for us by dying on the cross, dying for our sake, to reconcile us to God, as we looked at last week.
Each time we gather in worship, we admit our need for a savior and hear the promise of God’s forgiveness and love.
Still, though, many of us often live day to day as though we’ve forgotten that truth, as if we’ve forgotten God has claimed our lives. We act as if we are in control, forgetting we’re merely stewards, that everything we have is given to us in trust from God. We have lots of things we plan to do sometime in the future, at the 11th hour, right before the end, but there’s plenty of time for that later. Right?
Reading this parable challenges any plans to wait for the future. Jesus talks about the suddenness of his second coming, the unexpected nature of his return. He doesn’t give any kind of a timeline. There’s no indication if he’ll be back today, tomorrow, next year, or in a few thousand years. He’s very clear: no one knows the day or the hour.
It would be nice to know, wouldn’t it? As Jesus says, if you own a house and you know the hour when a thief is coming to break in, you’ll stay awake and not let your house be broken into. But we don’t know the future. And it’s not just the second coming; there are lots of uncertainties in life. We can’t know when something might happen, either cosmically or to any one of us. Both tragedy and blessing are hard to foresee.
The one thing we do know is that, as Paul says in his letter to the church in Rome, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers.” I have no idea if we’re more than halfway there or not, but I do know time is moving towards something.
So what do we do in the meantime? Jesus tells us to keep awake, to watch, and to wait. This week, we mark the beginning of the season of Advent, a time of watching and waiting.
Advent is about anticipation, about preparing for our Savior to come. We begin this Advent season with these apocalyptic readings about Jesus’ second coming as a reminder of the time we live in. Until Christ comes again, his first coming is not complete. The kingdom of God that Jesus brings about is still in the process of breaking in.
The prophet Isaiah, writing hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, describes a vision of God’s kingdom. He describes swords getting turned into plows, weapons of war and violence getting turned into instruments of peace. Isaiah’s vision has begun and God’s kingdom is breaking in, but it’s certainly not complete yet. There’s still plenty of work for us as church, as God’s workers to do.
In times of uncertainty, we encourage each other, we remind each other God has claimed us. One of the reasons Christians gather together is to encourage each other during difficult times, to look for signs of hope as we wait together.
When Jesus says to keep awake, when Paul says now is the moment for us to wake from sleep, they mean we should be ready for Jesus’ return, ready for the culmination of God’s kingdom. Fortunately, we know what to do to get ready. Even though we don’t know when it will happen, we know what to do.
We are to keep doing God’s work. We are to use the gifts God has trusted to us to serve our neighbor. We are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to keep alert, watching, waiting, and acting.
Watching and waiting doesn’t mean we stay still. It means we watch for opportunities to do God’s work. We watch for chances to serve our community, to serve our neighbors, to share God’s love. We look for opportunities to participate in what God is doing.
I started by talking about a bucket-list. What about a spiritual bucket-list? If you had a spiritual bucket-list, what would be on it? Do you have anything you’d like to do for God? If you knew Christ was coming back tomorrow, what would you change?
I’m not asking the classic question of what would you do if you knew you were going to die tomorrow. Usually, the answer to that question is I’d spend more time with family, or I’d tell my parents I love them, or something similar. That’s good and important, and whatever you think you’d do if you’re dying is probably something you should consider doing, but that’s not quite what I’m asking.
I’m asking what would you do to serve God and your neighbors if there were no obstacles? What would you do if you weren’t worried about what someone else would think, or how it would affect your job, or how to pay for it, or whatever else might get in the way? What’s on your spiritual bucket-list?
I’m not talking about repenting at the 11th hour to avoid hell; I’m talking about turning your life over to God without reservation, about trusting God’s promise to be with us in our uncertainties. How would the world change if we all lived like we actually believe Christ is coming back?
How do we live differently in the confidence that God has redeemed us? Instead of looking at Christ coming back as an ominous threat, like the flood of Noah wiping out everything, how does it change reality when we understand Christ’s return as the second coming of our Savior, the one who loves the world enough to die for it, returning to fully bring about God’s kingdom, a kingdom of peace and light?
That’s what we’re watching and waiting for. We’re looking forward to the coming of our savior. In a world of uncertainty, that’s our hope.
As you watch and wait, as you keep alert and awake, may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.