Matthew 24:36-44

Kathy Redpath, Pastoral Intern

There is a New Testament professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary who will tell you that he firmly believes that Jesus Christ will return to earth sometime during his own lifetime. Dr. Mark Allen Powell is not shy about saying that he expects to be here when Jesus comes again. He looks forward to seeing, with his own eyes, the return of Jesus in great glory. But Dr. Powell will also tell you that while he waits, he won’t be sitting around gazing at the heavens, waiting for the action to begin. Instead, he will be carrying on with his daily tasks, teaching classes, attending conferences, writing books, and engaging in all the usual activities of daily living. Confident in his conviction that Jesus will come, he uses his belief to inform the way he waits, the way he prepares.

Dr. Powell is not the first person to believe that Jesus’ return will occur in his lifetime. Over the centuries, others have gone so far as to calculate what they believe to be the exact day on which the event will take place. More than once in the history of the world, people have sat out in fields or gathered on hilltops, scanning the sky, watching the clouds, for the spectacle they are sure will take place. 

An article in an 1881 issue of the New York Times reports from Quebec (that odd province to the north) that "several people stayed up all night on June 20" of that year awaiting the anticipated end of the world. 

In more recent times, a group in South Africa was in the news in the year 2000 as it twice prepared itself for what it believed to be the imminent return of Jesus Christ. More than 100 followers of a cult leader there had stopped working and forbidden their children from going to school-on the grounds that Jesus’ Second Coming and the Judgment Day would occur momentarily.

And just a few weeks ago a Russian group of twenty nine members, followers of a self-proclaimed prophet, holed themselves up in a series of caves in southern Russia. They have stock-piled enough food to last until late spring based on their leader’s prediction that the world will end in May of 2008.

There are several obvious differences between Dr. Powell and these groups in the news. For one thing, Dr. Powell makes no claim to know even an approximation of the timing of his Lord’s return. Just sometime in his lifetime, is all he maintains. As a good New Testament scholar, he is well aware of Jesus’ words right here in Matthew: "no one knows-neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but only the Father."  Rather than wasting time trying to figure out a precise date to expect Jesus, he tries to use his time to live in the way that he would most like Jesus to find him living. Not sitting out on a hilltop, not staring at the clouds, not holed up in a cave, but rather, using his own gifts in a way that will be a blessing to others.

We’re sometimes confused by Jesus’ warning of the approach of the end time. Why bother to tell us to watch for it, but then not tell us when it will come? Why give us a list of vague signs, and then say it will come as a thief in the night?

Ah, but that’s the beauty of it! We have it on the very best authority that that day and that hour will come. We are further assured that because it will be at an unexpected hour we need to remain watchful, we need to stay awake, we need to be prepared. Jesus didn’t say it might come. He said "when it comes." It is a promise, a guarantee.   If we therefore approach each day as the day, we will never be caught sleeping. If we assume each day that this day we will see Jesus on earth again, we will prepare now, not later.

    As we enter the Advent season, that’s exactly what we focusing on-preparing for Jesus’ coming, waiting with great anticipation, watching for his presence. As we prepare to commemorate and celebrate his birth in a stable one cold, dark night in Jerusalem some 2000 years ago, we also prepare for and anticipate his coming in the future. For both, we do this by being ready NOW, in the present.

I find it interesting that in the secular calendar Christmas marks the end of the year, the finish of another calendar. Christmas becomes the end point on which we focus. By mid- December, it seems that Christmas is what the whole year was building toward.  We spend weeks building up to it. All too often, in a rush of activity we hurry around, buying and wrapping and delivering gifts, making and serving and eating holiday foods, contacting and traveling to and visiting friends and relatives…Retailers remind us daily of just how many days are left before the big day-before Christmas. Long before the season climaxes, we’re eyeing the calendar to see when it will all end. It’s taxing. It’s trying. It’s tiring. We’re relieved when we can finally tear off the last page of the year, relieved to have survived another hectic Christmas season. Relieved to have it finished.

In contrast, the church calendar ended last week with Christ the King Sunday.  Last week we celebrated Christ’s power and glory as it is now and as it will be in the future.  Today we begin a new church year. We start our year with Advent, the time marked by waiting, by watching, by preparing for the coming of Jesus.  In Advent we remember the coming of Jesus as a child, and the coming again of Jesus to reign over all of creation.  This Advent season is a build-up, a time that leads us gently and expectantly toward Christmas and beyond. We mark the end of the liturgical year with Christ’s glory, and then we begin a new church year with this Advent time of preparing, of making ready, of looking forward to that important arrival upon which the rest of our faith builds. For four weeks we proclaim the coming of the Savior, leading up to the joy of Christmas Day and the birth of the infant Jesus. Instead of making Christmas the end point, we make it a starting point.

         But we don’t stop there.  Following Christmas, we ease ahead into the Christian liturgical year that unfolds in a way that marks each of the important events in Jesus’ life and reminds us of all he taught us to do. As the weeks progress, we review the lessons Jesus demonstrated for us, the lessons he wants to find us practicing on that unknown day of which he spoke, that day on which he will return.

Jesus modeled these activities for us:  Worship the Father, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the lonely, care for the sick, love the neighbors. This is the long and lingering pattern of our church year-lessons on how to wait for Jesus’ return.

As we wait, we need never be left spending idle time trying to calculate the date of Jesus’ return. We need not be caught waiting aimlessly for the event to occur. Instead, we can keep busy, waiting actively and expectantly, too taken up with the work that Jesus gave us to do to be lulled into complacency. We’ll be teaching, we’ll be baptizing, we’ll be welcoming, we’ll be comforting, we’ll be caring, we’ll be serving. We don’t need to know the day or the time.  Jesus the Christ assured us that he will return. We can count on it. With the hope and expectation that brings, we can live each day as if Jesus were already here.

Dr. Mark Powell admits that he could be wrong about Jesus returning during his own lifetime. . Maybe it won’t happen.  But, he says, it doesn’t really matter. He will continue to make every effort to live his life as if he would meet Jesus any day…every day. It means that he is always ready, always prepared, and always actively waiting.

Whether we too believe that Jesus will return in our lifetime, or whether we believe it will occur in some distant future, isn’t really important. We can begin today living as if it has already happened. Then, if Jesus’ return takes us by surprise, it will not be because we weren’t prepared. It will be because we were busy doing the work of the Father. Advent is our reminder to prepare for a very special arrival, the arrival of our Lord, Jesus. It could happen today. Are you ready?