Sermon delivered at Community Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in Tiburon, CA.
Scripture: Matthew 24:36-44
Poems by Ranier Maria Rilke, "God Speaks to Each of Us As He Made Us"
and Stephen Levine, "If Prayer Would Do It"
December 1, 2013
Have you all heard of the Left Behind series? The one by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins? When I was in elementary school, between 5th and 7th grade, there was a part of my day, I think it usually happened in the morning, when my teacher, Mr. Nykamp, would read our class a chapter, or a portion of a chapter from one of the Left Behind books. As he would read, we would practice our listening comprehension skills. After he finished we had about 20 minutes to write a 7 sentence synopsis of the chapter and draw a picture. This happened week after week. I always loathed the assignment because I had a hard time paying attention to the overarching message in things, especially when it’s being said or read to me. And the drawing. Oh my gosh—I could not even draw two semi-symmetrical hands, much less a pair of pants that didn’t look like an upside down V. I thought it was such an odd story--people’s clothes being left on earth while their bodies mysteriously disappeared, floating off to heaven? Then again, I remember drawing that picture and fearing the day that would (hopefully) happen to me.
Oftentimes that plot, with the clothes and the bodies rising, is taken from the scripture we heard this morning. Matthew 24 is part of an apocalyptic discourse. Apocalypticism is a worldview held by many ancient Jews and Christians that said the present age is controlled by forces of evil, but that they will be destroyed at the end of time when God intervenes in history to bring the Kin-dom. Jesus lived in a time when Jews strongly held this belief. They thought that the second coming of God to earth was happening, like, tomorrow. So they had to be prepared. They had to be on top of their game because God was coming back in some manifestation really soon. Thus, we hear in this passage, “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.“
This is why this passage is used during Advent. Remember, in the Christian liturgical calendar, Advent is a time of waiting, of anticipation of the birth of Jesus into the world. Just as we celebrate Lent and Easter every year to remember that our lives are a constant representation of dying and resurrecting, it is important to celebrate Advent and Christmas. Advent is the “expectant waiting, hopeful anticipation, and cheerful preparation of God breaking into our lives.” It comes every year because we need to be reminded of what it means to wait for the Holy. In reality, we wait for God all the time, but that’s why we set apart Advent, so that we can observe it together and help each other prepare. This is not the preparation of mainstream culture—that of shopping, planning, buying, baking, parties, eggnog, Santa, and gifts. It’s about being together and preparing ourselves for what is to come.
The interesting thing you may have noticed in the scripture is this piece about “one will be taken and one will be left.” That doesn’t sound very promising… nor does it sound communal—people being separated when the Kin-dom of God comes? That doesn’t sound like what Jesus taught throughout his ministry. In the Left behind series, it is the faithful who are taken up to Heaven, but in the scripture it is not this way. The ones who were left were those who were spared by God. This takes what we have so often heard and flips it on its head. In the retelling of the Noah story in Matthew, it was Noah, his family, and the animals who stayed in the ark and the rest were swept away by the flood. Jesus makes it clear to us in the scriptures that the Kin-dom of God is coming to Earth. Whether it’s the flooding of the world, Jesus being born, or the Kin-dom coming, we prepare for these pivotal moments by changing the way we live. Hence the phrase, “live everyday like it’s your last,” right? This is precisely what the Jews were doing when the author was writing this gospel. Preparing for something they thought was imminent.
So I have a scenario for you—say Curran left on September 2nd and said: “I’m going on Sabbatical and I will come back when I feel rested. Keep up with everything as best you can and I’ll be back when I’m back, however long it takes.” What would we have done differently during that time than we did these past three months? I’m convinced we would have done it just the same way for as long as we needed to. Even though we would have no idea when Curran would return, we would have rallied around and held each other and visited folks when they were ill and tended to the needs of the church and followed through on our community responsibilities. We would have put every ounce of energy into whatever we did with as much fervor as we did. We would have been just as faithful to one another.
Over these past three months we:
•Celebrated Vada Gae and sent her off to NC with love
•Hosted Wayne Muller for a weekend
•Witnessed the marriage of Frank and Lois
•Observed Dia de los Muertos with prayer stations
•Carried out a great Pledge Drive with the theme “All Together Now”
•Started up our involvement with the REST program again
•Gathered clothing and monetary donations for Marin Interfaith Street Chaplaincy
•Started our participation in Christmas Families
•Celebrated together with a Thanksgiving Feast
•Hosted five guest preachers and heard from six of our own flock.
Let us take a deep breath together. We certainly managed a lot. And you know what? We didn’t just accomplish a list of tasks or do what we were “supposed to do.” We answered a calling. While Curran was away CCC was left, not necessarily left behind, but left to explore what it means to be faithful, especially what it means to be faithful to our community. We followed the words of Rilke:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame
and
make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
When we keep awake, we remain alert to the movement of the spirit in our midst. When we wait expectantly, it is not a passive waiting, but an active waiting. We did not sit back and let these last three months just happen. We actively participated in the life of our church, reaching out to those who needed it, feeding those who were hungry, nourishing our community with food and fellowship. I watched as this community stepped up to the call, answered each stirring of the Spirit. This time of Advent, while preparing us for the birth of Jesus the Christ, also reminds us that we must be continually prepared for what is happening in our midst, no matter what that might be.
Our theme for advent is “Opening to the Mystery.” Spirit Life decided that ‘opening’ suggested a continual searching, as opposed to a one time event. When Curran anointed me three months ago, she invited you all to affirm my capacity to make mistakes. You gave me permission to fail. And believe me, fail I did in some ways. More importantly, that moment opened me up and kept me open to the mysterious nature of what lay ahead of us as a church. There was mystery at every step of the journey. There were twists and turns I didn’t anticipate, both in my life and here at church. There were decisions to be made and themes to determine. Burdens to hold and bulletins to write. But more than anything, these past few months have taught me that we never do anything alone.
So now, in Advent, we do not wait alone. We do not hope alone. We do not prepare alone. We do it “all together now.” Being prepared means being faithful to your community. And the best way to be faithful to your community is to love one another through thick and thin, to embody the love of the Holy. When Christmas comes, it will not mean that we are done with this faithfulness. This is only the next beginning of many beginnings. May we enter into Advent with a renewed sense of community and may we help each other keep awake, continually preparing for the next thing, the next movement of the Spirit.
Embody the Holy.
Just keep going.
Give me your hand.
Keep awake.
Amen.
