AAAAAAWWWWWW YYYYEEEEEAAAAA

 Matthew 24: 36-44

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

When you hear this Gospel, what springs to mind?  Confusion maybe?  Fear?  Do you imagine Jesus with a giant old hoover, vacuuming up the faithful while the rest of us “left behind”?  A very large group of very loud people have laid all of that onto this Gospel for a very long time.  It’s been done so completely and so relentlessly that there are countless stories of kids coming home from school to an empty house and immediately assuming their family had been raptured and they had been left behind. 

It should be “needless to say” but I’ve found over the years it is “absolutely necessary to say.”  The Rapture is not Biblical.  Jesus did NOT say this to frighten ANY of God’s children into being “good.”  The idea that God is a manipulative, emotionally abusive, overseer waiting for us to mess up and leave us behind turns God into an abusive, rather than loving parent.  It’s an evil idea used by those in power to keep the powerless from seeing this passage as it was intended… as a message of hope in the midst of hopelessness.  A hope, grounded in God’s steadfast love for ALL of creation.  ALL of it.  ALL.

  

The people who first heard this were living in the shadow of the destruction of the Temple.  They had been completely beaten for a long time by Rome, but when Matthew’s Gospel was written, they had been beaten to a new level that made the former beating feel like a day at the spa.  So this was then, and still is today, meant to be a message of hope for the hopelessly oppressed… a message that God will NOT accept that status quo.

But how does this same message sound to those on the other side?  How does this sound to the powerful or to the folks who at least do pretty well, just as things are?  How does this sound to the people of privilege?  How does it sound… well… to us?  We very often have more in common with the owner of the house in this passage who had gathered around themselves power, privilege and possessions, than we do with those who work in fields or at grinding meal who can’t afford an apartment let alone own a house.  What are we… the faithful… but also the privileged to do with this lesson?

The faithful, whether born into privilege or poverty are called to do exactly the same thing… embrace God’s vision of radical and revolutionary hope for the world and then get on the bus and drive the world toward the finish line where there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, brown nor white, gay nor straight, us nor them, but all are as God created us to be… ONE.  

The first step on that path is to grieve the loss of what was.  Walter Bruggemann recently wrote in an article that “There is so much to lament when we think of the “good old days” that were “good” only for some among us.”  It is hard to let go of the past.  It’s hard for those of privilege and it is also hard for those who often find the known oppression to be less frightening that the unknown of what might be next.  Either way though, Bruggemann reminds us that as humans we need to grieve what has been… the good, bad, and indifferent.  The alternative to grieving is to live in denial, doing anything and everything imaginable and unimaginable to return to and hold onto the past.  Seven mass shooting this past week is just a tiny peek at what happens when people demand to live in denial that the past is gone rather than recognize that the world has already changed.   

Bruggemann tells us that lament is the absolutely required first step humans must take if they are ever to be able to move beyond grief and walk into God’s Hope for something new and wonderful for ALL people.  He goes on to tell us that when we keep walking in that direction, that it is in the GOING that we will discover we really do have the power to be a part of bringing that vision to reality.  That’s what Advent is about.  Not so much a countdown to Christmas, but a reminder that God is on the move... GOING and is inviting us to Go too.  We’ll be reminded of it over and over again in Advent.  An angel GOES to see Mary.  Another GOES to see Joseph.  A pregnant Mary GOES to see her cousin.  The whole family GOES to Bethlehem.  Shepherds GO into town, Sages GO from East to West, the family GOES as refugees to Egypt.  Each time in Advent someone GOES, it is more than just a story from long ago.  It is an invitation from God for you and I to go along.  To give up and lament the “good old days” that were “good” only for some among us, to step deeply into God’s vision of revolutionary hope for the future and then take one more step and GO into a world where all are truly ONE.  Amen.