November 30, 2025

Matthew 24:36-44

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son,^[h] but only the Father. ³⁷ For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. ⁴² Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day^[i] your Lord is coming. ⁴³ 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. ⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Sermon

Two Sundays ago, we heard Jesus’ teaching at the temple from the Gospel of Mark. I didn’t preach on it, promising you I would get to it later.

Today is later.

On the first Sunday in Advent, the gospel reading is always Jesus’ final sermon, the last thing he teaches before the Last Supper, the cross, the tomb.

At the beginning of the church year, we start with the ending. The end of the world when Christ comes again.

It’s scary stuff. Wars, famines, plagues, sun darkening, earthquakes and all manner of stuff.  And that’s just the beginning of the end.

The end of the world as we know it. That’s what happened to the Jewish people in 70ad when the Romans destroyed the temple. That’s what happened in March of 2020, when Covid ravaged the world. That’s what happens every day across the world when lifechanging events - illness, job loss, broken relationship, - happen.

At my home congregation, Pastor Kent was teaching the confirmation students on the book of Revelation. The students were getting a bit anxious about all the talk about the end of the world. Pastor Kent told them, “Jesus could come in the next hour. Or the next day. Or next year. Or in 1000 years. Or you could get hit by a bus on your way home. Either way, Jesus has come.”

It was a bit stark, and shocking, but I think it’s a valid point. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. We go on living as if we have forever, but there are no guarantees.

And it’s exactly what Jesus is teaching the disciples: no one knows, I don’t even know, so don’t waste your time and energy trying to figure it out. Instead, be alert, be prepared.

Be prepared - just like Noah. Now this passage is famously used among those who believe in a quasi-second coming – aka the rapture. When, according to particularly bad eisegesis, Jesus will appear in the heavens to meet the believers in the sky, leaving behind all the non-believers to suffer three years of tribulation, ending in Armageddon and the final second coming of Christ.

I say bad eisegeses because roughly 140 years ago, Charles Darby, who came up with this theory, cherry-picked scriptures and then read what he wanted to read into them to prove his theory.

Two men walking up a hill, two women at a grinding stone. In each case, one is taken and the other left. Jesus coming like a thief in the night to take the believers, the ones who are doing God’s will. As a teen raised on this stuff, I can tell you I was terrified that I’d come home and my family would be gone, and I’d be left behind to suffer the fate of all the other sinners.

Except Darby gets it wrong. In the days of Noah, the ones taken, swept away were the unbelievers, the sinners. Noah and his family, who were following God, were the only ones left on the earth. Rapture theory has it backwards.

It’s important that we understand what Jesus is saying. He’s not trying to scare his followers into praying a certain prayer, or living a certain way. Jesus is encouraging and comforting his followers: Listen, in the Noah story, you are Noah, following God. Like Noah, listen, hear/obey, prepare. Do God’s work here and now. Even if you know calamity is coming, especially if you know calamity is coming.

We know that’s what Jesus means because he follows Noah with four parables: the servants who actively wait for their master’s return, doing their just as if he was there overseeing them. Five bridesmaids who came prepared to wait from the bridegroom no matter how long it took. Three servants, two who invested the money their master gave them and were able to show a good increase upon his return. And finally the sheep, unaware when they cared for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, those in prison – you know the least of these – were actually caring for Jesus.

This is Jesus’ final sermon. In the next passage, Jesus gathers in the upper room with his disciples. These are the last words he preaches in public.

A person’s last words are often given great significance. These are Jesus’ final words to his followers, then and now:

Bad things will happen. Chaos will happen. There will be times when you are sure your world has ended. It’s ok. This is normal in life. Don’t worry. Don’t panic. And don’t waste your time trying to figure out how long you have left. Trust me. Trust the Father. Open yourself to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Keep calm and watch. Keep calm and actively wait.  Keep calm and prepare.”

As we heard earlier in the Jesse Tree story, God is actively creating and re-creating, bringing wholeness and salvation, birthing life out of death and creating order form chaos. This is where we find our hope.

Rev. Karen Ware Jackson writes in One Candle, an Advent liturgy for 2020:

Light one candle for hope.

Because the world is broken and the wait is long, but hope just won’t let go.

Hope holds space for all our longings lingers on the edge of harsh reality

like the dawn gently awakening the sky. “Keep awake,” she whispers,

“for the world is being made new.”

So we light one candle, because it only takes one: Christ with us.

Keep calm and hope.

For

Christ is with us.

Amen.