November 27, 2022: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Well, I hope all have recovered from the avalanche of stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, and all the other things that make us avoid the scale for a few weeks – not to mention Black Friday. And now we continue in Advent, while some of the rest of the church is just now entering into the reflective space we have been walking for some time.
Now, every time this gospel comes up, I need to address it, because there is a common misinterpretation that has plagued the church in recent years. As we know by now, Advent begins with these eschatological, or end times, passages starting just after All Saints. However, the passage we heard today has been used, errantly, to refer to some sort of rapture in those end times, where the good people get sucked up in some sort of cataclysmic divine version of a monster holy vacuum right out of some sort of sci-fi movie. This is NOT what Jesus was saying.
This idea of a rapture is a fairly new concept driven out of poor biblical scholarship. It started back in the 1800s from when a girl had a vision of this sort of thing, and a pastor, Plymouth Brethren founder John Nelson Darby, ran away with it. He took various verses out of context from Revelation, Daniel, Thessalonians and gospel passages like our text from Matthew, all to support the vision. The Rapture, as a concept, did not exist before then anywhere in Christianity. In other words – the rapture is an 19th century literalist creation – which might explain why people keep predicting it, and keep having to change the date for it when it just does not happen as expected. So, to be clear, Jesus is not talking about that, which means if your Christmas wish was to have some of your relatives raptured up after spending time with them over Thanksgiving, well…you are in for some disappointment.
Now that we have that cleared up, let’s look at the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, which we also quote in our Collect at the beginning of the service. First, this letter, or what would have likely been an email if St. Paul were writing today, is, take note Jeopardy producers and fans, actually written by St. Paul.
Okay, if you aren’t connected into the Episcopal social media world, than you may not know what I am talking about here. See, a few weeks ago, the Twitterverse, nearly exploded on its own, without the help of some rich guy with no sense of morals. Apparently, the final Jeopardy question…or is it really the answer…anyway, final Jeopardy was this: “Paul’s letter to them is the New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotations.” The answer, according to Jeopardy, was… “Who are the Hebrews?” (remember that on this game show, the answer is always in the form of a question). The only problem with that is – Paul didn’t write the letter to the Hebrews. And BAM! Just like that, scholars, theologians, and priests like me hit the social media highway to rightly protest.
The answer should have been, well first – an actual letter of Paul’s – which would mean one of these seven: 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Philippians, and Romans. If you are wondering why Ephesians didn’t make the list – watch out – you are in for a biblical scholar bar fight. The authorship of Ephesians is hotly contested.
So, what is the correct answer to the all important Jeopardy question? Well, the epistle we read this morning – Romans. Let’s hope the Jeopardy folks give all the contestants that day a re-do. So, back to Romans then, right?
St. Paul writes “You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; …”
“You know what time it is.”
And we do – it is a time of darkness where so many grieve the loss of so many to gun violence because we value assault weapons more than lives.
It is a time of darkness where pharmaceutical companies drive up costs for life saving drugs like insulin, push out addictive opioids like candy, while millions suffer – all for the sake of profits.
It is a time of darkness where people are marginalized, targeted, and even killed for the color of their skin, for being female, for who they love, for how they worship, or any other way God created them to be.
It is a time of darkness for those who live in poverty, with addiction, and those who suffer mental or physical illness.
It is a time of darkness for all of God’s creation that suffers under the weight of our neglect and abuse.
It is a time of darkness for those who feel lost, alone, betrayed, and who have no sense of God’s presence in their lives.
So yes, we know what time it is.
And in this time, St. Paul implores us to wake up!
Now, aside from the fact that we folks who are NOT morning people (and also nearly every teenager who ever lived) are not gonna react well to that whole – “wake from sleep” bit, the rest is a clarion call to us today. There is nothing wrong with sleep – thanks be to God – but we hear this theme a lot in Advent, don’t we– wake up, keep watch. Why is that? Why is there always urgency to Advent – aren’t we supposed to slow down and be reflective?
It isn’t just St. Paul either. We see it in the gospel when Jesus says “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” Or, as I saw on a t-shirt once “Jesus is coming! Look busy!” Of course, St. Paul would say “Jesus is coming! Wake up and put on the armor of light!”
Here’s the thing about all this urgency, this call to be awake…it is really just a symbol of hope – the hope of Advent. You don’t feel urgent about things you don’t think are about to take place, right? You don’t run around like a kid on Christmas morning waking up his or her parents if you don’t anticipate something amazing awaits. You don’t shout for people to wake up, as though the house is on fire, if you don’t believe, really believe, there is something important about to happen, or happening right that very minute!
And we, who know this Advent hope deep within, know too what it means. We who feel the darkness of our world know too that we urgently need light.
Yet one thing is important to remember – sometimes it is we who are the ones in need of someone to wake us from our seemingly endless night of despair. Sometimes we need others to shine that light of hope on our darkened path that we may find our way home. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t mean that life will be without pain, heartbreak, anger at the world and at God, loss of faith in anything, including Jesus. If that sounds familiar to you, know that you are not alone, not by a long shot – it happens to many people, even clergy, even whole towns.
I want to share with you a story about a small town in Maine.
“The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more [sad and fragile]….”Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.””[1]
I would add that where there is faith in God, there is power in the present – power to change what is, to what may be. The power of hope in the face of despair, of love in the face of hate, of light in the face of darkness.
The grace of God given to us in Jesus offers the paradox of Advent – that when it is darkest, Christ is most near – and hope is available to us, if we open our eyes, even for just a moment. And if there is anything we need now it is hope.
Hope changes things.
Hope is transformative.
Hope is the armor of light that breathes new life into a dark world.
Jesus wants us to keep awake, St. Paul wants us to rise from sleep. Both for the same reason – that we may know that even amidst the darkness of the world, even when things seem to be falling apart all around us – perhaps most especially in those times – God is most near to us.
In Christ, the incarnation of God – God present with us – Emmanuel – we are given hope. Hope that is powerful. Hope that is transformational. Hope that is always available to us – we need only open our hearts to it. Hope that can save – not only the world, but our very lives.
So, let us awake, keep watch, and prepare to welcome in again the light of Christ into this world darkened by human hate, violence, oppression, and despair.
Let us put on that armor that transforms the world – not through our own power, but through our own brokenness – those cracks in our very much imperfect lives through which the light of Christ may be seen by those who dwell in darkness.
For if we can do that – there will be no darkness that cannot be overcome by his light shining in us.
If we do this, if we can open our hearts to see the word made flesh standing in our midst – then there is nothing that is not possible.
You know what time it is…
“You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep,” put on the armor of light, and prepare to be beacons of hope for a world who needs it so very much.
And by the power of his light working in and through us, we will defeat the darkness, and fill the world instead with Christ’s hope, love, and life!
Amen.
For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here (also available on Audible):
[1] Halford E. Luccock, Unfinished Business
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
November 27, 2022
Advent 4
1st Reading – Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122<
2nd Reading – Romans 13:11-14
Gospel – Matthew 24:36-44
