School of rock(s)
Commentary
Christianity is, among other things, an intellectual quest. The curriculum to know God truly. The lesson plans interact creatively with other aspects of faith: worship is vain if not grounded in truth, while service is misguided if based on faulty premises. While faith certainly cannot be reduced to knowledge, it cannot be divorced from it, either.
The intrinsic intellectual character of faith creates certain problems. There is, for one thing, the danger that faith may be reduced to mere knowledge, and theology become ideology. As James notes, such faith, condensed to content and devoid of faithful action, is shared even with demons, who know that God is to be feared (James 2:19).
The danger of making an idol out of intellectual belief is naturally countered by the nature of the knowledge of God. The creator cannot be known comprehensively by the creatures; human minds cannot encompass the enormity of the deity. This inherent "unknowability" of God is symbolized often in the scriptures, in those passages where the human being is said to be unable to stand before the divine presence; no human being can see God and live (cf. Exodus 33:17-23; Judges 6:22; Isaiah 6:5). Here is the ultimate irony of faith: It is a quest to know that which is inherently unknowable.
The necessity and the limits of the human knowledge of God are examined in today's scriptures. In Isaiah, the nations know to come to learn from God. In Romans, the knowledge of God is compared to a garment and a weapon. In Matthew, limited knowledge provides the rationale for constant watchfulness.
Isaiah 2:1-5
The opening chapters of Isaiah contain prophecies against Judah and Jerusalem (Isaiah 1-12). Some of these oracles are quite harsh, but they are occasionally bracketed by predictions of salvation "in days to come" (Isaiah 2:2; cf. 4:2-6). The benefits are not to be limited to the Jewish people, because the "nations" will join in the pilgrimage to "the mountain of the Lord's house," for example, the Temple in Jerusalem. In this school on the rock, "the highest of the mountains ... raised above the hills," the nations will come to learn from the Rock of Ages (2:1).
Isaiah's oracle is closely related to a passage in Micah (4:1-4), and there is some debate over whether one is quoting the other, or both are using a common source. Many scholars think that the passage in Isaiah has been shaped by the subsequent events of the Babylonian Exile, or the even later Persian period. However it may have developed, the material is undeniably ancient, and is connected to the prophecies about Judah and Jerusalem in verse 5: "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!"
However, it is the "nations" or Gentiles who are the focus of this prophecy about the latter days. The picture is of a vast procession to Jerusalem from all points on the map, a pilgrimage of Gentiles. As they walk, they recite a kind of liturgy, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths" (v. 3). Note that God is explicitly cast in the role of teacher. Isaiah further defines the nature of this teaching; it covers "instruction, and the word of the Lord" (v. 3). "Instruction" translates the Hebrew word torah, which covers a wide range of meaning: "teaching," "instruction," "law." However, in conjunction with "the word of the Lord," torah here would seem to refer to the Torah, the Mosaic Law. Isaiah would have seen no conflict between his prophetic word and the ancient law; later Jewish tradition would see the prophetic works as commentaries on Torah. The teaching the Gentiles are to receive in these "days to come" is identical with the tradition that has been passed down in Jerusalem all this time. The nations come to learn God's Word and God's Law.
This teaching will result in a universal rule of peace. God will not only be teacher, but also "judge" who will "arbitrate for many peoples" (v. 4). Whatever issues have separated these people will be resolved by one who is, by nature, fair and impartial. This arbitration will make weapons of war unnecessary, and so "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks" (v. 4). The transformation of weapons into farming equipment is a fundamental economic change; rather than using their resources to fight one another, the nations will learn to feed one another. Having learned God's Torah, they shall not "learn war any more."
Romans 13:11-14
Paul's letter to the Romans picks up not only the eschatological language of Isaiah, but also the emphasis on learning. This may not be apparent from the brief passage we read in church, but the passage is part of a larger section that encourages the Romans to develop their knowledge of God (chs. 12-13). This section is framed on both sides by a call to a radical education: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God" (Romans 12:2; cf. 13:14). Christians are called to renew and transform their minds; learning about God is presented as a primary task of faith. Only with this correct knowledge can faith be practiced; it is necessary to "discern what is the will of God" according to what has been learned.
In our passage, this transformation of the mind is expressed in baptismal imagery: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ," Paul says (13:14). To "put on Christ" reflects the actual practice of the early Christians; the baptismal candidate would be given a new white garment as a symbol of the new life in Christ. The expression became quite common (cf. Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 3:8-10; Ephesians 4:22-25; James 1:21; 1 Peter 2:1). Any doubt about the connection to baptism is dispelled by Paul's exhortation to "put on the armor of light"; "light" was another metaphor for baptism (cf. Ephesians 5:8-9, 14; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 6:4). The exhortation to transform one's mind by the teachings of Jesus is a reminder of the pledge to follow Jesus which is made in baptism; the disciple is, if nothing else, a student.
The student disciple learns to "make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (v. 14). Paul here makes a passing reference to his previous explanation of the power of the "flesh." This may be difficult for modern congregations, who often speak of "sins of the flesh" as if it were a matter of the body and not the spirit. Paul's use of "flesh" is quite different from this; for him, the "flesh" (sarx) is everything in the human being that rebels against God. The flesh is the root of idolatry and sin, that malign arrogance that thinks it knows better than the one true teacher (cf. Romans 1:3; 2:28; 3:20; 4:1; 6:19; 7:5, 18, 25; 8:3-9, 12-13; 9:3, 5, 8; 11:14; 13:14). That Paul's use of the word "flesh" differs from the popular notion can be seen in that he includes "quarreling and jealousy" equally among more bodily sins (v. 13); churches that judge drunkenness and sexual sin harshly need to learn that the "flesh" can be manifested just as well in the petty conflicts that rage widely in their pews.
Paul's exhortation to learn from our baptisms and not from our flesh is intensified by his assessment of the moment. "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers" (v. 11). Any Christian could say this; of course our time gets shorter as we get older. Paul's language intensifies the thought by drawing on conventions and metaphors associated with apocalyptic thought. He refers not to chronological time but kairos, a special "time" or "season" that is urgent and compelling. The kairos time is metaphorically just before daybreak, as Paul draws in the metaphors of waking/sleeping and darkness/light (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 24:42-44; 26:45; Mark 13:33-37; Luke 12:35-46; 21:36; Ephesians 5:8-16; 6:18). Paul exhorts the Romans to wakefulness in light of the coming dawn, when his gospel mission will find its completion (cf. Romans 8:18-23; 11:15). Even the vices he warns against are those associated with the darkness; Christians are to learn to walk in the daylight (v. 13).
Matthew 24:36-44
Matthew shares with Romans the metaphors and conventions of apocalyptic writing; in fact, Matthew 24 is often referred to as a "little apocalypse." In particular, Matthew emphasizes the necessity for keeping alert. His exhortation is not based on the certainty of Jesus' return, however, but on its uncertainty. Some things cannot be taught. That does not mean they cannot be acted upon.
The limits of knowledge are emphasized in the verse that both sums up the chapter so far, and leads to the next section: "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (v. 36). "That day and hour" refers to the coming of "the Son of Man ... on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (v. 30). Matthew does not seem particularly interested in what would become a burning question in later theology: how could the Son not know the day and hour? The limits of human (and even angelic) knowledge are clear.
Matthew uses two tightly-woven illustrations to lead to his conclusion. The first refers to the days of Noah, and the unexpectedness of the flood. With life going on as usual, no one expected a crisis (vv. 37-39). The second is a more generic picture, with pairs of people separated as they do their chores (vv. 40-41). Just as a few were gathered to safety with Noah in the ark, so some will be taken to safety on the Day of the Lord, while others, still engaged in the same occupations, will be left for judgment. As with Noah, there will be no warning when it happens. "Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (v. 42).
Matthew expands his point further through the brief parable of the householder: "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" (vv. 43-44). Note once again that this is all a matter of what you know: "understand this," Jesus says (v. 43). In this case, what you know is what you don't know. Since there is no way to predict the time, the knowledge of your own ignorance is the incentive to stay alert. "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" (v. 44).
Application
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain was about a surveyor who was sent to make maps of Wales. The townspeople were dismayed to find that his measurements showed that their hill was just a few feet short of a true mountain. Rather than have their mountain demoted on the maps, they decided to make up the difference. The movie shows a steady progression of villagers hauling dirt and filler and whatever else they could get their hands on up to the top of the hill that would soon be, officially, a mountain.
Isaiah pictures a steady stream of pilgrims to an artificially high mountain. In this case, it is God who has raised the mountain. The people merely respond to the invitation to ascend the mountain and learn. They are not required to bring anything with them, not even textbooks. God will instruct them in all they need to know.
It is not our job to build the mountain of God. Our job is merely to join the pilgrimage. We will not learn everything there is to know, but we will learn everything we need to know. What we don't know will remind us that our knowledge is not an end in and of itself. The point of all this knowledge is the transformation of our minds, so that we are the people we are called to be ... alert, awake, and ready for the day when God will call all the nations to the school on the rock.
Alternative Applications
1) Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 24:36-44.
Common wisdom has it that those who are most interested in apocalyptic schemes about the end times are the least likely to care about the present. If you spent your days counting the days in Daniel, adding up the numbers in Revelation, and looking for Matthew's fig leaves, you are not going to be caring for the sick, the homeless, or the hungry, so they say. Pie in the sky by and by isn't a big seller at the food pantry.
In fact, however, such common wisdom is not born out by empirical study; groups that place a strong emphasis on the immediate hope of Jesus' coming also have proved to have strong social ministries (see Timothy P. Weber, Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming, 1983). Social awareness among millennial groups should come as no surprise, since the biblical tradition links eschatological awareness and moral exhortation. Both Paul and Matthew link the imminent return of Jesus with the imminent need to act accordingly. In effect, Paul says that the end is near, so get your act in gear. You know what time it is, and it is no time to sit on your hands. Matthew exhorts us to be alert on the basis that we cannot know when the end will come, and therefore we should keep alert.
There is thus a connection between the eschatological warning to "watch" and the moral command to "love." Advent for Christians is a time for watching, but it is never a time to sit back and watch disinterestedly. The kind of watch Paul and Matthew had in mind involved doing, not just looking. In fact, there is not much point in looking, if as Matthew says, you'll never see it coming. Watchfulness is manifested in living according to Jesus' teaching.
2) Matthew 24:36-44. Mainline clergy sometimes look with disdain on fundamentalist apocalyptic schemes, but they do so at their own peril. Books like the Left Behind series have made premillennial dispensationalism the dominant eschatology in America today, and the mainline pastor might be surprised at how many people in the congregation have been reading these books. Ignorance of this tradition, which for many people is not one interpretation among others, but simply "what the Bible says," can be hazardous for our preaching.
While there are plenty of good studies of the ins and outs of dispensationalism, I think it's important to answer claims about the Bible with the Bible itself. Foremost among these is Matthew's denial that it is possible to pinpoint the coming of the Son of Man. The touted "signs of times" have always been wrong and always will be, and to prove the point, one does not have to cite titles like 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988. One need only cite Jesus: "About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36). The highly detailed fantasies about the last days found in these tracts are just that -- fantasies -- because the Bible itself takes a much more modest approach to the question. Quite simply, you can't know when it's going to happen, so there's no point in guessing. What you should be doing, instead, is living out the teachings of the one who will return to take us home.
Preachng The Psalm
Psalm 122
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (v. 6). What better way could there be for us to begin the Advent season than by focusing our prayers on peace? The word shalom, translated "peace," means much more than the mere absence of conflict. And of course, it is not only Jerusalem that is need of peace; the whole world needs the shalom that the psalmist dreams about. So perhaps we should expand the breadth of this prayer, and deepen it with our awareness of the various meanings of the Hebrew idea of peace.
Pray for healing in our world. Shalom includes the idea of wholeness, or what we might describe as "healing." Africa is currently wracked by a devastating AIDS epidemic. Hundreds of thousands of people die weekly of this horrible disease. Our prayer for the peace of our world cannot overlook the need for healing of the sick.
Healing is also needed in our political affairs. Our own country is angrily divided along partisan lines. It becomes almost impossible to build a sense of national unity after a campaign simply because the rhetoric is so heated and so divisive. Pray for the healing of our land, that we might see ourselves as neighbors once again.
Pray for the feeding of the world. The Hebrew idea of shalom includes the notion of prosperity. In our culture, prosperity is the measure of everything, in the rest of the world the lack of prosperity is the measure of misery. It is hard not to imagine that the two things are connected. Our great wealth is out of proportion to our size. America is only six percent of the world's population, yet we control most of the world's resources. Our prosperity contributes to the poverty of others. Perhaps if we prayed for the feeding of the world, our obsession with material gain might begin to give way to a more balanced view of the meaning of life.
Pray for the end of war. Shalom does include in its various meanings the cessation of conflict. As we begin our journey toward our celebration of the birth of the Savior, let us pray that we can find a way out of the warfare and bloodshed that marks so much of our world. Let us pray that we will find a way to use our great gifts of mind, heart, and faith to solve the problems we now fight about. For the sake of the presence of God in our midst, let us pray that we will seek only the good for everyone.
Pray for the peace of our Jerusalem.
The intrinsic intellectual character of faith creates certain problems. There is, for one thing, the danger that faith may be reduced to mere knowledge, and theology become ideology. As James notes, such faith, condensed to content and devoid of faithful action, is shared even with demons, who know that God is to be feared (James 2:19).
The danger of making an idol out of intellectual belief is naturally countered by the nature of the knowledge of God. The creator cannot be known comprehensively by the creatures; human minds cannot encompass the enormity of the deity. This inherent "unknowability" of God is symbolized often in the scriptures, in those passages where the human being is said to be unable to stand before the divine presence; no human being can see God and live (cf. Exodus 33:17-23; Judges 6:22; Isaiah 6:5). Here is the ultimate irony of faith: It is a quest to know that which is inherently unknowable.
The necessity and the limits of the human knowledge of God are examined in today's scriptures. In Isaiah, the nations know to come to learn from God. In Romans, the knowledge of God is compared to a garment and a weapon. In Matthew, limited knowledge provides the rationale for constant watchfulness.
Isaiah 2:1-5
The opening chapters of Isaiah contain prophecies against Judah and Jerusalem (Isaiah 1-12). Some of these oracles are quite harsh, but they are occasionally bracketed by predictions of salvation "in days to come" (Isaiah 2:2; cf. 4:2-6). The benefits are not to be limited to the Jewish people, because the "nations" will join in the pilgrimage to "the mountain of the Lord's house," for example, the Temple in Jerusalem. In this school on the rock, "the highest of the mountains ... raised above the hills," the nations will come to learn from the Rock of Ages (2:1).
Isaiah's oracle is closely related to a passage in Micah (4:1-4), and there is some debate over whether one is quoting the other, or both are using a common source. Many scholars think that the passage in Isaiah has been shaped by the subsequent events of the Babylonian Exile, or the even later Persian period. However it may have developed, the material is undeniably ancient, and is connected to the prophecies about Judah and Jerusalem in verse 5: "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!"
However, it is the "nations" or Gentiles who are the focus of this prophecy about the latter days. The picture is of a vast procession to Jerusalem from all points on the map, a pilgrimage of Gentiles. As they walk, they recite a kind of liturgy, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths" (v. 3). Note that God is explicitly cast in the role of teacher. Isaiah further defines the nature of this teaching; it covers "instruction, and the word of the Lord" (v. 3). "Instruction" translates the Hebrew word torah, which covers a wide range of meaning: "teaching," "instruction," "law." However, in conjunction with "the word of the Lord," torah here would seem to refer to the Torah, the Mosaic Law. Isaiah would have seen no conflict between his prophetic word and the ancient law; later Jewish tradition would see the prophetic works as commentaries on Torah. The teaching the Gentiles are to receive in these "days to come" is identical with the tradition that has been passed down in Jerusalem all this time. The nations come to learn God's Word and God's Law.
This teaching will result in a universal rule of peace. God will not only be teacher, but also "judge" who will "arbitrate for many peoples" (v. 4). Whatever issues have separated these people will be resolved by one who is, by nature, fair and impartial. This arbitration will make weapons of war unnecessary, and so "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks" (v. 4). The transformation of weapons into farming equipment is a fundamental economic change; rather than using their resources to fight one another, the nations will learn to feed one another. Having learned God's Torah, they shall not "learn war any more."
Romans 13:11-14
Paul's letter to the Romans picks up not only the eschatological language of Isaiah, but also the emphasis on learning. This may not be apparent from the brief passage we read in church, but the passage is part of a larger section that encourages the Romans to develop their knowledge of God (chs. 12-13). This section is framed on both sides by a call to a radical education: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God" (Romans 12:2; cf. 13:14). Christians are called to renew and transform their minds; learning about God is presented as a primary task of faith. Only with this correct knowledge can faith be practiced; it is necessary to "discern what is the will of God" according to what has been learned.
In our passage, this transformation of the mind is expressed in baptismal imagery: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ," Paul says (13:14). To "put on Christ" reflects the actual practice of the early Christians; the baptismal candidate would be given a new white garment as a symbol of the new life in Christ. The expression became quite common (cf. Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 3:8-10; Ephesians 4:22-25; James 1:21; 1 Peter 2:1). Any doubt about the connection to baptism is dispelled by Paul's exhortation to "put on the armor of light"; "light" was another metaphor for baptism (cf. Ephesians 5:8-9, 14; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 6:4). The exhortation to transform one's mind by the teachings of Jesus is a reminder of the pledge to follow Jesus which is made in baptism; the disciple is, if nothing else, a student.
The student disciple learns to "make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (v. 14). Paul here makes a passing reference to his previous explanation of the power of the "flesh." This may be difficult for modern congregations, who often speak of "sins of the flesh" as if it were a matter of the body and not the spirit. Paul's use of "flesh" is quite different from this; for him, the "flesh" (sarx) is everything in the human being that rebels against God. The flesh is the root of idolatry and sin, that malign arrogance that thinks it knows better than the one true teacher (cf. Romans 1:3; 2:28; 3:20; 4:1; 6:19; 7:5, 18, 25; 8:3-9, 12-13; 9:3, 5, 8; 11:14; 13:14). That Paul's use of the word "flesh" differs from the popular notion can be seen in that he includes "quarreling and jealousy" equally among more bodily sins (v. 13); churches that judge drunkenness and sexual sin harshly need to learn that the "flesh" can be manifested just as well in the petty conflicts that rage widely in their pews.
Paul's exhortation to learn from our baptisms and not from our flesh is intensified by his assessment of the moment. "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers" (v. 11). Any Christian could say this; of course our time gets shorter as we get older. Paul's language intensifies the thought by drawing on conventions and metaphors associated with apocalyptic thought. He refers not to chronological time but kairos, a special "time" or "season" that is urgent and compelling. The kairos time is metaphorically just before daybreak, as Paul draws in the metaphors of waking/sleeping and darkness/light (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 24:42-44; 26:45; Mark 13:33-37; Luke 12:35-46; 21:36; Ephesians 5:8-16; 6:18). Paul exhorts the Romans to wakefulness in light of the coming dawn, when his gospel mission will find its completion (cf. Romans 8:18-23; 11:15). Even the vices he warns against are those associated with the darkness; Christians are to learn to walk in the daylight (v. 13).
Matthew 24:36-44
Matthew shares with Romans the metaphors and conventions of apocalyptic writing; in fact, Matthew 24 is often referred to as a "little apocalypse." In particular, Matthew emphasizes the necessity for keeping alert. His exhortation is not based on the certainty of Jesus' return, however, but on its uncertainty. Some things cannot be taught. That does not mean they cannot be acted upon.
The limits of knowledge are emphasized in the verse that both sums up the chapter so far, and leads to the next section: "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (v. 36). "That day and hour" refers to the coming of "the Son of Man ... on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (v. 30). Matthew does not seem particularly interested in what would become a burning question in later theology: how could the Son not know the day and hour? The limits of human (and even angelic) knowledge are clear.
Matthew uses two tightly-woven illustrations to lead to his conclusion. The first refers to the days of Noah, and the unexpectedness of the flood. With life going on as usual, no one expected a crisis (vv. 37-39). The second is a more generic picture, with pairs of people separated as they do their chores (vv. 40-41). Just as a few were gathered to safety with Noah in the ark, so some will be taken to safety on the Day of the Lord, while others, still engaged in the same occupations, will be left for judgment. As with Noah, there will be no warning when it happens. "Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (v. 42).
Matthew expands his point further through the brief parable of the householder: "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" (vv. 43-44). Note once again that this is all a matter of what you know: "understand this," Jesus says (v. 43). In this case, what you know is what you don't know. Since there is no way to predict the time, the knowledge of your own ignorance is the incentive to stay alert. "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour" (v. 44).
Application
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain was about a surveyor who was sent to make maps of Wales. The townspeople were dismayed to find that his measurements showed that their hill was just a few feet short of a true mountain. Rather than have their mountain demoted on the maps, they decided to make up the difference. The movie shows a steady progression of villagers hauling dirt and filler and whatever else they could get their hands on up to the top of the hill that would soon be, officially, a mountain.
Isaiah pictures a steady stream of pilgrims to an artificially high mountain. In this case, it is God who has raised the mountain. The people merely respond to the invitation to ascend the mountain and learn. They are not required to bring anything with them, not even textbooks. God will instruct them in all they need to know.
It is not our job to build the mountain of God. Our job is merely to join the pilgrimage. We will not learn everything there is to know, but we will learn everything we need to know. What we don't know will remind us that our knowledge is not an end in and of itself. The point of all this knowledge is the transformation of our minds, so that we are the people we are called to be ... alert, awake, and ready for the day when God will call all the nations to the school on the rock.
Alternative Applications
1) Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 24:36-44.
Common wisdom has it that those who are most interested in apocalyptic schemes about the end times are the least likely to care about the present. If you spent your days counting the days in Daniel, adding up the numbers in Revelation, and looking for Matthew's fig leaves, you are not going to be caring for the sick, the homeless, or the hungry, so they say. Pie in the sky by and by isn't a big seller at the food pantry.
In fact, however, such common wisdom is not born out by empirical study; groups that place a strong emphasis on the immediate hope of Jesus' coming also have proved to have strong social ministries (see Timothy P. Weber, Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming, 1983). Social awareness among millennial groups should come as no surprise, since the biblical tradition links eschatological awareness and moral exhortation. Both Paul and Matthew link the imminent return of Jesus with the imminent need to act accordingly. In effect, Paul says that the end is near, so get your act in gear. You know what time it is, and it is no time to sit on your hands. Matthew exhorts us to be alert on the basis that we cannot know when the end will come, and therefore we should keep alert.
There is thus a connection between the eschatological warning to "watch" and the moral command to "love." Advent for Christians is a time for watching, but it is never a time to sit back and watch disinterestedly. The kind of watch Paul and Matthew had in mind involved doing, not just looking. In fact, there is not much point in looking, if as Matthew says, you'll never see it coming. Watchfulness is manifested in living according to Jesus' teaching.
2) Matthew 24:36-44. Mainline clergy sometimes look with disdain on fundamentalist apocalyptic schemes, but they do so at their own peril. Books like the Left Behind series have made premillennial dispensationalism the dominant eschatology in America today, and the mainline pastor might be surprised at how many people in the congregation have been reading these books. Ignorance of this tradition, which for many people is not one interpretation among others, but simply "what the Bible says," can be hazardous for our preaching.
While there are plenty of good studies of the ins and outs of dispensationalism, I think it's important to answer claims about the Bible with the Bible itself. Foremost among these is Matthew's denial that it is possible to pinpoint the coming of the Son of Man. The touted "signs of times" have always been wrong and always will be, and to prove the point, one does not have to cite titles like 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988. One need only cite Jesus: "About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36). The highly detailed fantasies about the last days found in these tracts are just that -- fantasies -- because the Bible itself takes a much more modest approach to the question. Quite simply, you can't know when it's going to happen, so there's no point in guessing. What you should be doing, instead, is living out the teachings of the one who will return to take us home.
Preachng The Psalm
Psalm 122
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (v. 6). What better way could there be for us to begin the Advent season than by focusing our prayers on peace? The word shalom, translated "peace," means much more than the mere absence of conflict. And of course, it is not only Jerusalem that is need of peace; the whole world needs the shalom that the psalmist dreams about. So perhaps we should expand the breadth of this prayer, and deepen it with our awareness of the various meanings of the Hebrew idea of peace.
Pray for healing in our world. Shalom includes the idea of wholeness, or what we might describe as "healing." Africa is currently wracked by a devastating AIDS epidemic. Hundreds of thousands of people die weekly of this horrible disease. Our prayer for the peace of our world cannot overlook the need for healing of the sick.
Healing is also needed in our political affairs. Our own country is angrily divided along partisan lines. It becomes almost impossible to build a sense of national unity after a campaign simply because the rhetoric is so heated and so divisive. Pray for the healing of our land, that we might see ourselves as neighbors once again.
Pray for the feeding of the world. The Hebrew idea of shalom includes the notion of prosperity. In our culture, prosperity is the measure of everything, in the rest of the world the lack of prosperity is the measure of misery. It is hard not to imagine that the two things are connected. Our great wealth is out of proportion to our size. America is only six percent of the world's population, yet we control most of the world's resources. Our prosperity contributes to the poverty of others. Perhaps if we prayed for the feeding of the world, our obsession with material gain might begin to give way to a more balanced view of the meaning of life.
Pray for the end of war. Shalom does include in its various meanings the cessation of conflict. As we begin our journey toward our celebration of the birth of the Savior, let us pray that we can find a way out of the warfare and bloodshed that marks so much of our world. Let us pray that we will find a way to use our great gifts of mind, heart, and faith to solve the problems we now fight about. For the sake of the presence of God in our midst, let us pray that we will seek only the good for everyone.
Pray for the peace of our Jerusalem.
