Just You Wait!
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Readings
Series I, Cycle C
Some of you may be excited to learn that this morning's scripture lesson contains a benediction. "Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints" (vv. 11-13). That is a benediction. And the reason it may excite some of you is because when you start out with a benediction, the sermon can't be very long. (It will only seem so!)
This particular benediction refers to an event commonly known as the "Second Coming." The Bible, incidentally, never uses that phrase; and to be honest, I've always been a little troubled by it, because it seems to suggest that Christ is only returning one more time -- at some point in the distant (or not-so-distant) future. Until then, he's sitting idly backstage waiting for the final curtain call. Obviously, though, nothing could be further from the truth. Christ is very much with us even now. Whenever people gather together in his name, our risen Savior is present. But as Christians, we also believe that, at the end of history, he will arrive again triumphantly, and every knee will bend in heaven and on earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God (Philippians 2:10-11).
It's actually a subject that Paul discusses quite a bit in this letter. He tells the Thessalonians that "the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17a). A little later, Paul borrows an image from one of Jesus' parables and explains that "the day of Lord will come like a thief in the night ... So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake" (1 Thessalonians 5:2, 6).
Traditionally, of course, this idea of "keeping awake and alert" has served as the theme for the First Sunday of Advent. It is a time for us to ponder and prepare, to watch and wait. However, it's not just Christmas that we're waiting for. Unlike the culture that surrounds us, the church has never been in a great hurry to get to Christmas. Indeed, all of the lectionary texts for this morning focus not so much on the past, but toward the future.
In our Gospel Lesson from Luke, for example, Jesus tells the disciples, "There will be signs in the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among the nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory" (Luke 21:25-27). In our Old Testament Lesson from Jeremiah, the prophet announces, "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promises I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up from David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land" (Jeremiah 33:14-15). And here in our Epistle Lesson, Paul writes, "May he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints" (v. 13).
What these passages are getting at is that, despite all appearances to the contrary, the world is not just stumbling blindly along, or spinning wildly out of control. There is a heavenly purpose that God is working out here on earth. Just as the universe had a definite beginning, it will also have a definite and intentional end. There will come a time when the last pages of history have been written, and everything is revealed beneath a light that casts no shadows, and we will find ourselves standing before a court beyond which there is no further appeal. Simply put, there will eventually arrive a judgment day in which all of our days, and all the judgments upon us, and all of our judgments upon each other, will themselves be judged. The creator of all things will become the completer of all things.
I'm not sure what you happen to think about the end time. But if you are like most folks, you probably don't think about it much. Frankly, the whole notion of the Second Coming tends to confuse a lot of us. I remember in seminary, my New Testament professor J. Christiaan Beker once shared with the class a revealing and amusing correspondence from an official mainline denominational magazine. A reader had submitted a question to the "Question and Answer" column, which was subsequently answered by one of the editors:
Q: Why are there so few sermons in our churches on the Second Coming? Is this part of our belief or not?
A: Not all Christians think alike on matters of theology, but it would be hard for someone to feel at home in our tradition who did not understand God as the One who has come, who is present (Christ is risen) in our lives today, and who is yet to come in whatever form the future winds up taking. To literalize the Second Coming is to ruin both its beauty and its significance. To ignore it is to avoid what may be the most important part of the Gospel we know about since the past and present, relatively speaking, are brief, while tomorrow borders on forever.
In a later issue of the magazine, another reader responded to this answer:
I compliment the Rev. __________ for his illusive non-answer to what I am sure was a serious question concerning the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. If I understood his answer, he said, in effect, "We don't all agree. But if you want to be comfortable in the [United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church], you will need to agree that Jesus is coming again, but not really -- for if you actually believe in the Second Coming you will ruin both its beauty and significance. Yet you can't ignore it because it's in the future." Why not a simple answer? Why not admit that those who cannot receive the Bible literally must spiritualize the Second Coming because it is too large a segment of the New Testament to be ignored?1
This reader makes an excellent point. Either we believe that Christ is coming again -- literally, physically, historically -- or we don't. Of course, part of the problem with dwelling on it is that not many of us are eager to be associated with those placard-carrying prophets-of-doom who are forever announcing that the world is going to end on such-and-such date. We may affirm a literal interpretation of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, but we're not inclined to pour over the pages of our Bibles with a calculator, trying to pin God down to a specific timetable. After all, it's supposed to be a journey of faith, not a scavenger hunt. Every rumor of war in the Middle East, every leadership change in Russia, every currency crisis in the stock market, does not need to set loose another riptide of Armaggedon anxiety. Jesus himself said, "About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36).
At a deeper level, though, the problem with waiting in eager anticipation for the Second Coming is that the church has already been waiting for some 2,000 years now. If it is to occur like a thief breaking into your house at night, that would seem to imply that we must be ready at all times, because we can never be sure when Christ will break into the world, or even when he will break into our lives. But therein lies the difficulty. It is almost impossible to be on a high state of alert 24/7. You can only stand on tiptoe searching the horizon for so long, before you grow weary of looking toward a future that seems to be taking its sweet time getting here. In other words, even if we concede that no one knows for certain when Christ will come again, we're still left with the question of what to do in the meantime.
I think Paul's benediction may provide a clue. Notice that he is not telling the Thessalonians that, since Christ is on his way, they can close down their food pantry for the homeless and stop collecting special offerings. Waiting for the Second Coming is not like sitting in a concert hall, casually passing the time until the house lights are lowered and the conductor takes the stage. It is more like waiting for an honored guest to arrive at our home. There is much to do; everything must be made ready. Thus, Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians is that their love for each other, and for everybody else, may increase and abound (v. 12). Keep watching for Christ's arrival, sure; but don't stop working, says Paul. Be prepared, not passive.
Far from lifting the church out of the world, the belief that our risen Lord will surely come again ought to send the church back into the world with renewed confidence and conviction. To live in hopeful expectation of the future appearing of Christ does not mean that we give up on the present world, filled as it is with sickness and starvation, pollution and poverty, warfare and waywardness. On the contrary, the reason Christians work so hard to rid the world of such things is because we know that the same One who will finally vanquish the powers of darkness at the end of time is already moving in mighty strength against them even now.
The other day, on the way home from a hospital visit, I heard a rather intriguing statistic on the radio. In the game of chess, after each person has made one move, there are roughly 400 possibilities for the next move. After a player has moved twice, there are over 70,000 possibilities. With three moves, the number increases to more than nine million. That surprised me, because I would have thought it to be just the opposite. That is, the greatest number of possibilities exists before you do anything, and the longer you play the fewer the options you have available. But the fact is, the more moves you make, the greater the options.
Perhaps the future is like that as well. No one can be sure exactly when the Second Coming will occur. But in the meantime, we keep moving. We keep working, and praying, and serving, and loving one another. Because who knows? Maybe the more we do, the greater the possibilities that God is able to do something through us.
Every First Sunday of Advent, we are reminded of the need to stay awake and watch. Ordinarily, we take that to mean, "Don't abandon your lookout post. Keep your eyes fixed upon the horizon. Watch and wait." But there is another way to hear the word "watch" -- as in the statement, "You think that was something? Watch this!" Maybe what Paul is trying to tell the Thessalonians is: "Open your eyes. Pay attention. Watch what God is able to do, if you keep working, and praying, and serving, and loving one another. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints."
Is Jesus Christ returning again with power and great glory? Absolutely. But if you think a baby in a manger was something, you ain't seen nothing yet. Just you watch ... just you wait!
____________
1. This exchange is recorded in J. Christiaan Beker, Paul's Apocalyptic Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982), pp. 12-13.
This particular benediction refers to an event commonly known as the "Second Coming." The Bible, incidentally, never uses that phrase; and to be honest, I've always been a little troubled by it, because it seems to suggest that Christ is only returning one more time -- at some point in the distant (or not-so-distant) future. Until then, he's sitting idly backstage waiting for the final curtain call. Obviously, though, nothing could be further from the truth. Christ is very much with us even now. Whenever people gather together in his name, our risen Savior is present. But as Christians, we also believe that, at the end of history, he will arrive again triumphantly, and every knee will bend in heaven and on earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God (Philippians 2:10-11).
It's actually a subject that Paul discusses quite a bit in this letter. He tells the Thessalonians that "the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17a). A little later, Paul borrows an image from one of Jesus' parables and explains that "the day of Lord will come like a thief in the night ... So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake" (1 Thessalonians 5:2, 6).
Traditionally, of course, this idea of "keeping awake and alert" has served as the theme for the First Sunday of Advent. It is a time for us to ponder and prepare, to watch and wait. However, it's not just Christmas that we're waiting for. Unlike the culture that surrounds us, the church has never been in a great hurry to get to Christmas. Indeed, all of the lectionary texts for this morning focus not so much on the past, but toward the future.
In our Gospel Lesson from Luke, for example, Jesus tells the disciples, "There will be signs in the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among the nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory" (Luke 21:25-27). In our Old Testament Lesson from Jeremiah, the prophet announces, "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promises I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up from David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land" (Jeremiah 33:14-15). And here in our Epistle Lesson, Paul writes, "May he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints" (v. 13).
What these passages are getting at is that, despite all appearances to the contrary, the world is not just stumbling blindly along, or spinning wildly out of control. There is a heavenly purpose that God is working out here on earth. Just as the universe had a definite beginning, it will also have a definite and intentional end. There will come a time when the last pages of history have been written, and everything is revealed beneath a light that casts no shadows, and we will find ourselves standing before a court beyond which there is no further appeal. Simply put, there will eventually arrive a judgment day in which all of our days, and all the judgments upon us, and all of our judgments upon each other, will themselves be judged. The creator of all things will become the completer of all things.
I'm not sure what you happen to think about the end time. But if you are like most folks, you probably don't think about it much. Frankly, the whole notion of the Second Coming tends to confuse a lot of us. I remember in seminary, my New Testament professor J. Christiaan Beker once shared with the class a revealing and amusing correspondence from an official mainline denominational magazine. A reader had submitted a question to the "Question and Answer" column, which was subsequently answered by one of the editors:
Q: Why are there so few sermons in our churches on the Second Coming? Is this part of our belief or not?
A: Not all Christians think alike on matters of theology, but it would be hard for someone to feel at home in our tradition who did not understand God as the One who has come, who is present (Christ is risen) in our lives today, and who is yet to come in whatever form the future winds up taking. To literalize the Second Coming is to ruin both its beauty and its significance. To ignore it is to avoid what may be the most important part of the Gospel we know about since the past and present, relatively speaking, are brief, while tomorrow borders on forever.
In a later issue of the magazine, another reader responded to this answer:
I compliment the Rev. __________ for his illusive non-answer to what I am sure was a serious question concerning the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. If I understood his answer, he said, in effect, "We don't all agree. But if you want to be comfortable in the [United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church], you will need to agree that Jesus is coming again, but not really -- for if you actually believe in the Second Coming you will ruin both its beauty and significance. Yet you can't ignore it because it's in the future." Why not a simple answer? Why not admit that those who cannot receive the Bible literally must spiritualize the Second Coming because it is too large a segment of the New Testament to be ignored?1
This reader makes an excellent point. Either we believe that Christ is coming again -- literally, physically, historically -- or we don't. Of course, part of the problem with dwelling on it is that not many of us are eager to be associated with those placard-carrying prophets-of-doom who are forever announcing that the world is going to end on such-and-such date. We may affirm a literal interpretation of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, but we're not inclined to pour over the pages of our Bibles with a calculator, trying to pin God down to a specific timetable. After all, it's supposed to be a journey of faith, not a scavenger hunt. Every rumor of war in the Middle East, every leadership change in Russia, every currency crisis in the stock market, does not need to set loose another riptide of Armaggedon anxiety. Jesus himself said, "About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36).
At a deeper level, though, the problem with waiting in eager anticipation for the Second Coming is that the church has already been waiting for some 2,000 years now. If it is to occur like a thief breaking into your house at night, that would seem to imply that we must be ready at all times, because we can never be sure when Christ will break into the world, or even when he will break into our lives. But therein lies the difficulty. It is almost impossible to be on a high state of alert 24/7. You can only stand on tiptoe searching the horizon for so long, before you grow weary of looking toward a future that seems to be taking its sweet time getting here. In other words, even if we concede that no one knows for certain when Christ will come again, we're still left with the question of what to do in the meantime.
I think Paul's benediction may provide a clue. Notice that he is not telling the Thessalonians that, since Christ is on his way, they can close down their food pantry for the homeless and stop collecting special offerings. Waiting for the Second Coming is not like sitting in a concert hall, casually passing the time until the house lights are lowered and the conductor takes the stage. It is more like waiting for an honored guest to arrive at our home. There is much to do; everything must be made ready. Thus, Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians is that their love for each other, and for everybody else, may increase and abound (v. 12). Keep watching for Christ's arrival, sure; but don't stop working, says Paul. Be prepared, not passive.
Far from lifting the church out of the world, the belief that our risen Lord will surely come again ought to send the church back into the world with renewed confidence and conviction. To live in hopeful expectation of the future appearing of Christ does not mean that we give up on the present world, filled as it is with sickness and starvation, pollution and poverty, warfare and waywardness. On the contrary, the reason Christians work so hard to rid the world of such things is because we know that the same One who will finally vanquish the powers of darkness at the end of time is already moving in mighty strength against them even now.
The other day, on the way home from a hospital visit, I heard a rather intriguing statistic on the radio. In the game of chess, after each person has made one move, there are roughly 400 possibilities for the next move. After a player has moved twice, there are over 70,000 possibilities. With three moves, the number increases to more than nine million. That surprised me, because I would have thought it to be just the opposite. That is, the greatest number of possibilities exists before you do anything, and the longer you play the fewer the options you have available. But the fact is, the more moves you make, the greater the options.
Perhaps the future is like that as well. No one can be sure exactly when the Second Coming will occur. But in the meantime, we keep moving. We keep working, and praying, and serving, and loving one another. Because who knows? Maybe the more we do, the greater the possibilities that God is able to do something through us.
Every First Sunday of Advent, we are reminded of the need to stay awake and watch. Ordinarily, we take that to mean, "Don't abandon your lookout post. Keep your eyes fixed upon the horizon. Watch and wait." But there is another way to hear the word "watch" -- as in the statement, "You think that was something? Watch this!" Maybe what Paul is trying to tell the Thessalonians is: "Open your eyes. Pay attention. Watch what God is able to do, if you keep working, and praying, and serving, and loving one another. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints."
Is Jesus Christ returning again with power and great glory? Absolutely. But if you think a baby in a manger was something, you ain't seen nothing yet. Just you watch ... just you wait!
____________
1. This exchange is recorded in J. Christiaan Beker, Paul's Apocalyptic Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982), pp. 12-13.
