Jesus said to the disciples, “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.”
Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
You may have heard a story that re-circulates now and then. A story we might call “The Story of an Unfortunate Intruder.” A man in Rochester New York decided one night he was going to break into the home of home of a person who lived there. It was an unfortunate choice on his part in a couple ways – first because he chose the home of a woman named Willie Murphy. Willie was a petite lady of 82 years young – emphasis on the young – and a trained body builder.
And so she heard a knock at her door late at night and heard a voice saying, “please open the door, I need you to call an ambulance for me.” She didn’t open the door. She called 911 instead to report someone at her door. In the meantime, the would-be intruder decided to break in.
That’s his unfortunate choice number 2. Don’t mess with an 82-year-old body builder grandma. So the intruder comes into the house and the body builder grandma started working him over - throwing at him anything she could get her hands on to protect herself – started with a broom handle, threw a table at him, even sprayed shampoo in his eyes at one point. She was a highly courageous and resourceful person. The intruder had clearly underestimated the petite powerhouse that was Willie Murphy.
And when she was done working him over, she was able to drag him out of her house and deposit him in her driveway for the police to put him in handcuffs. It might be the last time he decided to mess with an 82-year-old body builder grandma. One wonders if the intruder wasn’t happy to see the police.
When we hear this story, the first thing we think of is that there’s nothing pleasant about the idea of someone breaking into our home No one wants to face that, to be in the midst of that with an intruder. So why does Jesus, in our lesson from Matthew’s gospel, use this as imagery to talk about the unexpected nature of the coming of the Son of Man?
Because even if it’s unexpected, since we can't know the day or time, to say that someone could be coming into our home, a thief sneaking into our home, the thought of us trying to figure out how to prepare to prevent or resist that creates for us imagery that is uncomfortable. We don't like that imagery because we certainly don't want to be the ones to have to fend off a would-be intruder.
But I don't think Jesus is talking about fending off anything. This idea of being prepared is a different kind of idea indeed. And so we stand here today on the first Sunday of Advent and we can think about all of those things that we are preparing ourselves for over these next 24 days. And most of that imagery is around an infant in a manger and beauty and hope and expectation. Yes, of course it is.
But Advent is a season during which we recognize that there’s more to it than just the coming of the Christ child. We also recognize the second coming, that coming again of Christ. We say in the Nicene Creed “he will come again to judge the living and the dead.” I'm focusing us on that word – judge. He is the one who will come to judge”.
We probably don't love that word “judge” a whole lot. If we’re honest, we’d like to sort of skim over it and go right to “his Kingdom will have no end.” We do love the imagery of that child in a manger. And we love the imagery of grace and love and mercy. We’re okay with pushing aside that notion that when Christ comes again, it is to judge.
Today is a good opportunity to ask ourselves how we can get a little more comfortable and a little less anxious with this idea of Christ as our judge. Advent it a good time to do so. We have this incredible window of opportunity during which we are to prepare. And preparation is the antidote for fear.
Now Willie Murphy the 82-year-old body-building grandma prepared by going to the gym every day. What a good idea – I bet many of us would like to be able to do that wouldn’t we? She prepares by going to the gym every day to strengthen her body and probably to strength her mind as well. But what do we do when we're trying to prepare for the coming of Christ?
Because we can tell ourselves all kinds of things about what we think that looks like. And we can have all kinds of really good intentions. But the reality is, the coming of Christ is something for which we have to be preparing all along. We actually have to be in the process of preparing -- just like going to the gym daily, or just like we might read scriptures regularly, or pray at a set time each day. It is a constant work of preparation for us to grow in the knowledge and love of God, for us to do and be what God wants God's people to be.
It's not a seasonal “add on” to our schedule that we’re going to take on someday, or one of those things we think we can just do that tomorrow. It’s a pattern and habit of life. Because that's the way we humans are. The way we learn, how we grow and make new habits. This is our time of preparation.
So it's not a time to settle for a life of fear. That’s not what God wants for us. It's a time of preparation when we have the opportunity to choose to get up every day and ask ourselves what is it that God calls us to do and be, to ask ourselves how do we grow stronger in that knowledge and stronger in that work so that when Christ comes, he finds us ready with our spiritual muscles built up like 82 year-old Willie Murphy’s muscles built up from having spent that time in focused preparation for doing God's work.
This muscling up in some ways is counterintuitive. It makes us consider Advent in totally different ways of thinking. We might find ourselves thinking not about what we want, but how we support others. There are reminders throughout the scriptures about taking care of the most vulnerable among us, turning our focus away from ourselves and instead out into the world.
I saw an interview with a young woman on Black Friday at The Citadel. She was carrying several shopping bags. The reporter asked her whether she’d found good deals. Yes! she gushed and described all the things she purchased. They were all for herself. At the end of the interview, she said a little sheepishly that she was going to do some shopping for gifts for her family that day too. You could practically see her make that transition from thinking inwardly to outwardly.
Advent is our chance to turn inwardly and ask, “how am I part of the coming of the kingdom” and then to rededicate the outward work of our hands and hearts giving ourselves wholly to the work that God has called us to do. The world needs to see us do that: to see the Christ in us, to see our commitment to those in needs, to see that we are able to push aside those things of the world that would distract us, to distance ourselves from divisiveness and instead refocus on coming together in love to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give strength and support to the grieving. In filling these 24 days until Christmas with this discernment, we strengthen ourselves and one another.
It's how we keep one another going and growing in the love of God. So this time of preparation, we don’t want to think of it as the fear of pending judgment but a process of strengthening our spiritual muscles – how we have muscle memory for love and commitment to service. Because that muscle memory is what we will call on and return to over and over and over again as we commit ourselves to one another and to our God.
This day and all of our days, we grow together. We prepare together and we anticipate together. And we hold one another accountable because when judgment does come - we say that every week when we affirm our faith - when judgment does come we hold ourselves accountable to one another so that we can each learn what it means to be godly. But also to see the God in one another. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen