Keep awake ! Be ready !

Matthew 24:36–44

36 But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, 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 those 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. 42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day 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 unexpected hour.

“Keep awake ! Be ready !” Sounds like Jesus is speaking to some sleepy people, doesn’t it ? I wonder if those who heard these words from Jesus, actually woke up ? Did they hear them as threatening words,? Jolting words ?. Can we imagine at least that Jesus wants to have us pay attention ? His intervention into our daily lives ?

This time of the year brings an increasing amount of activity and if we are not careful, we can easily be about everything and nothing at the same time. We can be caught up in everything about the season and miss everything about the season.

Jesus wants us to be awake…ready for his coming. On textweek.com Peter W. Marty ( Martin’s son) writes in his article for Christian Century, “Wake Up Call,”

"He comes for us in love to interrupt our routines because he wants us to know that life is far too precious a gift to forfeit for business (or busy – ness) as usual."

 Luther Seminary professor Mary Hinkle Shore writes about God’s intervention in daily life.

“The intervention of God into our human affairs cannot be managed or scheduled the way many of the events of our days can be. Whether God’s advent is as manageable as a heart attack, or as manageable as falling in love, either way, you know that you are not in control, and you can be fairly sure the rest of your day will not go as planned.” New Proclamation Commentary, an online resource

Can we imagine God at work in our worlds… that spin so frenetically this season of the year ? Can we hear the call to “pay attention,” as law and/or gift ?

Mindful of the Future

Luke 21:5–19
5When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down. 7They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" 8And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them. 9When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately. 10Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17You will be hated by all because of my name. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By your endurance you will gain your souls.


Ahhh, here we go again, into the end time texts. We wind down to the end of a church year...the end of the calendar year...the countdown is on for the sopping days that are left before.....We all hold a view of the future. We can’t be unmindful of the future. Thinking of it prompts us to plan. Last year, I went to a pre-retirement seminar because I was wondering about my (Kaye’s) future. Will I have enough $ to retire on…to bring me/us a sense of security. The texts for Pentecost 25 C talk about “the day” the future. The disciples were curious, and they asked questions about the future that Jesus told them will come. I’m sure they were at least anxious, no, fearful about his description of the future. We, too, might be anxious or fearful about this kind of future. About our future. Maybe, we might just be complacent ? After all we have witnessed many of these signs that he prophesies will and are taking place. (ie. wars, earthquakes, natural disasters.) But Jesus offers us a different view of the future. He says we are not to worry about this life. (Matthew 6) He has given us the promise of a future and a hope. In our liturgy, Great Thanksgiving , we respond: “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.” Because we confess and believe this…we know the future is not something we have to live in fear of. Yes, there will be struggles…and fears..real and imagined. There will be hatred, betrayal, and persecution for those who are followers of Jesus. But even amidst that – we, too, have opportunities to witness and the promise of Jesus’ presence, his words to speak, and his wisdom…and that“not a hair of our heads will perish,” until that day comes…when he comes again.

I was just curious

Luke 20:27–38
Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28 and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."
34 Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."

“Hey Pastor, I have a question. . .”
The feeling that rises in my gut when people say that has a lot to do with the person asking the question. . .
Some aren’t really looking for a perspective on the truth of the Gospel - but instead are - in one way or another - picking a fight.
Jesus faced that quite often.
One guy has a sermon titled “The Gotcha Game.” It didn’t say much about Jesus, but it was clear this pastor had faced that “hey Pastor, I have a question” thing about a hundred times too often.
In an excellent take on Jesus being accosted here by the Sadducees, Paul Duke tells a story of ethicist Carlysle Marney visiting Duke and being asked to speak about resurrection. (The entire sermon is on the first page of that link, no need to go to the other 2 pages) He wouldn’t to such young people, he said, they were full of success, had never really known “honest-to-God failure...” “..what can you know of a dark world which only makes sense if Christ is raised?"
Duke goes on... “There are questions that ought not to be asked except by those who are famished for an answer.” Clearly, this does not include the Sadducees. They already know the answer...
That is the take the Dr. PayNoToll took in ‘01 preaching on this text. Using the VBS song “I Just Wanna Be a Sheep” and the line “I don’t want to be a Sadducee, because they’re so sad you see.” PNT rolls off of the insight that the Sadducees live in a closed world.

And now we see the sadness of the Sadducees. They can’t imagine that there is anything beyond what they can imagine. If they can’t grasp it, it can’t exist. If they can’t explain it, it can’t be. They can only think of what they know, and they have nothing on which to base their hopes and dreams except their own puny minds and their own tiny worlds.

I wish I had more to offer of my own insights. Can’t top this from PNT
(shared with you without PNT’s permission)

What’s sad about this is that it shuts out anything new. It shuts out anything beyond my own already made up mind. It shuts out anything beyond my own already certain opinion. “Don’t confuse me with the facts” we sometimes say in jest. But it is awfully easy for our own worlds to become as closed and as sad as we see here. We have our own opinions about what happens when we die, or how God works, or what the Bible says. They may be strongly held convictions. We may not seem capable of perceiving any other way. We can lock ourselves into one idea and never grow beyond it.
Don’t be so sad, says Jesus in effect. The God we think we know in our own small way is always more than we can imagine. And that’s the good news, not the bad. Do we see no reason for hope? Our lack of seeing doesn’t mean God has no ideas. Do we seem to have reached a dead end? That doesn’t mean that God can’t bring a new beginning. Do we think we are stuck in something forever? Do we think we know what God can and cannot do? Have we got God’s ways figured out? Guess again.

PNT - OF COURSE - then goes through how we killed Jesus...
then works toward this

That’s when God’s big surprise hit home. Not only is there a resurrection, but Jesus becomes a living case in point. He is the resurrected one. Beyond the tomb, he lives. Beyond the small opinions of the Sadducees, he lives. Beyond our sin and deadly ways, he lives. Beyond the expectations of the world that put him down, he lives. Beyond our understanding, he lives.
This promise is our hope, and we cling to it in Christ beyond any of our opinions and convictions. We don’t get it. We can’t explain it. We can’t diagram how it all will happen. How could we ever grasp what words can’t even express, what ideas and images can only point to and hint at? But we are invited to leave behind our old ‘not imagining that there could be anything beyond what we can imagine’. We are invited, in Christ, to embrace something new. It is this awkward new position that we only know that we do not know. But that’s a blessing, not a problem, the promise not the curse. Because God works beyond our knowing and gives life beyond our grasping.

Finally - he uses the line from Borning Cry “Just one more surprise.”
I may just preach this sermon. All I’ll have to do is take the sermon, muck it up with some of my own junk, make it a lot less good, and then only some people will suspect I stole it.
I've looked at this as an excellent way to proclaim the Word. What about "hearing" this Word?
Am I too certain of my answers? Am I too closed to that person who accosts me, "Pastor I have a question?" Might God the Holy Spirit speak through them of the hopes and needs of those I serve? When this God beyond our grasping, God outside our understanding is unleashed, there is no telling what might happen.