Isaiah 2: 1-5
Burl Ives rings through the mall, the sweet smell of cinnamon and gingerbread wafts from the Yankee candles lit with anticipation, and we think ahead of where we will eat ham and turkey and with whom…ahhh the Christmas ethos surrounding us and pulling us. It is my favorite time of year and my eyes seem to well up just at the thought of the holidays. I am one of those cheesy Christmas people; I began to play my Christmas records before Halloween even arrived. I love seeing Charlie Brown’s Christmas special multiple times, I love watching a Christmas story and I laugh every time when the kid gets his tongue stuck on the flag pole. I love writing my Christmas letter and going over in my mind all of the wonderful things that I experienced this past year. I love this time of year. It is so full; it almost feels like my heart beats with a smile. So if you are anything like me you might feel a bit irritated at our gospel scripture for today. I am ready for angels and trumpets. I want gentle and tender, the stuff of Christmas legends. But as we begin Advent and a new Christian year today, our Holy Scripture has something different in mind for us. So if you were expecting warm and fuzzy, I will pause for a moment so you can reorient yourself. Advent begins with an edge. Our Gospel reading tells us, “Keep awake therefore, for you do know on what day your Lord is coming.” And such words do not conjure up images of is a tone Santa suits and twinkling lights. It goes on, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” And before Matthew we heard from the prophet Isaiah that one who will judge us is coming and this one who is coming will bring peace. Instead of joyous praise, we read more of words of warning…beware…if you are not one who is walking in the light of the Lord. It feels a bit out of place, a bit backwards perhaps. Our year begins in anticipation for what is not yet, waiting for a prince of peace, waiting for God’s light to break in.
But the tone of the text brings us to the time in which Jesus was born. He was born a subject of the Roman Empire, an anxious and difficult time that was full of anxiety, full of waiting and full of unknowns. Our scripture has a bit of an edge. Matthew says, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
The Son of Man is coming. That is the truth that the gospel writers give to us on this first Sunday in Advent. The Son of Man is coming. It is a bit unusual, although the phrase is not unique to the New Testament. In fact “Son of Man” appears multiple times throughout the Old Testament. We find it first in Numbers, “God is not a man (???: ['iysh]), that he should lie, Nor a son of man (??–???: [ben-'adam]), that he should repent: Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good? (Numbers 23:19) The Hebrew word for man here is the same word used for Adam. It refers to all humanity, to the span of human creation, son of man is a connector, a universal, a connective tissue of humankind. So when we encounter “Son of Man” in the New Testament, it jars a bit. We are told that when the Son of Man comes, some will be left in the fields and others will be left grinding meal. And all of this is pointing us to the point of the text: we must stay awake and pay attention because the Son of Man is coming.
It feels odd to read this on the first Sunday in Advent. But this is a significant day for us and to the gospel writers this scripture was really important. So much so, that we see it three times. We find a similar formulation in all three Synoptic Gospels. In the Gospel of Mark we read, ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come… keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” And in the Gospel of Luke we read, “34“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, 35like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Stay awake, pay attention, the Son of Man is coming. This point is so important that we hear it three times. The Gospel writers tell us more about the Son of Man coming, that they do about the birth of Jesus. You might be surprised to learn that it is only in Matthew and Luke. We only read of Jesus’ birth in two gospels, but in all three Synoptic accounts, we read that we must keep alert for the Son of Man is coming!
And why is that? Why would the writers spend so much time telling us to keep awake for God’s in-breaking? Maybe they wanted to keep the early Christians focused by keeping them ever-watchful. Maybe they wanted to remind those who were not following Jesus that there was something distinct and life-changing about Christ. But many have argued that the gospel writers were writing about those to whom God’s grace would not apply. It seems to me that human beings often find ways to draw lines around who is in and who is out, who is worthy and who is not. And many Christians have used this text to do just that. Many have used this text to draw lines around God’s love and welcome. Given its time spent on the New York Times best seller’s list, you have probably heard of the Left Behind series of books. The premise behind these books is that “At the end, Jesus will come on the clouds of heaven and the righteous will be raptured, that is caught up in the air to be with Christ. They will be separated from sinners who will remain on Earth to endure a period of great suffering, (which is called the tribulation).” After this Jesus will rule on the earth for 1,000 years and will then come in judgment and will begin the new heavens and new earth. This rapture, or the taking up of the elect into heaven, is supposed to mark the first event of the end of the world. And while this is supposed to be Good News, it is only good for the select few.
The word rapture does not appear at all in our Holy Bible. But the concept of rapture, as popularized in the Left Behind series seems to have been invented by a British religious leader, John Nelson Darby, who was ordained in the Church of Ireland and spent his life working to convert Catholics in the nineteenth century. Around 1830, he began preaching that Jesus’ return would be preceded by the “rapture of saints.” The Plymouth Brethren, whom he joined after leaving the Church of Ireland, rejected his ideas as unbiblical, but as he distanced himself and traveled extensively, his ideas caught on. The concept of rapture entered vast public discourse with the publication in 1909 of the Scoffield reference Bible.
But if these texts were really about leaving people behind, about Jesus welcoming just a few, why would we be reading them in Advent? For much of Jesus’ life was dedicated to tending to those left behind. “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” I wonder if the whole point is exactly the opposite of leaving people behind. Advent is a season of hope, a season where we dare to hope for what the world tells us is impossible. Our Holy Scripture has a bit of an edge and it seems that our scripture asks us to keep awake and stay alert so we look for God in everyone. It is commanding us to be wildly open to God. Those who waited for the Messiah nearly missed him. They were looking for royalty, looking for him in the palaces and on the mountaintops and they nearly missed him. We are invited to keep awake and alert so we don’t assume the form in which God comes to us. In the uncertainty of waiting, we are invited to see the world with bold eyes that look for Christ. As Thomas Merton writes, "What is uncertain is not the “coming” of Christ but our own reception of him, our own response to him, our own readiness and capacity to “go forth to meet him.” Advent is about daring to believe that God will break through to us and get to us no matter what, that God will come to us in all of creation. God comes to us in the homeless person asking for food. God comes to us in odd questions from our children. God comes to us right here in the people with whom we have chosen to bind ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ. God comes to us in a baby, in the night, in a manger with little pomp and circumstance. Therefore we must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming and he just might come in us. Amen.
Michael Guinan, O.F.M. “Catholics: Raptured or Not?” St. Anthony Messenger 112/6 November 2004, 38-42.
By Charles Henderson http://www.godweb.org/leftbehind.htm