Unexpected Promise

Matthew 24:36-44

This week the Christmas music began on the radio station I listen to at night as
I fall asleep.  Just as I was thinking that they could have held off a few more
days with the Christmas music, at least until after Thanksgiving, inspiration
struck.  The song “Christmas Shoes” came on.  Maybe you have heard the song,
read the book, or seen the movie that is based on this song.  The chorus goes
like this:

“Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight.”

In essence this song is about a little boy that is preparing for his mother
to die at an unexpected hour.

            A lot of unexpected things happen in our lives.  The traffic can
make us unexpectedly late for a child’s school event.  There can be unexpected
delays on the Metro, quite often on the red line, which make us late for work.
There can be increased airport security that can make us unexpectedly late for a
flight.  Now these sorts of unexpected things can make us very upset, but
chances are they really are not that big of a deal in the larger scheme of life.

The other unexpected thing that happens to many of us is the sudden death of a loved one. I saw this happen to several families while I was doing my summer unit of chaplaincy at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. The unexpected situation that I encountered one night was a 17-year-old patient who had recently undergone open-heart surgery at another hospital. While he was in that hospital he developed MRSA, which is an antibiotic resistant staph infection. As his condition continued to worsen the family decided to have him transferred to Mayo for a second opinion. I met the patient and his family at 11pm on a Thursday night. He was awake and alert. He was asking many questions of the medical staff. Throughout the night his condition worsened and at 4am I was called to come back to be with his parents. They were a Roman Catholic family with deep faith. They had seven children and had lost a set of twins at birth. The patient was the third oldest of his siblings. He was an athlete and was going to be a senior in high school. As his parents and I walked the hallway together praying the rosary I kept thinking about the life of this teenage boy. He was sick. He was suffering. His once normal earthly life had gone awry. Then he died on Saturday afternoon after several surgeries on his heart and a few episodes of cardiac arrest. His family was heartbroken. They had faced an unexpected hour.

In today’s Gospel text we hear an unexpected promise. We are told that no one knows when the Son of Man is coming and we are not talking about December 25^th. While December 25^th is the day we remember and celebrate Christ’s first coming into the world, the Gospel today teaches us that no one knows when the Son of Man is coming again. We only know that he is coming again, just as He promised He would. Yet, we are instructed that we must be ready, for Christ will come at an unexpected hour. We’re to "be awake" - not just for what is to come, but to be in continuous preparedness for what is already taking place in our midst. Each day should be lived in the promise of the Lord's nearness, because Christ is indeed near us all the time.

Our text today tells us that Jesus’ coming will be as unexpected as the flood, which caught a careless and unprepared generation off guard. Before Noah entered the ark, the people were eating and drinking. They were getting married and attending weddings. Of course there is nothing wrong with eating and drinking or even with having weddings. But we must always remember that there is something more important than feasts and weddings, the Son of Man could come. God often shows up without an appointment. God arrives unexpectedly. What would we say if God showed up unexpectedly? "Go away, I'm busy getting this meal ready. We've got guests coming tonight." “Don't bother me now; it's my wedding day. I've got a million details to take care of." We are called through this text to open our eyes, and recognize that God is coming to us in the eating and drinking and in the joys of weddings.

What if the Son of Man comes while you are working – while you are in the field or grinding meal. Work is important, but there is something more important than your work, the Son of Man could come. God often shows up without an appointment. God arrives unexpectedly. What would we say if we were busy at work when God showed up? "Don't bother me now, I've got work to do. Come back during my break, then we can visit. Make an appointment with my secretary." We are called to open our eyes, even when we are at work, and recognize that God is in our midst.

We don't know when a thief might break into our house, so we prepare for him at all times. We lock our doors and windows. We invest in home security systems. We leave a light on when we’re gone. We insure our possessions. We have our eyes open and awake at all times, looking for things that may be awry or out of place or suspicious. We do things now because a thief could come at some unknown time. He surely won't make an appointment.

I remember a skit that we used to do when I worked at Bible camp. It was called “Jesus is coming to dinner.” A visitor comes and knocks on the host’s door and asks for food. The host turns the visitor away without any food, explaining that she is too busy preparing for an important guest to arrive to bother with this unexpected visitor. Another visitor comes and knocks on the host’s door and asks to use the bathroom. The host says “no, I am too busy preparing for Jesus to come to dinner” and shuts the door. The next visitor to knock on the door asks to use the phone. But the host again closes the door providing no help to the visitor. The host was too busy preparing for Jesus to come to dinner, to assist the visitors with their needs. Lo and behold, Jesus never comes, or at least Jesus doesn’t come in the form that the host was expecting. Actually, it had been Jesus that had come asking for food, a bathroom, and to use the phone. Jesus had come, but the host was too busy preparing for Jesus’ arrival to even take time to extend hospitality to the one at the door. The host’s eyes weren’t open; her senses weren’t awake to Christ-incarnate, showing up, unexpectedly, three times.

Barbara Brown Taylor says this, "Every morning when you wake up, decide to live the life God has given you to live right now. Refuse to live yesterday over and over again. Resist the temptation to save your best self for tomorrow. Live a caught-up life, not a put-off life, so that wherever you are….you are ready for God.”

This Advent season we are preparing for Christmas and the coming of Jesus as a small baby in a manger in Bethlehem. We are trimming our trees, putting lights on our houses, making Christmas goodies, wrapping presents, and sending cards to our friends and families. Yet, there is something more important than all of this, the Son of Man is coming in the midst of it all, in little and big ways. The reality is that God always shows up. God is always there, but God is not always announced, nor does God make an appointment.

I encourage us, this Advent season, to prepare for Christ in the here and now. I encourage us to care for the poor in our community. I encourage us to find time for prayer in our busy lives. I encourage us to spend time in community with other people. I encourage us to think about our “presence” and not just about the “presents” under the tree. In and through these activities, Christ is coming to us. God is showing up, even when we least expect it.

This Advent season, we are called to prepare for the second coming of Christ – not just the babe born in Bethlehem. We are called to be ready for this unexpected promise. We are called to stay awake for the unexpected hour. We are called to purchase those Christmas Shoes, because while we cannot be sure of the day or the hour when we will meet Jesus at his second coming, we can be certain that He is in our midst always, often unannounced and unexpected. Amen.