Romans 13.11-14, Matthew 24.36-44
Advent Sunday, 1 December 2019: Eldroth, Keasden
Advent Sunday, 27 November 2022: Austwick
It may trouble us a bit that Advent gets lost in the clamour leading up to our Christmas: it's during Advent itself that most of our Christmas celebrations take place these days. By Christmas Day it's mostly all over: those carol concerts, and nativities, and parties and so on. So Advent, which we imagine used to be a time of fasting, is now more like a time of feasting.
The reality, the historians tell us, is that people have always gone overboard in Advent, shopping for excessive amounts of food, and all sorts of other things towards the celebrations: and this over-the-topness has its good side, because it expresses an important part of Christmas - the chance to be generous towards others. [1]
So, over many centuries the message about Advent has had these two aspects to it: that we shouldn't get carried away - but we should prepare to be generous.
Don’t get carried away - as Paul says, writing to the Romans: ‘live honourably’, he says, ‘not in revelling and drunkenness… quarrelling or jealousy’.
And prepare to be generous - as Paul says, ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ’, in other words, let his character fill our own, his love, his grace, his generosity of spirit, particularly towards life’s lost ones, society’s little ones.
The readings for Advent tell us that Advent is a time for preparing for the coming Christ. The last two weeks of Advent look forward to the coming of the baby Jesus; the first two weeks of Advent are about the second coming of Christ as the judge of the world.
Don't get carried away might sum up the gospel reading which we've heard. No one knows the hour when the Son of Man will come, says Jesus, the angels of heaven don't know, the Son himself doesn't know, but only the Father. Keep awake then, for you don’t know when your Lord is coming.
Now a series of books called Left Behind, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have sold millions in recent years [2], and their popularity is due to the way they interpret these verses in Matthew. The two in the field: one taken and one left behind - the way they see that, it is the godly people, the righteous, who are taken away and the ungodly, the corrupt, who are left behind. If you hear anyone mention 'the Rapture' this is what they are talking about. The message of the Rapture is, 'don't get left behind’; or if you like, ‘do get carried away’. Get yourself carried away from this awful earth and its fallen people.
But I want to suggest that the real meaning of Advent is don't get carried away. Or, if you like, do get left behind. And I say that because Jesus himself didn't get carried away. He got left behind.
The Christmas story tells us that Jesus got left behind on earth, the Son of God translated into the body of a vulnerable little child; so that God could be one of us and as he grew up, could live among us, live like we live, and in that way could introduce the kingdom of God as a meaningful force for good with us here on earth.
Then the Easter story tells us that Jesus got left behind on the cross, the Son of God allowing himself to be the most vulnerable of all, the victim of all the world’s violence. No Rapture saved him from the cross, he didn’t escape its pain; but through all that came the Resurrection which meant he had established God's Kingdom, that Kingdom of love and grace, here on earth. [3]
We can reflect that at Advent we are baptised into the death and resurrection of Christ. And just as Jesus didn't get carried away, but came to earth and stayed on earth to live out the way of the kingdom, so he invites us to live each Advent day in the light of his love. And just as Jesus was generous in his life and death and resurrection, so he longs to help us to spend Advent preparing to be generous, towards others, towards God, even towards ourselves.
Because Jesus did get left behind one earth we understand that he knows about the things we know about, in our everyday lives, that he cares about the things we care about. We know that he's with us in all of them. He did, of course, get carried away eventually to heaven, with the promise of his Holy Spirit to help us be his eyes and ears, his hands and feet, on earth until he comes again.
And this means that we can carry on preparing, carry on shopping, and carry on working in good faith, knowing that Jesus is with us here, encouraging us to walk in his light, telling us gently: you needn't be anxious, you needn't get caught up in the madness and competitiveness of the season. Living in the light of his love and the peace that comes from his grace towards you, quite simply this Advent don't get carried away, but prepare to be generous.
Notes
A rewrite of Isaiah 2 / Matthew 24 - Don't get carried away; prepare to be generous, preached at the Good Shepherd , Liverpool, Advent Sunday 2007. For a fuller treatment of Left Behind / Rapture theology see also Left behind with Jesus, Waterloo United Free Church, Advent Sunday 2013.
[1] Ronald Hutton, Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain; Michael Perham, Celebrate the Christian Story: An Introduction to the New Lectionary and Calendar.
[2] Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind.
[3] Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Lectionary. Reflections: Proper 10C.
Comments