Musical Prelude and Service

Isaiah 2:1-5
Matthew 24:36–44
The Necessity for Watchfulness
‘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.’
This passage from Matthew is not one of the easier bits of scripture to read and to comprehend.
It is one of those mini apocalypses that we find in the gospels. A passage that promises a new age is
coming and what it will look like.
Apocalyptic literature was a popular genre of literature in the first century. It looked at the world
around people; named the pain and the horror and then set out the way things were to get better.
How people would be saved from their difficult lot in life. It was not seen as a horror story so much
as a beacon of hope in a terrible time.
It is speculated the Gospel of Matthew was written sometime around 70 to 80 CE. That was around a
decade or so after the Jewish uprising against Rome and the subsequent siege and destruction of
Jerusalem by the Empire. People were still living with the aftermath of the brutal reprisals that
followed. There was a lot of anxiety over what was to come next and how did this time of pain and
loss come to an end. What do we have to look forward to?
As in so many societies or communities that are oppressed; that suffer under a heavy-handed
occupation, trust and faith in your neighbour was very low. People are left with questions such as,
‘who is truly your friend?’ Who is on your side in this struggle?
Matthew writes this passage in the midst of this turmoil. Jesus is describing his return and the
creation of a new age; of a new reign of God. And also hints at the mystery of who will be there to
welcome him back.
But we do not know; we cannot know, the time or the fashion of that return. We should not even try
to anticipate it or predict the timing of such an event. We can only live our lives now in the
expectation and the hope of what will come. We are to live our lives as Jesus guides us to; knowing
this new age could come today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. And throughout this gospel,
Jesus keeps giving instructions on how we are to live. In Matthew, faith – or the commitment to
follow Jesus – is a very active endeavour. Jesus keeps providing parables and other lessons calling on
his followers to live lives of love and compassion. Lives of generosity and justice.
“As you treated the lowest of you, so you treated me.” The parable of the sheep and goats are to be
found in Matthew.
This passage from Matthew is an example of prophetic imagination found in the New Testament and
it fits nicely with Isaiah’s view of what is to come.
In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, the first of these prophets is anticipating the coming destruction of
Jerusalem as the kingdom of Judea. In this case, it is the invasion of their country by the empire of
Babylon. Isaiah essentially says this time of destruction cannot be stopped. He looks at the state of
his community and declares the kingdom unjust and cruel. He accuses the rulers and the society of
forgetting their place in God’s world.
But, he adds, God has not forgotten the people. God has not forgotten the holy covenant between
God and Israel. Isaiah offers a vision of a new world; he uses the image of a holy mountain where all
are respected, where Israel is viewed with respect and love. He suggests a world where there is no
need for the weapons of war and where people’s energy and resources are put toward growing food
and nourishing your neighbour.
Again, we are offered a vision of hope. It is a hope based on the assurance of God’s love and
continued presence; even when things seem bleak. Even when we are convinced we have drifted so
far from God’s vision for what this world can be, we are assured God has not given up. God has not
given up on the world. God has not given up on us. We cannot know the time. We can not know the
means, but God will create something new. In fact, God is already at work, planting the seeds for
that new world. That new future. All we can do is live lives of love, of kindness and compassion.
Promote the vision of a world of peace with anticipation of the day that new life breaks forth.
God opens our senses to what the world truly is. We see the world with its anger, its hatred, its fear
and its violence. We see the injustice. But we are also gifted with the vision of what the world can
be. God opens us up to see the seeds of hope that are planted all around us. And we are invited to
participate in nurturing those seeds and helping them to grow into the new life that God promises us.
To paraphrase a tweet I saw this past week, from someone simply named Matthew:
“Hope is not some ephemeral thing. It is ragged and dirty. It has scraped knees and knuckles.
She has cobblestone in her hair and spits out a tooth as she gets up and keeps going.”
Hope requires a vision of what this world might be and the commitment to keep struggling to make
that vision; God’s vision – a reality.
And for that we say, Thanks be to God.

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789