The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Amen.

 

Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37  “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38  For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.  40  Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.  41  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.  42  Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.  43  But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.  44  For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”

 

          Even though this is the first day of the church new year, the First Sunday in Advent the assigned Gospel lesson continues on with the  themes of the last three of Sundays of last year — the coming of the Christ.

          The first six months of the church calendar has as its primary focus, the person and redeeming of Christ.  Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany are about the coming and arrival of the promised Messiah to Jew and Gentile alike.

          Lent sends us to Christ’s suffering and death.  Easter celebrates Jesus’s resurrection.  The second six months of the church calendar has as its primary focus the teachings and mission of the Christian church and the life of the Christian in this world.

          For example in the Gospel lesson from two Sundays ago, Jesus taught us to recognize the signs in nature that this old sinful world is going to pass away and the new will come.  The message this morning is that the Son of Man could return at any moment. 36-37 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.”  

          Jesus refers to Himself as the “Son of Man.”  Son of Man is a Messianic eschatological title.  It’s a way of speaking about Jesus coming in His glorified flesh to judge the living and the dead.  The title comes from Daniel 7:13, “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.”

          This morning’s lesson is in response to a question from the disciples about when the end of times will come. “Tell us, [they asked] when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 

          First Jesus tells them that no one knows the day or the hour.  The angels don’t know yet.  In His state of humility, standing there at the time with His disciples, Jesus didn’t not yet know.  That has changed.  Now in His glory in heaven in His state exaltation Jesus knows the day and the hour for all things have been placed under His feet. 

          As for what the world will be like when the day and hour comes, it will be business as usual.  37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38  For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39  and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”

          The people in Noah’s day didn’t know that they were about to be wiped from the face of the face earth.  They didn’t know that the entire planet was about to undergo a violent change.  When it started to rain, they thought it was just raining. They had dismissed all that Noah had been saying and doing for decades.

          People were eating, drinking, and getting married. They were doing what people do as they go about their daily business.  So also when Christ comes again. There will be nothing special or different in the days preceding the coming of the Christ.  As a matter of fact, Jesus’s second coming will take place under the same kind of conditions that accompanied His first advent.

          The people in Bethlehem and Nazareth did not know that the Son of God had been conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and did not know that He was about to be born in Bethlehem.  People were doing what they were suppose to be doing.  Some stayed in their own town or village and worked for their daily bread. Others were moving about so they get to their hometown to be counted in the census to be taxed by Caesar Augustus.

          When people know when something is going to happen, thinking people usually prepare for it.  Now I admit there are people who seem repeatedly surprised when winter shows up about this time of year.  We know people who always seem to be caught off guard when the scheduled events take place at the time they are suppose to take place, but as most people plan accordingly when they know something is scheduled to happen.

          December 25th, Christmas day is coming.  Almost everyone is preparing for Christmas.  People have or are making travel plans. They are decorating, shopping, cooking, buying, selling, adjusting schedules, getting ready for the school break, and a few are even attending additional church services, all because Christmas is coming.

          We know the celebration of Christmas is coming because the first Christmas came.  We live in the pre-advent side of history in regard to Christ’s second coming.  We have the promise from Jesus He is coming back to judge the living and the dead and to usher in the new heaven and new earth.  We don’t know the hour so we go about our lives as children of our heavenly father. We work to provide for our families. We serve the church and our neighbors. This is business as usual for the Christian.

          In Genesis six, God looked at what human beings had become and said, (Genesis 6:7-8) “I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”  And what did this favor bring Noah?  Noah spent 80 years doing two things.  Noah preached the Word and built the ark, preached the Word and built the ark, all while they went about eating and drinking, and being married.

          While Noah went about his business as a man of faith, the world enjoyed itself in unbelief.  It had no sense of impending doom.  They didn’t believe it and with the passing of each year, I suspect the people became less and less interested in what Noah said and more and more cynical that God would wipe them from the face of the earth. Sounds rather contemporary. This is how it will be just before the moment when Jesus comes a second time.

          “There shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.”

          Many read this passage and see in it proof for the doctrine of a rapture. The idea of the “rapture,” or a sudden snatching of Christians up into the air, was invented in the 1830s by British preacher John Nelson Darby. Darby took the traditional biblical understanding of Jesus’s second coming and divided it into two parts: first the so-called “rapture,” when he said Jesus would hover above the earth and snatch born-again Christians up to heaven for seven years.  Second according to Darby, after the rapture God would inflict seven years of tribulation upon the earth while Christians watch from heaven. Since then all kinds of variations have been manufactured, but the idea is the same.

          But the doctrine of a rapture cannot be supported from the context of this passage, the Greek, or reconciled with what the Bible actually teaches.  In this context Jesus is comparing His second advent to the flood in Noah’s day.  In this context Jesus’s statements on the flood and the description of “being taken” or “being left” go together.

          What happened in the flood?  The flood came and took away all the unbelievers; only those on the ark were left behind.  In the case of the flood, the saints are left and the sinners are taken away. 

          Likewise, when the Lord returns to judge the living and the dead, it will be sudden and unexpected.  Two men will be in the field: one will be taken away (to judgment), and the other left behind (committed to God’s care).  Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken away (to judgment), and the other left behind (to God’s eternal care). 

          Add too the context the Greek word, aphiaymi, which is translated ‘left’ is also the same Greek word use for “forgiven.”  Maybe it’s just a coincidence that the same word for “forgiven” is the same word for “left.”  In the example of Noah and the flood, the ones who were forgiven were left and the ones who remained with their sins were swept away.

          At the time of Noah only eight were righteous, only eight were saved, only eight were left.  Every single other soul was washed away in the flood in judgment. The eight were saved because they were considered righteous in God’s sight because God had given a promise and they were children of that promise, a promise they believed.  So too are you.

          God the Father made you a child of the promise as well.  He has washed your old sinful nature away and made you holy in His eyes. 1 Peter 3:20-21 “The patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

          What St. Peter does here is employ an antitype.  Noah and the flood is an antitype to Holy Baptism. As the flood came and destroyed/took away/washed away the wicked and saved the righteous, so Baptism drowns your old sinful nature and saves the new you, the new nature created in the image of God.

          Some 2,000+ years ago, on an ordinary day in an ordinary town, in Judah named Bethlehem an extra-ordinary infant, the Christ Child was born.  There was nothing exceptional about Bethlehem or the time.  Except this . . . God had promised that when the time was fulfilled, when it suited His purpose, He would send His Son to be born of the Virgin in the City of David.

          As for the people, well the people were engaged in ordinary business, registering to pay taxes, traveling, eating, and drinking. Inn keepers were doing a booming business.  It was such an ordinary day it could have gone completely unnoticed if not for the fact that God the Father sent angels to announce Christ’s birth to lowly shepherds. He also set a star in the sky as a sign to wise men in the East that the King of the Jews had been born.

          Jesus came into the world on an ordinary day.  He departed the same way.  On Friday, the day before Passover, the last day of the work week.  Some took notice in Jerusalem of what was taking place. But a very many did not, nor did the rest of the world.  Under Roman rule crucifixions were common. 

          There were no great headlines, “Messiah Crucified!” Heralds were not sent out into the world to announce the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.  Good Friday, by the world’s standards was just a ordinary day. So also Christmas day.

          As we begin this Advent season and prepare for Christmas, we are preparing to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, our Lord and Savior.  But that Child is all grown up and He will come again on an ordinary day, while people are eating, drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage.  On that Day, all sin and evil will be swept away and only you, the forgiven will be left.

 

AMEN

May the Peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Business As Usual

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