Jesus Is Coming, Look Busy! (Matt 13.24-37)

 Stay alert, control the virus, protect the NHS.

I don’t know about you but I’ve never felt more anxious in my life. At the moment we’re encouraged to be vigilant, to be alert, otherwise we might spread Corona Virus.

Wash your hands, make space, and for the love of God don’t you DARE touch your face.

I think all of us are under pressure to be vigilant right now. For the sake of our own safety, and the safety of others around us. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future.

So perhaps this passage is very right for us to think about right now. Jesus is telling us be alert. To be prepared. Because the end is going to come, we can’t predict when, but it will. And Why, why do we need to keep vigilant?

Back in the old days Advent wasn’t just about preparing for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, it is also about four things. Heaven, hell, judgement and death. Not very Christmassy eh?

But Advent was never supposed to be Christmassy. It’s a purple season, like Lent. A time of reflection and self-examination where we get stuck into these really meaty theological subjects (along with our figgy pudding). Like it or not Heaven, hell, judgement, death, they’re all huge parts of our faith.

This time of year we think about the Eschaton. Which brings me to my favourite word in theological studies, and the only one I know the meaning of.

The end times, and the study of it is called ‘Eschatology.’ What happens at the end? How do we know? Is it something to be worried about?  What on earth is Jesus talking about? Who am I? Where did I put my car keys? Maybe those last two are just for me.

In the words of Jonesy ‘Don’t panic!’ Let’s explore.

Our passage today starts about halfway into chapter 13. Jesus has been answering the disciples questions. They’re at the temple and like first century church ramblers, though without the soggy sandwiches and flasks of tea, they remark on how amazing the temple is.

Ah, says Jesus; It isn’t going to be here forever. It’ll be destroyed.

When will this happen? They ask. As Jews this would’ve been an apocalyptic idea. The whole of their faith was based around the importance of the temple. A bit like the Victorian Society and their obsession with making sure nothing fun is ever done in church.

What Jesus highlights is the end of the present world order. But he also goes on to talk about what is and isn’t a sign of the end.

In early Christianity there were lots of people trying to predict when the end happens, or saying that certain things mean the end times are coming. Jesus speaks against this doom mongering talk. So you’re probably pleased to know that Covid is not a sign of the end times.

He lists some things. People saying they are God or The Messiah, false prophets nope, wars, nah, earthquakes, no, famines, persecution, betrayal.

None of these things are a sign of the end.

Jesus warns us that we mustn’t get too fixated and obsessed about trying to predict anything. That lots of people will claim to predict the end, and lots of stuff will happen, but it’s not the end. The end will be unmistakable!

This is where our passage kicks in. Jesus explains what the signs of the end are. The answer is Jesus himself coming back, which will be clear, and the breaking down of the universe. This bit is a mix of myth and reality. We won’t be able to mistake the signs because they are unmistakable. There will be no doubt.

Then, suddenly, the tone shifts with the lesson of the Fig Tree. The Apocalyptic description just stops. And Jesus begins to talk about how we should act in the light of the end coming.

Just like when you see leaves appearing on the trees as an unmistakable sign that summer is coming. So it will be with the end. Unmistakable.

A bit like Corona Virus, we don’t know when the end will come. What we shouldn’t do is obsess on when it will end, fill our houses with tinned food and loo rolls, and check the news every five minutes.

But we do expect that it will end at some point, and we look forward and at least try to prepare a little.

 As Jesus says ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.’

God’s purposes are God’s. We need to stay alert, keep watchful not because some kind of oblivion awaits us if we don’t, but because we should live our lives with a sense of expectancy.

An expectancy that God is real. That God is involved in creation and part of it. That God has a call on all our lives.

This passage tells us to expect the unexpected, particularly where God is concerned and to join in with it. That sometimes this isn’t going to be all rainbows and sunshine.

None of us expected Advent this year to be as it is now. With restrictions and with this pandemic hanging over us. We don’t know when it will end, but we can expect that even if we can’t be together in the way we usually are, God will turn up.

That the Christ child will still come at Christmas, that this time of anxiety will pass.

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

Whatever happens, whatever the world throws at us. Whatever utter lunacy that other people believe, such as Ipswich Town being a better football team than Norwich City.

We can be sure and certain that God is in it with us, and calls us to be vigilant and watch for His action, to be vigilant in protecting one another, and to be vigilant in joining in with His plans.

A couple of questions to think about as we end.

How can you bring your faith into your everyday life this Advent?

How can you wait and be expectant that God is with you?   

Preached Via Zoom 10:30 service 29/11/20 

St John the Baptist and St Paul's Old Lakenham and Tuckswood Norwich.