Anticipation
Matthew 24:36-44
December 2, 2007
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Rev. Sandy Messick

• What if Jesus came back with tattoos? I’ll let you ponder that for a moment.
• Today marks the beginning of Advent – the season of anticipation and expectation.
• It’s kind of an odd paradox isn’t it? Advent is the season of looking forward to that which has already happened: looking forward to the birth of a child who was born some 2000 years ago in a cave in Bethlehem.
• But Advent is also the looking forward to the second coming; the time when the Son of Man will come in his glory; when God’s vision for this world will be realized; when swords are beaten into plowshares, and spears are turned into pruning hooks, and people won’t learn war any more.
• Advent, more than any other season of the Christian church year recognizes that we live in the in-between times. We live between the already and the not yet.
• We in the mainline churches aren’t always sure what to do with Advent.
• Scripture passages like this one make us downright uncomfortable. We don’t talk a lot about the second coming of Christ. We don’t use words like “rapture” or “left behind.” Frankly, we’re confused and more than a bit troubled by images like two women working and one is taken and one is left. We don’t preach fear about “what if Jesus comes today and you’re not ready.” I saw a bumper sticker the other day: Jesus is coming. Look busy.
• We don’t spend much time studying numerology or trying to equate world events to biblical prophecies in order to arrive at the exact date when the world will end, or Jesus will come, or God’s kingdom will be fulfilled. And let’s be honest, we raise our eyebrows and shake our heads when we read about groups like the one in Russia who have moved into a cave because they expect the end of the world to happen anytime.
• And yet, we’re not completely without hope. We do spend time imagining what life in the fullness of time will be. We do draw great hope from images like the one from Isaiah when the end of war is a reality, when peace prevails, when all of God’s creation will live in harmony with each other.
• So as much as we’re uncomfortable with the whole second coming language, Advent does have a message for us. Because we do live in between the already and the not yet. Because we do long for, and pray for, and work for the day when the not yet becomes the already and God’s will is truly done on earth as it is in heaven.
• Advent means expectation, and anticipation, and hope….and preparation.
• Preparation because we don’t know when that day will come.
• Jesus said that even he didn’t know, not the Son, nor the angels, but only the Father in Heaven. That’s made church folk downright uncomfortable over the years. So much so that some translations of ancient scriptures take out the part about the Son not knowing. Still, it appears that Jesus admitted, he didn’t know.
• Clearly, some thought it would be sooner rather than later. Matthew told his readers that some of them would not pass away before the kingdom had come. And Paul clearly believed that the parousia, the end of time, would happen tomorrow, or next week, next month at the latest, so people didn’t need to bother with getting married or having children.
• Biblical literalists have done some creative mental gymnastics in order to reconcile these seemingly immediate predictions with the fact that we’re now 2000 years after the fact, but for me, and I suspect most of you, I’m satisfied with Jesus’ assertion that no one knows when.
• So the message for Advent becomes: watch. Keep ready. Anticipate. Expect.
• Now I suppose it’s possible that Christ has already come again. After all, how many people missed him the first time around? Only a few shepherds and a couple of Magi recognized that baby in Bethlehem as having anything to do with the Messiah. So, what if Jesus has already returned and is even now in our midst? What if Jesus is even now standing ready to usher in God’s vision for the world? Would we recognize him? Would we have eyes to see?
• Have you ever noticed that when you’re thinking about something you notice it more often?
• When you’re thinking about buying a new car and you’re looking at a specific make or model. Suddenly everywhere you look, there goes that car.
• Or when you’re thinking maybe you want a new cell phone for Christmas. Suddenly everyone has a cell phone, and you’re so much more aware of what kind they have and what it looks like and how it sounds.
• I remember having a friend who was desperately trying to get pregnant. She lamented the fact that from the time she realized getting pregnant wouldn’t be easy, suddenly everywhere she looked there were pregnant women and newborn babies.
• And it’s not that there really are suddenly more cars, or cell phones, or pregnant women, it’s just that suddenly we start to notice it. Our eyes are open to it. Our senses are on alert.
• Maybe this Advent, we need to stop looking ahead to the time when God’s kingdom will come. Maybe instead we need to start looking around to see where God’s kingdom is coming. Maybe we need to start looking around for the Christ who is already in our midst. What would happen if this Advent we expected to see Jesus in the faces of those we meet?
• In the face of the homeless man with the tattoos and the weary face beaten down by the cold and the ravages of life. Could we see Jesus in him?
• In the child who rushes to greet us and thrusts into our hands the half-eaten candy cane: a gift for you. Could we see Jesus in her?
• In the mother weeping and wailing because her child has been killed in Iraq. Could we see Jesus in her? And would it matter if her child was an American soldier, or an Iraqi civilian?
• What if this Advent, we expected to see Jesus in our midst, and so treated each person as the possible Messiah.
• After all, Jesus said where 2 or 3 are gathered, there I am in the midst of them.
• After all, Jesus said when you feed or clothe or visit the least of these, you are feeding and clothing and visiting me.
• And if we treated each person as the Christ in our midst, wouldn’t that expectation lead us closer to God’s vision of the day when IEDs were transformed into plowshares, and AK47s were transformed into pruning hooks.
• What if the surprise of Advent isn’t that Christ will return like a thief in the night? What if the surprise of Advent is that Christ is already here and he’s been here all along, working in us, working through us, waiting to be noticed?
• It’s Advent. Watch. Keep ready. Look around. May God give us eyes that expect to see. Amen.