A worship video of this sermon is available here.
In case you’re wondering if you’re having deja vu, yes, this is, indeed, our fourth apocalyptic text in as many Sundays. Three weeks ago there were quite a few similarities in the “punch line” of keep awake, when we heard the story from Matthew of the ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom who was delayed. Then in the next two weeks there were parables – one of the talents that offered a vision of the kindom of God where the conventional economic system is turned upside down, and another of the sheep and the goats where the needs of the “least of these” are centered. These stories may not feel like “apocalypse,” but they are depictions of how we are called to live when we know that there is going to be a great reckoning and setting things right, but it hasn’t happened to completion just yet.
And now here on the fourth Sunday in a row, the first Sunday of a new Christian year, the first Sunday of Advent, the season of waiting for this coming of Christ, we have another description of what some call “the end times.” For us Presbyterians, who tend to be known for our orderliness, this is an awful lot of talk about the chaos of the unknown and unpredictable. And yet, one of the commentaries I read a few weeks ago when thinking about the Matthew passage said “The expectation of Christ’s return is central to Christian living.”¹
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For Some Reason 