Matthew 24:36-44
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Often, when I’m reading the prophetic writings of Isaiah, Paul and even Jesus’ own words, I think that we may have things all wrong. We focus exclusively upon that one great and horrible day, Armageddon, on which great destruction will take place in our world, when evil will be vanquished by the Lord, and when the followers of evil will suffer for their deeds and the righteous, of which we are all a part, of course, will be gathered to safety, or enlisted to help in the battle to fight side by side with Jesus and his angels, to bring about the Lord’s victory. By looking only to the end of time and this one great and horrific event we may be missing a point of ultimate importance. We may be overlooking what is going on all around us today; I fear we are not considering our place in the work of the Lord going on right now; I worry that we are not taking advantage of the opportunities we have already been given to share the love of Jesus and that we are not realistically considering that the end of time comes to all of us, whether or not God is ready to put an end to the world and to life as we know it.
I can’t help but to think of those we have lost in this life, many of them with almost no warning.
Over my 40 plus years in the ministry, I’ve officiated over the funerals of more people than I want to calculate (certainly more than a thousand), many of these people were strangers to me, but the greatest majority were faithful Christians, of which I was well acquainted, who I cared about and respected. A large number of them looked at their impending death with concern, sometimes fear, seeing the end of the world in their own deaths and expecting God’s judgment, while a significantly large number who looked upon the same end, welcomed their opportunity to stand before the Lord, confident that they had, at least, tried to live faithful lives, trusting in Jesus’ love, his forgiveness and his promise. I can still see many of the faces of those that I visited just before they died and left to be with the Lord. Some expressed simply their readiness, some expressed questions of doubt, some believed but feared what was to come, some of them were terrified of death, many were sad knowing that they were leaving behind those they loved and some were excited to experience the fulfillment of Jesus’ promises. Few of them wanted to die, though some had such pain, I could understand it that they had. But, with faith, they, so many of them were ready; they were able to face their doubts, they trusted in the love of Jesus; they were confident that they had fought the good fight, in the battle against evil, here and now, the battle against Jesus’ enemies.
I’d like to suggest that, while there will be an end, when Jesus will defeat all that is evil, we are each of us, in our own ways even now, involved in the battles against those who try to rest the world away from Jesus, from faith and love. The war between God and evil has been going on for two thousand years, plus, and continues around us, and will not end until the day that God has set. We as Christians are certainly warriors in this war against evil and if not active warriors’ then supporters of other warriors involved in the battle. I’m currently reading a book that tells the story of some who lived through the revolutionary war here in North America; the author makes it very clear that while most of the battles took place on fields away from towns and cities, the war was present in every town, city and territory located within the thirteen colonies and even in the adjacent wilderness; there was no escaping the consequences of the war; families suffered from a lack of food and other supplies, they suffered from the loss of loved ones, from the contempt of neighbors who supported the other side, from occupying armies and from raids from enemy forces.
Like it is in any war, the forces of evil never respect anyone as uninvolved or innocent. And so, evil attempts to work its evil in all of our lives, ever working to corrupt us and enlist us in the battle on its side, trying to turn us away from the love and promise of Jesus and making us suffer from the attitudes and acts of those who joined on the side of evil. It may in fact be that we should be less concerned with the end of the world, and more concerned with what is going on here and now and whether we will be ready to face the end of our own lives.
Advent is a season for preparation, for preparing for the coming of our Lord. As we begin this Advent season it may be appropriate to ask if you, if all of us, are prepared to meet the Lord, considering that for many of us that means being prepared to die. Jesus spoke about thieves coming in the night and how the Son of Man will come much as the flood came in the time of Noah, without warning. Jesus spoke like this, not to instill in us fear but to encourage our readiness. There has been a long tradition among the faithful of God that prophets sent by God, have come to us to announce God’s judgment and promise. Those in the past who were ready, who stood with the Lord, who obeyed God’s Law, who lived by faith, never had reason for fear. Be ready, but fear not, for the Lord has prepared a place for us in Jesus’ kingdom where suffering will no longer be able to touch us and the battle against evil will not be able to find us. Rejoice in knowing that the victory over evil has already been decided, that in the end we will enjoy the great banquet of our Lord, that a place has been prepared for us in Jesus’ kingdom and that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Prepare and ready yourselves, we do not know the time or place.