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Christmas Cheer
Matthew 24: 36 – 44 |
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Summary
Advent and Christmas Cheer Whatever Christmas cheer might have meant once upon a time, it appears to have met the same fate of the eight-track tape player. Some of us are certain we can remember it, but others have only heard of it. Christmas seems to have become, mostly, a time to complain. Christmas Trees and fake snow pop up in the stores while the ghost and goblins disappear, and we complain that it gets earlier every year. We grumble when a perky mall salesperson wishes us “Happy Holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas.” I don’t even have to mention the stress and hectic pace of the season? With all the gifts to wrap, the decorating, the cooking and cleaning, who has time for Christmas cheer? The true message of Christmas gets lost in all of that, and we have almost stopped trying to dig it out. The church surrendered; culture won the day, but we can’t find the treaty to know exactly when the battle ended. So, we admit that “Frosty the Snowman” has drowned out the church’s message about Christmas, originally known as the Mass for Christ. When we turn to Matthew to try to recover that message, we may want to scratch our heads. We seem to realize that “Christmas cheer” sounds shallow anyway, but Matthew downright scares us. At Christmas time, we want cute babies and little boys with ill-fitting shepherd’s costumes. Who would want to watch a Christmas play based on this section of Matthew? This story is not even about Jesus’ birth. The lectionary committee chose this passage to fit with the church’s Advent emphasis on anticipation. In Advent we anticipate Jesus’ birth, but we also anticipate something else. That day Matthew writes in a kind of shorthand about the thing we anticipate. In verse 36, he writes of “that day and hour.” In the rest of this passage, he refers to “the coming of the Son of Man.” The church all too often distorts the doctrine behind these short phrases. Some parts of the church talk about this doctrine like they have it all figured out. We have all heard the preachers who declare without any hesitation that we are surely living in the “last days.” Even though Jesus very clearly tells us in verse 36 that even he doesn’t know all of the facts, these preachers “know.” Still other parts of the church simply ignore this doctrine. They are to busy with social justice, church growth and a host of programs, so they just don’t mention this idea. The doctrine itself has a long history. In one sense, the doctrine goes all the way back to the creation stories themselves. The creation stories announce that God intended this world to exist in harmony and peace. Genesis 1:20-25 describes the animals thriving and reproducing in a world where God has made space for life. The Adam and Eve story describes a paradise where the man and woman have each other and all they need. This peace, harmony and abundance represent God’s will for His creation. But sadly, God’s will has been twisted, it has been crumpled and beaten out of shape to the point where we don’t recognize it. When something terrible happens, we call it God’s will. We don’t even know God’s will when we see it anymore. The rest of the Bible, after Genesis 2, records God’s attempt to reclaim the creation, to regain some resemblance of God’s will. The prophet Isaiah announces in Isaiah 1:1-9 God’s intention to work with His creation to bring back some sense of fellowship among His people, to heal nature and to open people’s eyes to God’s presence. The prophets didn’t invent this idea, but somewhere along the way, the idea popped up that God would act decisively and swiftly, perhaps even suddenly. The prophets may not have invented it, but they used it. Amos 5:18 shouts that the day of the Lord, when God would act, was indeed coming. Everyone assumed that when God acted on that day, God would restore harmony and justice to His creation. Amos also growled that it would also be a day of reckoning, when God would confront injustice and sin. Dark scenes Here in Matthew, Jesus adopts the language of “that day.” All of the religious leaders before Jesus’ birth had assumed that the initial arrival of the Messiah would be “that day.” Jesus pushes “that day” off into the future, and he doesn’t make that future sound very inviting. Jesus draws on the Noah story from Genesis. Even before Jesus gets hold of it, the Noah story is one of the darkest stories in all of scripture. God regrets that He even created us. God’s creation would get along just fine without us. The heavens open, and send a flood that drowns everyone, except for one family. Jesus’ use of that dark story doesn’t lighten it up any. Jesus paints a picture of people eating a good meal, enjoying a refreshing drink. All of a sudden, the waters rush up around their necks and over their heads. At a wedding, everyone is laughing and joking. The bride beams at her guests. Everyone wishes them a blessed future. All of a sudden, the waters sweep bride, groom, best man and caterer away. Jesus concludes by saying, “so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Does Jesus mean we should focus on the sudden and unexpected nature of the floodwaters, or the sense of judgment and terror, or all of the above? The next two scenes are not as terrifying as they are sad and lonely. In these two scenes, people are working side by side at their ordinary everyday jobs. One of the coworkers enters the new age; one does not, but Jesus gives no reason why this happens. Jesus does not describe a scene of horrific punishment, but of being left out. We all have felt the cold pain of being left out, of not making the cut. That experience is not so much fear as loneliness. Jesus’ final scene leaves us feeling violated. While we sleep, a thief sneaks into our house to rob us. Once the robber has fled, the damage remains. We cannot regain what we have lost. If only we had known, we would have protected what we had. Becoming good trees Four scenes — the wedding party, the workers in the field, the workers at the mill, the homeowner — that leave us with feelings we don’t want to experience at Christmas: terror, loneliness and violation. Matthew’s intent in these stories is to prepare us to anticipate the time and place when God through Christ will restore the creation to its intended harmony and justice. We long for harmony and justice, but surely harmony and justice demand judgment of sin. Would we find resurrection life worth living if all the bad people in this world simply stumbled into it? In Matthew 7:16-20, Matthew talks of us becoming good trees that produce good fruit. Matthew 13:50 paints depressing pictures of people shunted off to a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Will terror or fear of loneliness or a sense of pending violation motivate us to repent, to become good trees? All of the characters in these scenes in this passage share a trait: Each stands oblivious to what will soon happen. The wedding party, the workers in the field, the workers at the mill and the homeowner have no idea what comes next. We spend too much of our lives oblivious to God’s claim on us. We base our faith ultimately on love, on God’s grace that reaches out to us. Fear can grab our attention, however. Matthew holds up a vision of one possibility. We do know that God judges our actions, and that we must become good trees in order for resurrection life to be worth living. Matthew seems to want to shock us into becoming good trees. In Advent, we anticipate the re-enactment of Jesus’ first coming to us as a baby. We anticipate as well God’s finishing of the creative intervention begun in Jesus’ first arrival. In the first arrival, God let us know that he was with us in whatever we encounter in this troubled world. In God’s completion and redemption of the creation, his will comes in fullness. We may have lost a sense of Christmas cheer, but we can recover the mission God has given to His church. We bear witness to the world of God’s acts to restore, reclaim and reconcile. As we find ourselves wrapped up in sentimentality this season, let us break out of it so that we realize we have serious business to do. Let’s take our part in God’s work to offer hope, and even judgment, to a world going about its business with no thought of God. |
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