Of Tsunamis And Mangers
by Rev. Jonathan Gale
Sunday 8.00am, 1st December 2013
Isaiah 2: 1 – 5
The Future House of God
2The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
3 Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
Judgement Pronounced on Arrogance
5 O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!
Matthew 24: 36 – 44
The Necessity for Watchfulness
36 ‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
***
I don’t know how many video clips you’ve watched of the last major Japanese tsunami, but look for them on You Tube and you’ll understand what I mean when I say that the single most anxiety-producing thing about watching nearly all these clips is the way unsuspecting people (who are clearly going to get swept away) simply keep going about their business instead of seeking the shelter of high ground.
38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.
It’s as though they have a death-wish; and it’s often rewarded with death as they either get cut-off or simply swiftly overwhelmed by the raging waters.
Clearly everything looks fine to them, so they ignore the sirens and the yells from fellow citizens to escape danger.
Just as tragic is the way some leap to safety at the last minute while others don’t quite make it.
40Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left.
The thing about a tsunami is that it’s unexpected
42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
But was the tsunami unexpected? Japan is one of the best prepared countries in the world to deal with the threat of a tsunami. Warning systems are in place, and concrete sea walls wrap around much of the coastline.
They had a warning. Clearly what went wrong is they had not anticipated the size of this event. There are two reasons for it. One is that they haven’t had any event in even recent memory, the last 100, 150 years, that was anywhere as big as this one. And two, seismologists and geophysicists hadn’t anticipated such a large earthquake happening off Japan.
As a result, they were not ready for what hit them.
44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
We’re in Advent, and advent always means adventure. With adventure comes danger. The danger of advent is that whenever God enters human history in a tangible way there is the danger of change.
Yes, we change for God, not the other way round. Change can be traumatic – if we’re not prepared.
Now there were signs pointing to Jesus’ coming, but they certainly weren’t clear about the time of his arrival, so his coming was unexpected. Even Simeon and Anna who had spent their lives anticipating the arrival of the Messiah, were not aware of Jesus’ arrival until he was shown to them when brought by Mary and Joseph to be presented before the Lord in the temple (Luke 2)
The same can’t be said for Jesus’ second coming. We are given (especially towards the end of Matthew’s Gospel) clearer indications about what to expect before the arrival of Jesus upon this earth. All these are indications that we should be ready, that we should expect the shattering Day of the Lord that Peter refers to in his sermon at Pentecost.
44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
Those not ready will face judgement and it will be catastrophic. Even for those who are ready, the changes will be traumatic. I mean goodness me, can you imagine the earth-shattering change that comes about to cause “nations to beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation not lifting up sword against nation, neither learning war anymore?”
But all is not gloom and doom. In these very words lies both upheaval and joy, both death and life.
The death will be to the ways of death, the things we have prioritised that are not of God. The degree of trauma we will experience when Jesus returns dramatically to this earth will be in direct proportion to the extent that we hang on to things that displease God.
But as the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 6: 9 9 Even though we speak in this way, beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation.
You see as Isaiah says, the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and
all the nations shall stream to it.
People will not be able to resist the magnificent attraction of God!
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’
The teaching will not simply be for head knowledge (that great danger in the Western church) but for living by, for putting into practice.
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Who loves God’s word? Who with the Psalmist can say 2 Happy are those who keep his decrees,
who seek him with their whole heart,
and
47 I find my delight in your commandments,
because I love them ?
When we embrace the vision of a God-centred future, when we long for God and his ways of thinking and doing; then we enter a different realm, a place which is best described by the law being written on our hearts – where it is no longer an externally imposed thing because our hearts are reluctant to accept God’s lordship.
The great irony of life is that the more we give up our own freedom to God’s Lordship, the freer we are. And part of the reason for this is because God’s ways are enjoyable.
My friend Des Morgan recently wrote these words: “When God created us, he specifically designed us not to distinguish between right & wrong but rather to enjoy life. Jesus came & restored that life to us & at the end of history, the tree which is given from which to eat is the tree of life. Let us live life now & enjoy it.”
Do you get that? The fruit the serpent beguiled Adam and Eve to eat was from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The restoration of God, in the Kingdom of God, when we are yielded to God – we are fed from the tree of life.
At this Advent time – think on your priorities – and think on the consequences of the priorities you choose to embrace. The choice remains ours. In that sense we choose our own consequences.
You see there will come a time when it won’t be sufficient simply to anticipate a baby in a manger in Bethlehem. Our Advent anticipations will need to be more robust for the adventure will be greater, the spiritual tsunami more powerful. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
Joshua (who knew the benefits and joys of God’s ways over any others) looked at the assembled nation of Israel as they were about to embark on their life together as a nation in Canaan and said to them, 15Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’
AMEN