November 27, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Matthew 24:36-44
On That New Day
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
There’s something about beginning a new year. On January first, we take down the old, dog-eared calendar and we hang the new one filled with crisp, yet unseen photos. All the date blocks are untouched and filled with unknown potential.
When a new school year begins, there’s the excitement of getting all the new notebooks and pens. A great deal of thought goes into what you’re going to wear on that first day back to school. A new photo is taken in front of the house to mark the new chapter. And so we begin!
With this first Sunday in Advent, we begin a new year of our church calendar. We’ve adorned our sanctuary with vibrant blue paraments. We’ve lit the first candle on the Advent wreath. All good, all exciting. But then, WHAM! We get this incredible text about the end of…of…everything!
Wait a minute, we’ve just begun here! And now we’re talking about the end of the world, the destruction of the universe? No! What kind of a new beginning is this?
As we begin this new Advent, we’re encouraged to be ready. That’s something we frequently hear this time of year. “Are you ready for Christmas?” someone asks. And by that, they mean:
• Have you brought up the Christmas boxes from the basement and decorated your house?
• Have you hung the Christmas lights outside?
• Have you bought presents for everyone on your list?
• Have you baked your traditional Christmas cookies?
• Have you written your Christmas cards and sent them out?
• Have you scheduled your office Christmas party?
There’s a lot of getting ready in this season! And, although we enjoy all of these activities and look forward to them, altogether it can be a little overwhelming.
So there’s a lot of getting ready. But this isn’t the kind of being ready that Jesus is referring to. He wants us to be alert to, to be cognizant of, our finality.
There’s a German proverb: All things have an end, except a sausage, which has two. That’s a light hearted saying, but it derives from a very true reality. All things have an end. That includes us, that includes even this old world. All things come to an end.
When we live our days knowing that this life and this world don’t last forever, it changes our understanding and approach to living. Three quick things:
• First, we grow in RESPECT. We recognize the vulnerability of ourselves and this world. We are all more fragile than we appear on the surface. We break, things around us break. It’s estimated that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird, and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. That rate has accelerated against the normal background rate. Being aware of our vulnerable nature leads to RESPECT. We gain respect for the value of life.
• Secondly, by gaining a deeper appreciation for what is, we CHERISH them. We delight in all these good things that are here right in this moment. Knowing that all things end encourages us to recognize and appreciate the goodness of what is here. Like in these waning, late fall days, we appreciate the beautiful sunlight while we have it. We pause to drink in the beauty of the day’s ebbing light. We take special care to enjoy it while we have it. Being cognizant of our finality draws us to CHERISH.
• And thirdly, we look to a higher power. We realize that we don’t have all the answers! We’re not invincible, we’re not everlasting.
I’m reminded of the poem Ozymandias by Shelly. He describes a broken, colossal statue that now lies broken in pieces and sinking into the surrounding sands. The pedestal stated this boastful caption: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” But now the great, boastful king is as decayed as his statue.
We don’t have all the answers and our days are limited. We will come to an end. And this moves us to look for something more lasting than ourselves. We search for meaning, and it leads us to FAITH, faith in the one source that is lasting and eternal.
Jesus speaks of the days of Noah. There were people then who had no consciousness of the utter ending that lay before them. Their whole world was going to end. But most of them went about their regular duties as if nothing would ever end. They lived without respect, they took others for granted, without a thought of a higher meaning. Don’t be like this, Jesus is saying. Be aware. Respect life, cherish one another, and look to God in faith.
The story of Noah points to an end. But within Noah’s story, that ending leads to a new beginning. This is a truth that the Bible points to over and over. In every end, there is a new beginning! In the flood of Noah, there’s a comprehensive destruction. But then the dove brings back the olive branch, the sign of a new beginning.
And do we feel this shattered reality within ourselves, too? There is something utterly broken within each one of us. And no matter how hard we try, we’re unable to make it right. We’re like Humpty Dumpty. We cannot right this wrong, we can’t put our pieces together in the way they were meant to be. And what it will take, what it will require is our utter destruction! We need to be made new.
This is what we see in Jesus’ cross. His cross encapsulates the hopelessly broken ending of each and every one of us. In him on the cross, we see ourselves there, nailed, beaten, bleeding. And we see ourselves carried lifeless to the tomb. But then, but then, three days later, we see what happens! There is new life, restored life.
At our baptism we see this new beginning emerge from an old death. It might seem crazy that we baptize babies. It’s like hearing about the end of the world on the first day of a new year. But here it is. This is what we do. And today we do it again. We take this little one and down into the waters she goes! Into Noah’s flood, down and drowning.
But then up, up we come! We rise from death into new life in Christ. We are made new even now. Even while still within these mortal, breaking down bodies and minds, we have already been made new. We rise to the new morning of Easter, into the light of Christ.
Already we have stepped into the new day. May our souls await for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
