Hope for the Coming

Matthew 24:36-44

What do movies like Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, and Fight Club have in common with the church year? Specifically with how the lectionary presents the story of Jesus? Well, all those movies start off at the end of the story. They show you what happens toward the end and then relate the story of how the characters got where they are. That’s kind of like what happens on the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the church year—when the Gospel reading always looks forward to the end of the age, or more accurately fulfillment of all things.

As you know, today is the first Sunday of Advent, the first day of the church new year, and we’re looking ahead to the birth of Jesus—just 25 days away! Today you’d expect to hear Bible readings that point to Jesus’ birth. But if you’ve noticed, every year on the first Sunday of Advent we read a passage from one of the Gospels that seems to be about the end of the world. Why is that? Why does it seem like we’re beginning at the end? Are the creators of the lectionary trying to capture some sort of theatrical effect like those popular movies that begin at the end? What point is the church trying to make by the way we tell the story?

I think exploring today’s scripture readings might give us some clues. The Gospel reading we just heard is from Matthew 24. At the beginning of the chapter, in verse 3 Jesus’ disciples ask him what will the signs of his coming and the end of the age. The Greek word translated “end” really means completion or fulfilment or consummation. It’s an end that brings about a new beginning, a transformation of the world not the destruction or elimination of it. And the word translated “coming” is the Greek word parousia. It can be translated as coming or it also can be translated as arrival or advent. It’s where we get the name of this church season. This word parousia (that can mean coming, arrival, or advent) was originally understood as a future arrival when the Messiah would bring the completion of the age, the consummation of creation, the fulfilment of all things.

The hope for this parousia, this coming of divine consummation, was expressed in the first reading we heard this morning from the prophet Isaiah this morning. Isaiah shares this hope for the completion of the world that was a common expectation among the Hebrew Prophets. The prophets taught that in the consummation of the world, God will transform our world of war into a world of peace, into wholeness and harmony and shalom. Love and peace and justice will reign. Swords will be beaten into plowshares, spears turned into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer rise against nation, there will be world peace, everyone will have enough to thrive, and all people will be filled with God’s goodness and love, learn God’s ways and walk in God’s paths.

This future is what the Hebrew prophets longed for and what the Spirit inspired them to proclaim is the world’s future. This promised future of wholeness and shalom is the central hope of the biblical story. A longing for this promised future seems to be imprinted on every human heart, foretold in every world religion, and proclaimed throughout the Old and New Testaments by prophets and sages, by Jesus and the apostles, and by the Holy Spirit speaking through scripture. Isaiah speaks of this promise using words like God will establish new heavens and new earth. Jeremiah uses the imagery of a new covenant written on transformed human hearts. The Book of Revelation points to this reality using images of the River of Life flowing near the Tree of Life which bears fruit for the healing of the nations. The apostle Paul uses the term New Creation to describe this promised future. And Jesus’ term for this coming reality is what he calls the Kingdom of God, this alignment of heaven and earth, like when he teaches us to pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

With all that in mind, as we read through Matthew 24 Jesus describes coming persecution and sufferings that his disciples will undergo, and when our Gospel reading picks up in verse 36 Jesus is speaking about the necessity to keep awake. As we’ve explored in other sermons, this “keeping awake” seems to be Jesus’ term for what we might call mindfulness today, the practice of cultivating an awareness of the divine presence in which we live and move and have our being.

And here Jesus uses the example of the story Noah and the flood. Jesus warns that some people will awaken to this coming new creation, and others will be swept away like those who were swept away by the flood at the time of Noah. It appears that those who keep awake are the ones who remain when the reality of the parousia appears, while others will miss out. Jesus is telling his disciples to keep awake for this coming, this advent, this arrival, the parousia.

You may have heard this passage to support the belief in something called the rapture. But it doesn’t. The rapture is not a biblical teaching. It was invented less than 200 years ago by American evangelicals. The idea that this passage is about people disappearing into heaven is not an accurate interpretation of this text. This passage is clear that those who are “taken” are not the ones in the favorable position. Those who are taken are compared to those who were swept away in the flood at the time of Noah. Jesus implies that those who are left behind are the lucky ones, the ones who keep awake are the ones who experience the parousia.

So far we have seen that in Matthew 24 Jesus is addressing disciples’ questions about the coming end of the world. And that a more accurate meaning of “end” is completion or fulfilment or transformation into a new creation. And the word “coming” in Greek is parousia; which can mean coming or arrival or advent, points to the coming of God’s promised future of peace and harmony and divine reconciliation. This doesn’t come about by people disappearing into heaven. It comes about through God’s presence manifesting on earth through human beings waking up or keeping awake, to awareness of the divine presence. Through mindfulness of the Kingdom of God.

Now we come to the answer of the question I posed as we began our exploration of today’s scriptures. You might be thinking, it’s nice to hear all this about the world’s future, but what does it have to do with the season before Christmas? Lutheran theologian Ted Peters sums it up nicely in his book God: The World’s Future. Peters wrote that, “Jesus Christ is the future made present…The good news of the gospel is that the kingdom of God has arrived ahead of time in Jesus of Nazareth and is the promised destiny of the whole creation” (Peters, xii).

That’s why we read about God’s promised future in Advent! Because we’re about the remember the birth of Jesus who was the future made present. Jesus is the arrival of the divine presence. Jesus is the embodiment of the new creation. Jesus is the manifestation of the Kingdom of God. Jesus gives away the ending and shows us what the new creation is like! What God promises for the whole world, Jesus is in one individual. He is the incarnation of God’s promised future in one person. He is, as Peters says, “the future arrived ahead of time”.

And so during Advent we anticipate the remembrance of His blessed coming at Christmas. And turn our hope and our longing toward the future fulfilment of the parousia, God’s promised future for the whole creation. Even in the midst of so many terrible things occurring in our world. Wars and violence and genocide. Continued conflict in the Holy Land and across the world. Greed, corruption, and injustice. Poverty and pain and suffering. Troubles in our personal lives and relationships. Sadness, depression, anxiety, and grief. It is this reality that Jesus Christ was born into. And it is this reality that God promises to transform, ushering in God’s promised future through Christ. And so even in the midst of this troubled world, we wait with hope and trust in the fulfillment of God’s promise for the coming of this world of shalom. Because in Jesus we see the future made present, we see what the end of the story will be, and we wait with hope and trust for the parousia, the fulfillment of all things. Thanks be to God. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Brian | December 4, 2025 | First Sunday in Advent