The Danger of Escapist Theology: A Call to Active Faith

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[00:14:18] The prophet Isaiah calls to us from the past to imagine the future when God's reign will be fully realized and recognized throughout creation. When that time comes, God shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares
[00:14:41] and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore isaiah chapter 2 verse 4. today we choose to live in hope believing that the time of god's reign has come and is coming among us we light this

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[00:15:09] candle of hope as a sign of our promise to follow the light as we answer as God's call transform our hope into reality today and in the days to come let us now

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[00:18:39] join together as we confess our sins before God and one another let us pray merciful God you made light to shine out of the darkness in the Advent Jesus the Christ, and you call us to be prepared to receive him. We confess our unwillingness to see the light
[00:19:01] and to walk in your ways. We have not loved you with our whole heart, and we have failed to be an obedient church. We have not always opened our eyes to the needs of others, and our feet
[00:19:16] have wandered from the paths of justice and peace. Forgive us and be born in us anew that our hearts may be stirred to glorify the nativity with acts of compassion and service through Christ our Lord.

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[00:19:34] Amen. Hear the good news. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. That proves God's love toward us in the name of jesus christ you are forgiven glory to god amen please stand as

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[00:23:26] you are able the scripture is from the gospel according to matthew chapter 24 beginning with the 36th verse but about that day and hour no one knows neither the angels of heaven nor the son
[00:23:50] but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. And they
[00:24:14] knew nothing about the flood, and they knew nothing until the flood came and and swept them all away. So too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field. One will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together.
[00:24:37] One will be taken, and one will be left. Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this, if the owner of the house had known in what
[00:24:55] part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected

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[00:25:12] hour this is the gospel of our Lord good morning it's good to see you all pray you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and welcome to the season of Advent just a brief word about Advent so that we can kind of put our biblical texts our hymns
[00:25:47] and anthems and our our preaching and teaching and prayers and kind of their proper liturgical context. For the church, this won't come as any surprise to you. You are probably aware of this. It's not Christmas yet, right? It's not Christmas yet. Christmas, the
[00:26:07] season actually begins on, surprise, Christmas Day, the 25th of December for the church, and it runs 12 days through January the 5th. That's the day before Epiphany and the beginning of the season of Epiphany. More than you probably wanted to know, but just a little kind of framework for
[00:26:28] us to have in mind as we think about passages like the one that we have today. Now, it doesn't mean you can't put up a tree. Obviously, we've done that. Buy gifts, have a party, sing a carol
[00:26:38] or two. You can stream Michael Buble and Mariah Carey to your hearts are content.
[00:26:46] Help her make a whole lot more money on that song that she has made a ridiculous amount of money on.
[00:26:53] Whoever wrote that contract was a genius, and he or she should be commended for their work.
[00:27:00] But it's about how we prepare to receive Christ whenever and however Christ comes to us.
[00:27:07] Advent is a moment in a very busy season to pause, to breathe, to think about our lives in these between times, between Christ's coming and Christ's coming again.
[00:27:25] It's hard to do in a very busy season, but it's important work.
[00:27:30] So we gather for worship, we light candles on a wreath, we sing hymns, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, that point to the coming of Christ, and we read interesting and sometimes perplexing passages like the one from Matthew's Gospel.
[00:27:49] But about that day, Matthew writes, and hour, no one knows.
[00:27:54] neither the angels of heaven nor the son but only the father friends this is a word about time about the time when one day everything will be put right when heaven and earth will be as one
[00:28:16] and all things will be as they should be they'll they'll be as we hope and long for them to be Christ came in the weakness of our flesh and the ordinariness of our lives to begin God's work of reshaping the world of putting things right and we believe and confess
[00:28:39] Christ will come again to finish what has been started and we live in the time in between what are we to make of this time what do we do with it this odd passage from Matthew's gospel
[00:29:05] has been misread, misunderstood, and misused since at least about the mid-1800s when Christians in Scotland developed a way of reading the Bible which included the idea of something we know as the rapture, an idea later popularized by a person in the U.S. named John
[00:29:29] Nelson Darby. And to make a long and very complicated story short, the idea of a rapture is part of a whole system of belief in which passages like the one from Matthew's Gospel are treated like a kind of secret code to predict a fiery distant end of the world
[00:29:51] where the faithful are raptured. That is, they're snatched up into the sky in a glorious personal escape from the trials and tribulations of this world that will be faced by those who are wait for
[00:30:08] it left behind dan brown's books and movies are fun and entertaining but they're wrong i remember in high school i think our fellowship of christian athletes went to a local church to see a movie and it's that movie some of you have seen it where someone's mowing the lawn
[00:30:30] and then the next thing you know the lawnmower is just sitting there running or there's a blender going in the kitchen and someone in the kitchen and the next thing you know it's just the blender
[00:30:39] running. Well-intentioned but not sound biblical interpretation. N.T. Wright notes this way of interpreting passages like the one we have today is really a misreading and what it does is it misreads Jewish apocalyptic imagery, and it replaces it with an escapist theology that
[00:31:06] would have been completely foreign to a Jewish prophet like Jesus of Nazareth.
[00:31:12] The central question Matthew has for us today and throughout the season of Advent is not, when do I get to leave all this behind? When do I get to escape? The question is, how do i live faithfully in the time between christ coming and christ coming again how do i
[00:31:37] use this time to participate in god's unfolding project to reshape the world how do i do it right here and right now because that's what the incarnation means that's the point of christmas not looking for the day when we can escape into heaven and leave all this behind, but God coming
[00:32:02] in the flesh, moving into the neighborhood, as Eugene Peterson put it, to make the neighborhood over and inviting us to join in the work. Today's reading, along with much of Matthew 24, is not a
[00:32:21] set of clues for us to use to determine some secret end of time. It's a message of hope.
[00:32:28] And a call to action for faithful people.
[00:32:35] Earlier in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus notices that the disciples are enamored by the grandeur of the temple.
[00:32:44] By the strength and power of the institution.
[00:32:48] And Jesus tells them that the time is coming, you may remember this story, when not one stone of the temple will be left.
[00:32:56] It's His way of saying to them, as you live in this time, this moment, as you participate in God's mission to heal and renew and restore the world.
[00:33:07] Don't place your trust there.
[00:33:11] All the institutions and old order of things are passing away.
[00:33:16] Don't cling to them.
[00:33:18] Don't look backward.
[00:33:21] Be faithful in the moment.
[00:33:23] God's future is coming.
[00:33:25] In fact, Jesus would say, because of me, Jesus, it's already here.
[00:33:31] using language from the book of Daniel that would have been familiar to his listeners Jesus is reminding them and us that with the coming of the Son of Man the only future is God's future
[00:33:44] and the only authentic choice is to follow because the future will be defined not by institutions and principalities and powers and temples and high priests and kings and Caesars and politicians but the future will be determined
[00:34:01] by a merciful God and because of this you can join that god in rebuilding with hope and so to drive the point home jesus reminds them of another story with which they would have been familiar
[00:34:17] noah the ark and the flood in the days before the flood they were simply living their lives until the day noah entered the ark they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all the way
[00:34:30] so too will be the coming of the son of man again this is about time not looking for some mysterious moment in the future but how we live now today knowing that god's future is unfolding
[00:34:51] because if you notice usually we read that second part of matthew 24 but we forget the noah part in the days of noah who was swept away the unrighteous the unfaithful those who were not aligned with god's hope and dream for the world and the ones who were left behind
[00:35:18] so to speak were the faithful remnant noah his family his friends the heart the center of God's project to reshape the world. So building on that image, Jesus says two are in the field, one is left, one is taken. Two are grinding meal, one is taken, one is left. Keep awake.
[00:35:49] Make the most of the time. The point of the whole passage is not that the faithful will one day be whisked off to heaven where we can be with Jesus and avoid the messiness of life or the needs and
[00:36:02] suffering of our neighbors. The whole point is that with the coming of the Son of Man, with the birth of Jesus, things have changed. And what matters now is the stance of the disciple in a
[00:36:15] world that is changed and is changing. In other words, the question is, how do we wait until the day when God's plan to reshape the world is complete? Advent is about that. It's about learning
[00:36:31] how to watch and to wait how to live in the time in between reminding us that we wait not hoping that god's going to come take us away from all of this and seal us off in some paradise away from
[00:36:46] the troubles that that are all around us and the needs of the world no advent says we we wait expectantly actively not trying to decipher signs in the heavens but always being about the mission
[00:37:01] of Jesus, preaching and teaching the good news of God's love for all people, showing mercy, working for justice, laboring for righteousness, never relaxing our intent to work for God's plan to make things new. And yes, it can be difficult, even on the best of days, and especially hard
[00:37:25] when day after day you've given yourself to this work in this time and things don't seem to be any better today than they were yesterday and the church and the world seem just as big a mess today
[00:37:42] as they were a week ago might be easier if if we did know that you know tomorrow jesus is coming he's going to pat us on the shoulder tell us it's all all going to be all right well done you've
[00:37:56] done your part, now go off to your vacation in the sky. But when tomorrow is just one more today, and all our labors of love seem to be, as Tom Long put it, poured into a bottomless pit of suffering
[00:38:13] and cynicism and indifference, then it can be hard to keep working at being a disciple.
[00:38:21] So in the face of the overwhelming needs of the world, the way he says to preserve hope, the way to press on the way to keep loving to keep extending mercy to keep being faithful
[00:38:35] is not to live thinking that any moment we might get caught up in a heaven and taken away from all of this but to trust that at any moment we may be surprised by the sudden presence of God the God
[00:38:52] who shows up again and again, who didn't keep a safe distance but came to be with us in the flesh to begin the work of healing and renewing and rebuilding and putting everything right. The God
[00:39:09] who now invites us in our time, this time, to join Him in healing and renewing the world one neighbor at a time. Among the greatest dangers in misreading this passage is that we're lulled into spiritual laziness and irrelevance. If we believe the world is simply going to be destroyed
[00:39:31] and we're all heading for a non-physical cloud heaven, then why bother? Why bother? Why bother caring about justice or creation or feeding the hungry or serving the poor or setting the captives free. Why bother about any of it? Why bother if we're going to leave all this behind
[00:39:56] anyway? Advent says just the opposite. God loves this so much that God is making it new.
[00:40:08] The King has come, and He will come again to receive His kingdom. The great defining moment of history has already taken place. The new age is here, and Jesus is calling us to a richer,
[00:40:23] a more robust hope so don't worry about when no one knows that not even the sun knows that instead focus on the how and the what how am i living today with justice and with kindness and
[00:40:40] with mercy with active creative love what am i building today beauty caring for creation loving my neighbor being a beacon of resurrection in the community what will we do with these between times with our time advent invites us to be alert to watch to wait to work to be faithful
[00:41:09] to plant seeds of god's new creation because the son of man is coming god's future is unfolding Jesus says. Pay attention. Watch for it. Be alert, which means the time for faithful revolutionary

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[00:41:26] work is now. Amen. I invite you to stand as we affirm our faith in response to God's Word this morning. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ,
[00:42:02] his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. The third day he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
[00:42:23] From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the

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[00:42:36] body and the life everlasting amen you may be seated and i invite you to join with me as we go

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[00:43:47] to god in a time of prayer let us pray almighty god as we enter this new advent season help us be prepared for Christ coming among us. Make our lives a straight path for Him that He will live
[00:44:15] in us and through us for the world. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Hear our prayer for your church that we will be vigilant in prayer and worship and service and mercy during Advent that
[00:44:36] we might help others see and experience your love this season. Lord, in your mercy. For the world, we pray that the Advent message of hope will cover all nations and places that are living in despair,
[00:44:57] injustice, poverty, or war. Lord, in your mercy. For our leaders, Lord, leaders of church and state, we pray, that they would lead with truth, with compassion, with hope for all their people.
[00:45:19] Lord, in your mercy, we pray for our community, especially our homeless and hungry neighbors, those who seek work and security or health care, all who are suffering from physical or pain or mental anguish or loneliness.
[00:45:43] For all who are marginalized, made to feel less than by society.
[00:45:50] Lord, in your mercy.
[00:45:52] Amen.
[00:45:52] For those who grieve, we pray.
[00:45:57] We remember especially this week the family of Dot Kreitzberg.
[00:46:03] We also remember those for whom the Thanksgiving holidays have been difficult this year because of grief or loss or sadness of any kind. Comfort them all in your presence and your peace, O God. And Lord, hear the prayers
[00:46:23] of your people lifted up aloud and silently in this space as we pray now for, Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. God of Advent, we bow before you as thankful people this weekend and every day
[00:46:51] for the hope given us in the promise of our coming Savior, Jesus Christ.
[00:46:56] O come, Emmanuel, live among us and through us this season as we pray the words that Jesus himself taught us.
[00:47:07] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[00:47:12] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:47:17] give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
[00:47:31] For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever.
[00:47:36] Amen.
[00:47:37] We welcome you again to Davidson United Methodist Church on this first Sunday in Advent.
[00:47:46] We're so glad that you are worshiping with us online.
[00:47:49] If you are online, thanks for being with us.
[00:47:52] I hope you'll give us a shout-out where you are today.
[00:47:55] Those of you here in the sanctuary, please take a moment and pick up the friendship pad that you'll find in your pew and sign in and pass it to your neighbor so we'll know who is worshiping with us today.
[00:48:05] A special welcome to our visitors, those who are worshiping with us for the first time.
[00:48:09] Thanks for making Davidson UMC a part of your Advent season.
[00:48:13] Please join us, visitors, after the worship service in the gathering space at our welcome table so that we can greet you well and answer any questions you may have about the church and offer you a small gift for being with us today as well.
[00:48:28] It is the season of Advent.
[00:48:30] It's a beautiful time of the year, but also a busy time as we have so many activities, ministries, opportunities for fellowship that I hope you will take your bulletin, take it home with you and just keep it there so that you can stay on top of all the things that are happening.
[00:48:48] Also, check your weekly emails, your Realm account, everything, just to see all the opportunities we have to be a light for Christ in the community.
[00:48:58] One activity we have happening this morning is our Advent Festival, happening right behind you in the Fellowship Hall, an opportunity to grab a sweet treat and also to make an Advent wreath for your home.
[00:49:10] You can take it home and light an Advent candle, not just here at church, but you can do that at home.
[00:49:14] So you can make your own Advent wreath today at the Advent Festival.
[00:49:18] That'll be, as soon as the service is over, they'll be in there ready to go.
[00:49:22] And, of course, this week is Christmas in Davidson.
[00:49:25] We've been waiting and talking about it for a month now.
[00:49:29] And here, it's here, this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so many activities that are happening.
[00:49:36] One is that our sanctuary and the chapel will have concerts every night, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
[00:49:42] so you can find the schedule online and you can find that we have cards around that have the schedule of who's going to be playing where on those nights and of course our live nativity happening
[00:49:54] our 25th year of our live nativity happening on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6 o'clock to 9 o'clock so please come out and support that on Friday in addition to our live nativity our United Women of Faith are going to be
[00:50:10] in the fellowship hall serving a soup dinner, so you can come and have dinner with the UMW, help them raise a little money, and then go check out Christmas in Davidson and the Live Nativity. Thank you to every one of
[00:50:23] you who are participating in the Live Nativity, and for those who aren't participating, you can come and support it on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. We're so grateful for all the ways that you support the ministries of our church, by giving of your time and your gifts
[00:50:38] and your talent by dressing up like a Bethlehem store owner or a Roman centurion. You do so many

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[00:50:47] things to help us, again, be the light of Christ, including your tithes and your offerings. God

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[00:55:18] bless the gifts we offer back to you that you would use them to share the hope of Christ in

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[00:55:24] our community and beyond. Amen. So welcome again to Advent as we lean into the season. A couple

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[00:57:50] of questions maybe to leave with, to ponder today, as my New Testament professor used to say, to meditate and cogitate on. How am I living today in this time that I'm given, the time between Christ's coming and Christ's coming again? How am I living today, and what am I building
[00:58:15] today? How am I living and what am I building? So that the kingdom that Christ has brought and that the kingdom that Christ will complete can come a little bit more on earth as it is in
[00:58:32] heaven. As we depart to be about that work together, let's do so remembering our mission that we will be the body of Christ in our community through worship, education, fellowship, and service. Go in peace.