Saturday 23 November 2019

Mindful and ready


“…Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (Matthew 24:44)




Year A: The First Sunday of Advent, 1st December, 2019.

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AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS
COI & RC

A Gospel parallel reading to Matthew may be found in Mark 13:32-37 and in  Luke 17:26-37.
This Sunday marks the beginning of new ‘Church year’. The first Sunday of Advent triggers a new cycle of Sunday Gospel Readings and since this ‘year’ of 2019/20 is Year A we are back to the gospel of Matthew.

The first Sunday of Advent is centered on the second coming of Christ. The second Sunday recalls the preaching of John the Baptist who prepared the way for our Saviour. The third Sunday (or Gaudete Sunday signalling joy) continues the theme of preparation while the fourth and final Sunday of Advent is about the events leading up to the birth of Jesus.

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SERMON NOTES (585 words)

“…it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep” declares Paul in his letter to the Christians in Rome (Romans 13:11).  “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” cries out the prophet Isaiah some eight centuries earlier (2:5).

We are in the darkest time of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere.  Soon, the days will become a little longer and little green shoots will appear everywhere. 

A light has shone on our world over 2,000 years ago and that light continues to shine today in the lives of many witnesses to God’s love. As we prepare for our unique festival of Christmas in which we celebrate the true light of the world we are invited by the Church to wait in joyful prayer and repentance of heart. Advent means coming; however, it signals the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, the coming of God in our lives and hearts and an expectation of the second coming of Christ in glory at the end of time.  Jesus Christ is here already but, at the same time, is yet to come.
Many of us look forward to a secular break at Christmas time when we take time off from work, catch up and meet up and, perhaps, indulge the senses a little.  Spiritually, the notion of a time of special preparation including prayerfulness, self-denial, repentance and exercise of compassion are not exactly to the fore in the TV adverts, toy shows, glitzy lighting and bulk shopping.  But, there is an opportunity for us to stop and notice life.

Perhaps we need to take extra ‘time out’ this season and relish a simpler fare of life?  The poem ‘Advent’, by Patrick Kavanagh is worth reading again:
We have tested and tasted too much, lover –  Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder. But here in the Advent-darkened room Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea Of penance will charm back the luxury Of a child’s soul, we’ll return to Doom The knowledge we stole but could not use
Might we stop and notice:

our breathing.
our bodies.
our thinking.
our feelings.
nature all around us.
the person next to me in this moment of time.
something afar or not seen but in the mind’s eye and heart’s ear.

The question of ‘are we ready?’ is central to this passage in the Gospel of Matthew just as it is in the Gospels of Luke who seems to be following the same source used by Matthew. 

We find distraction in sundry indulgences from substance attachment to constant affirmation seeking on social media to projects that demand our all and we wonder why we are still missing something. But, in the midst of all this clamour and un-ease (or should we say dis-ease) we are reminded of what Jesus said according to Luke 21:28:
When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
When faced with uncertainty and, perhaps, a lot of concerns and worries we do well to:

Stay calmly grounded in the here and now
Remain steadfast in love because this is the only thing that matters
Keep moving forward towards some goal or destination no matter how dim it seems.

The best way to prepare for death is to live life to the full now and to live it well so that we leave a good memory and example and find our well-being in this thought.

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A PRAYERFUL WALK THROUGH MATTHEW 24:36-44
The end-event in the life and ministry of Jesus is very much at hand in the carefully ordered and scripted Gospel of Matthew. A great trial awaits – the final one in the life of Jesus and He will be revealed as the Messiah – the one who was to come – to the Jewish people who had a special place in the audience of Matthew.

We are mindful of a first-century dispute and anxiety among the members of the early Jesus movement as a beleaguered community seeks to read the signs of the times in the face of persecution.  Dramatic events such as the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Second Coming were anticipated at any time.  There was a widespread anticipation that these events could be experienced by some in this present generation. At a distance of 2,000 years, we may spiritualise the raw experience and reported sayings of Jesus. However, these teachings and stories carry salience for us today as our world faces catastrophic change and destruction arising from changes in our environment.

v.36   Not even the Son knows
 ‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’.
This can make for uncomfortable reading and some translations omit the latter clause. Clearly, there is much in the relationship of Father and Son that we do not know about. There is no editor’s note, here, about ‘in my experience’ or ‘in my human nature’. It stands as it stands. As often arises in the reading of the scriptures we must place this saying alongside others including ‘The Father and I are one’ (John 10:30). Scripture must be read with a wide eye and a deep heart.

v.37-39   As in Noah’s time
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 knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.
There is a lesson for us today. In the day to day business of living a storm s brewing. It is called climate change leading to sudden and continuous calamities – environmental, political and humanitarian. We may ignore, deny or refuse to act but those days of reckoning are upon us. Truly, we are living in biblical times.

v.40-41   The meaning of the comparison explained.
Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 
William Loader makes a pertinent comment about this whole passage:
The watching is a dramatic way of speaking about God-connectedness. It is not very edifying if it is reduced to an exhortation not to misbehave in case you get 'caught with your pants down', as they say, when Jesus comes. It is about developing an awareness of what the God of the future is saying and doing in the present, to take a God perspective on the issues of the day and the future and to let that happen at all levels of our reality, from our personal lives to our international community, including our co-reality in creation. It is a stance nourished by the eucharistic vision of hope. It is taking the eucharistic table into the community, into the present, and letting it watch us and keep us awake to what is happening. [commentary on the lectionary by William Loader available here].
V42-44   Stay alert!
 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 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 hour.
We do not when or how God will meet us in our journey beyond this life. We must live as people of peace, of hope and of readiness. Much of what concerns is very relative and even very small.


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