Left Behind.

Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-51

I.

            Jesus uses this illustration about the time of the coming of the Son of Man.  He says, “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.”  But which is better: to be “taken” or to be “left”? 

            We know that some Christians have this view that God is going to take the true believers up to heaven, exempting them from the tribulations of the end times.  And God is also going to leave everyone else, the non-believers, behind to suffer.  This particular passage from Matthew is one they enlist in this depiction.

            Is that what Jesus is saying?  Does he say that we should hope to be one of the ones taken?  Does he say that it is not good to be left behind? 

            Jesus gives the example of Noah.  In the time of Noah, the ones who were taken were the ones who continued with their “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,” in other words their normal lives.  These are the people who were deaf to Noah’s warnings and blind to the deteriorating situation on the earth.  These are the people who were figuratively asleep, and who were therefore swept away by the flood.  To be taken means, well, to die.  It is the violent and corrupt people in the time of Noah who perish in the flood.  They are the ones who are “taken”.

            If Jesus’ example of Noah is any indication, we most certainly do not want to be taken.  That is, we do not want to be washed away in the disastrous consequences of human sinfulness, unconscious of why it is even happening.  We do not want to be scoured off the face of the earth.

            In fact, the whole idea that the believers will be taken militates against much of the rest of chapter 24, where Jesus says that those who follow him will suffer and be handed over to death, and be hated by all nations because of his name.  He says that the good news of God’s Kingdom must be proclaimed throughout the world.  None of this can happen if the disciples of Jesus have been whisked away, out of harm’s way, before the end.

            Maybe some Christians came up with this scheme thinking to avoid both suffering and the demands of discipleship, but I suspect they are going to be disappointed if they think it’s going to work out this way.  I mean, the whole message of Scripture holds that our lives are measured by the quality of our stewardship of the communities into which God places us.  Our lives are measured by our obedience to God’s law and will, as presented in the Scriptures, especially in the teachings of Jesus. 

            Repeatedly, as we see at the end of Jesus words in this chapter, the people who don’t do so well in the end are those who trash the vineyard while the master is away.  Those who perpetrate injustice and violence are the ones who get taken away to where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

II.

            Rather, we want to be, not the ones who are taken, but the ones who are left behind, like Noah and his family, to build a new world.  Like the Israelites at the time of the Exodus, when the angel of death passed over them, leaving them behind, when the storm of God’s correction blows through, we want to be among the ones still standing, among those blessed to be left behind, with the gentle who inherit the earth, and the poor in spirit to whom belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.

            Jesus repeats the necessity for staying awake, and being always ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.  Because the point is whether we are awake and perceptive and conscious as we work in the field and grind meal now.  The one who is awake doesn’t get taken.  The one who is awake doesn’t let their house be broken into.  The one who is awake is ready for the Son of Man, who comes when no one can predict.  And being ready means having something to show for our discipleship.

            Jesus gives two examples of people working in the field or in the mill.  There doesn’t seem to be any indication of difference between the one who is taken in each case and the one who is left, except perhaps that one is awake and the other isn’t.  One is ready for the coming of the Lord, and the other isn’t.  The one who remains to do God’s work is the one who is mindful, conscious, aware, and anticipating God’s arrival.

            Did you ever notice that there is a difference between a worker who is just in it for the money, and one who is working as an expression of their love?  Some workers are just putting in the time; others pour their heart into their work.  For some, work is just a means to some other end.  But for others, work has meaning and purpose in itself.  Some work only to benefit themselves.  Others understand that our work is something to which we are called by God for the benefit of others and the good of the whole community.  Some sleepwalk selfishly through life, while others are awake to the possibilities and needs around them.

            Situated where it is, between the example of Noah and the call to stay awake for the Lord’s coming, this little illustration about the two pairs of workers tells us that those who consciously anticipate in their work here and now the grace, justice, peace, and blessing of the One who is coming into the world are the ones whom God allows to remain in life.  Their life is in tune with God’s life, and therefore their time participates in God’s time, which is eternal.

III.

            The Apostle Paul makes much the same point in Romans 13.  He contrasts people who live by greed, selfishness, and gluttony, that is, reveling, drunkenness, debauchery, licentiousness, quarreling, and jealousy, with those who live honorable, open lives.  “Make no provision for the flesh,” he says, “to gratify its desires.”  So what Paul warns people about is an existence characterized by wanton consumption, profligate waste, and lawless, mindless avarice.  People were taking God’s good gifts in creation and depleting, degrading, and destroying them, all for the sake of an ephemeral good time. 

            It is a selfish and careless use of what we are given, and it invariably leads to destruction.  Paul calls these practices “the works of darkness,” they are done by those who don’t want to be seen and held responsible, and also who can’t or won’t see the consequences of their own actions.

            We languish under an economy that is based on these works of darkness and could not survive without most people in the world participating in them.  Without reveling and drunkenness, debauchery and licentiousness, quarreling and jealousy, the world economy would collapse tomorrow.  It’s all about selling things that either promote or prevent these kinds of actions.  We’re literally betting on such selfish and corrupt behaviors to characterize human society until we have wasted and consumed the whole planet.

            These works of darkness also describe the behavior of the chief steward Jesus talks about in the parable that concludes Matthew 24.  The household of the absent master is wrecked by the chief steward who oppresses the other workers by beating them and not feeding them, and consuming the master’s resources like an addict on a binge. 

            When the master returns that chief steward is cut off and taken away.  The other workers presumably remain like Noah’s family to rebuild the household.

            There are a bunch of ways we might read this story, none of them very good for the ones represented by the chief steward.  Basically, it means we have to be careful, responsible, and gentle with whatever God leaves in our care.  We have to forego violence and selfishness, greed and acquisitiveness, consumption and wastefulness.  We have to treat others with respect.  The gifts we are given – from our personal talents to other people to the whole of the earth – have to be treated with blessing.  We have to leave the world better than we received it.

            The consequences for falling into depravity and injustice, for allowing the expansion of inequality and destruction and disease, no matter how profitable to a few, are dire and comprehensive.

IV.

            So Paul urges the gathering in Rome not to live this way, but rather “to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.”  Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ means living according to his example, he in whom God empties himself out of boundless love for us, becoming one of us, taking on our life even to the point of shameful death on a cross.  Just as Jesus Christ is the perfect conduit, vessel, or channel, through whom God’s grace and blessing flows into the world, so by “putting him on,” by taking on his life by obedience and imitation of him, we who follow him also become means by which God’s life flows into the world.

            When he says we should make no provision for the flesh, he means that this grace and goodness flowing from God should not be obstructed by our own selfish desire to keep it for ourselves, in which case we lose it anyway.  This is what is happening with the people whose lives are characterized by that list of bad attitudes and behaviors.  This is what the wrong-headed chief steward does in Jesus’ parable.  If we stop the flow of God’s blessing into the world, the world reacts badly, becoming an increasingly inhospitable place.

            Part of living in Christ is having our desires transmuted, so that our desire is not about what we can have, keep, gain, hoard, control, save, or store up, attitudes Jesus rejects all over the place.  In Christ, our desire is mainly to lose ourselves in joy and wonder in the dynamic flow of God’s love through us.

            It is therefore to live in honesty, gentleness, generosity, humility, and peace.  It is to be people of forgiveness and hope, healing and goodness, blessing and light.  In fact, Paul talks about putting on an “armor of light,” like he talks about putting on Christ.

            Christ is this armor of light, he is our protection and our shield, so that when the retributive, correcting shock-wave blows through the world, the consequence of human greed, inequality, selfishness, and violence, taking away the ones who deplete, destroy, and degrade the earth, the disciples will remain. 

            They will remain, left behind, and awake, ready for the coming dawn, when God’s light emerges over the world.  This readiness means living in a certain way while we are here, the gentle, nonviolent, generous, healing, reconciling, blessing way of Jesus.  The day of the Lord’s coming is greeted with joy by those whose lives reflecting his, those through whom his light shines.   

V.

            Here we find the meaning of this season of Advent, the time of the ecclesiastical year when we specifically lift up the importance of the day of the Lord’s coming.  Advent means “coming.”  It is a time to figuratively stay awake as we await the coming of the Lord. 

            It means waking up to the damage we are doing in the world by our sleepwalking in selfishness and violence.  It means learning to find meaning and purpose, even in the work we are called to do.  It means, as Isaiah puts it, walking in the light of the Lord.

            Isaiah’s vision is one of turning from war to peace and from ignorance to knowledge; from the narrow exclusivism geared only towards one nation, to a broadly inclusive embrace of the teachings of the Lord.  Walking in the light of the Lord is putting on the Lord’s armor of light.  It means putting on Christ himself, so that when the time comes we are not taken, but find ourselves left behind to do the will of the One who calls us into community and sends us out in mission.

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