Postkiwi

No one knows the day or hour. The angels in heaven don’t know, and the Son himself doesn’t know. Only the Father knows. When the Son of Man appears, things will be just as they were when Noah lived. People were eating, drinking, and getting married right up to the day that the flood came and Noah went into the big boat. They didn’t know anything was happening until the flood came and swept them all away. That is how it will be when the Son of Man appears.

Two men will be in the same field, but only one will be taken. The other will be left. Two women will be together grinding grain, but only one will be taken. The other will be left. So be on your guard! You don’t know when your Lord will come. Homeowners never know when a thief is coming, and they are always on guard to keep one from breaking in. Always be ready! You don’t know when the Son of Man will come.

Matthew 24:36-44 Contemporary English Version

That’s the reading set down for the 1st Sunday in Advent, used in traditional churches around the world on November 30, 2004. Another version of the same teaching appears in Mark 13:32-37 and Luke 17:26-30, 34-36.

Where’s the good news here?

As a youth worker in 1984 I hired a Christian film to show at a youth sleepover. “A Thief in the Night”, made by Mark IV Pictures in 1972, tells the story of Patty, a young woman who puts off making a decision to follow Christ. Her boyfriend does become a Christian after nearly dying from a snake bite. They get married and move to the suburbs. But without warning he and other Christians are whisked up into the sky, beamed up by God, so to speak. The rapture has come. Patty is left behind to face the tribulation in which a “one-world government” forces people to take the mark of the Beast. New Christians are hunted down. The soundtrack, if I remember right, includes Larry Norman’s song, “Left Behind”. The movie was not well made and was clearly dated with early 1970s culture. But it was one of the ’safe’ movies that our church would allow me to show.

So what was the result? I vividly remember the expression of panic by a 14 year old member of the youth group. She was so scared she might end up in the same situation as Patty. But did it motivate her to do anything? No. If anything, she was paralysed by fear.

I don’t think ‘panic attack’ was what Jesus intended to achieve in his words about the ‘end times’. If anything, I believe he’s trying to get people to stop fixating on the future and start focusing on the present in a way that will prepare people for any contingency. It has always seemed strange to me that people read this passage and proceed to lead seminars and publish books telling people that the second coming of Jesus is imminent.

So what’s the gospel here? What’s the good news? Is there a challenge for me? Was there good news for the 14 year old girl in 1984, now 34 years old?

I think there’s a reality check from Jesus, to start with. He challenges us to get real about our ability to predict the future. Even he isn’t able to tell us about everything that will happen. This was good news for me as I tried to deal with the sales pitches of prophets of doom in the 1980s. There may have been indications that nuclear war would wipe us all out. There may have been signs of environmental disaster. Species becoming extinct could eventually include the human race. But it’s not as clear cut as these prophets make out. The future is up for grabs.

Secondly, Jesus gives us the opportunity to do something about our future. Get ready. We don’t know what the future will bring. But we can prepare ourselves to face the unknown.

A couple of weeks ago we had a freak storm on the Gold Coast. A flash flood swept through our house. Normally we might have coped with this. We have a good drainage system which I had only improved a few weeks beforehand. But one of the drains had a large leaf swept onto it and within minutes the water had built up so that one end of the house had water against the floor-to-ceiling windows. The seals didn’t cope and we ended up with one flooded bedroom. An event that was out of my control. Fortunately I was home that morning to unblock the drain and prevent worse damage. We were able to salvage the carpet with help from the insurance company. They’re replacing all furniture made of particle board with new solid furniture.

We were prepared for disaster. We had an insurance policy. We had an idea of how to act quickly in emergency. It sounds a bit like the Boy Scouts (now just Scout Association) I belonged to in the 1970s. Baden Powell’s motto passed on - “Be Prepared”.

I believe that staying in relationship with the Creator of the universe is the ultimate way to prepare for whatever the future may hold. But I’m talking about a relationship that leads to making history. Not a relationship based around a contract to keep us out of hell or protect us from the ‘tribulation’.

Enough for today. I’ve got something to write on the rapture. And something on the song, “People Get Ready”. And on the return of Jesus. Later…