Moving Outside the Lines

Based on Matthew 1:18-25
Revision of a sermon first delivered Dec. 22, 2013
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            What was Joseph to do? Here he is, a righteous Jew, believed by tradition to be an older man, perhaps a widow, who has agreed to take as his wife this young, orphaned girl, so that she will have someone to care for her. He is trying to be helpful. And what happens? Mary is pregnant and Joseph knows he is not the father. What is a righteous Jew to do?

            Now, if he keeps Mary as his wife, it will be a disgrace. He will have to lie and say that he impregnated Mary before they had wed, which would put him to shame. Or he could tell the truth and say that someone else impregnated her, which is adultery and puts her to shame. He is righteous so he would not lie, even if that would protect her honor in the eyes of the public. But his gentleness prevents him from putting Mary to public shame.

            Joseph has two ways to end their betrothal. One option is to go to the city gate and gather together a group of ten men to serve as a court and announce publicly what Mary has done, to get that public ruling so everyone knows what has happened. But there is another option that is much more discreet. All Joseph has to do is have written a note of dismissal, place it in Mary’s hand, and send her out of his house. He chooses to dismiss her quietly so that she does not have to endure public shame. Mary could then go in hiding. Or perhaps Elizabeth, her aunt, may take her in? They could figure something out. That way Mary and Joseph could move on with their lives. Sending Mary off with discretion seemed to Joseph as the most righteous and compassionate choice.

            But this is not what God had in mind. It was God’s intention that Jesus be in the ancestral line of David. For that to happen, Joseph, who is in that line, had to be the father, at least so that the case can arguably be made that this boy is of his line…even though he is the son of God. It’s a complicated situation. So, God intervenes. In a dream, an angel speaks to Joseph, saying to him, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” The angel goes on to assure Joseph that Mary was not impregnated by another man. This is a holy child, indeed, the very son of God. Mary has conceived by the Holy Spirit. Every conception is a miracle. A number of things can go wrong that prevents conception. But this conception is a miracle of miracles. God is the father. But this child needs an earthly father from the line of David to fulfill the prophecy of the messiah as one who is of the line of David. So, Joseph is told not to be afraid to marry Mary and to adopt the child as his own. God even gives Joseph the responsibility to name the child, to give the child legitimacy in the eyes of society, even though Joseph and Mary know the truth. How the conception happened is to be kept secret, at least for now. The time will come for this miraculous truth to be spoken. For now, God tells Joseph to set aside what the law required. In this unique case, what was required for righteousness was for Joseph to remain with Mary through her pregnancy, to name the child, and to claim him as his own, even though he and Mary knew the truth about who the father is…none other than God.

            Can we just acknowledge that this whole situation is messy? It really put Joseph and Mary in an awkward situation. The easiest and, frankly, the righteous decision was for Joseph to dismiss Mary, to wipe his hands of the whole affair. But this situation had complications. The father is God, but Joseph is needed so the child will have legitimacy. Joseph doing what the law required would have messed up the divine plan. What righteousness required in this case required moving outside of the law that God had established. What a dilemma.

            I wonder if sometimes the plan God has for us, the dilemmas we find ourselves in, require us to do things outside of the lines. I’m not saying that God ever calls us to do things that are immoral. What I am saying is that sometimes what is required of us pushes us outside the constraints of written regulations or what has traditionally been believed about what is right. For the situation that Mary and Joseph found themselves in, there were written regulations, established by God, that were to be followed. Except in this case God was asking them to act outside those regulations. God placed them in a moral dilemma. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was in on a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, reflected on how sometimes what God requires means using deception and taking a life. What righteousness requires isn’t always clear cut. It can be messy. For Joseph to make the right choice, rather than default to what the law demanded, God had to make an intervention, to speak to Joseph in a dream, asking him to do something that was morally complicated.

            After Joseph receives God’s message through the dream, Joseph changes his mind and consents to God’s will. This is a point not to be missed. Joseph, with good intentions, was going to go in a way that put a kink in God’s plans. God intervenes, to persuade Joseph to choose another way. He did not compel Joseph to change his mind. He gave Joseph the freedom to decide, to consent, to say yes to God’s will, even if that meant moving outside the lines. What great freedom and power we have, to reject or accept God’s will for us. We are never forced to do what God wants for us. We get to choose.

            Life is full of dilemmas. What is the right thing to do isn’t always clear in real life. Life gets messy. Rev. Frank Schaefer found himself in a dilemma. His son asked him to preside over his marriage to another man, a same-gendered marriage that our Book of Discipline forbids clergy to perform. Perhaps the easy way out, the most righteous, at least according to the tradition, would have been to handle this discreetly, to work out some creative way to honor his son’s request without actually performing the marriage. But how would that affect his relationship with his son and the rest of his family? What harm would be done? Rev. Schaffer presided over his son’s wedding, sacrificing his own ordination due to a process that held the line on the written laws but missed the discernment that Frank came to of what God called him to do.

            This dilemma of honoring the ordination of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender expression, and the celebration of same-gender weddings, is a dilemma that we have struggled with as a church for as long as the United Methodist Church has existed. The question that drives so much of our struggle is over what is the righteous thing to do. What is God’s intention? It appears increasingly likely that as we move to General Conference in only five months, our church will determine to dismiss each other. Will it be public and loud or will it be quiet and discreet? Who knows? But the division, which in many ways has already happened, will likely be finalized. It is a dilemma that is pushing our church apart. But is that God’s will for us? Or is God trying to persuade us that there is a way to remain together that requires moving outside the lines?

            Our nation is caught in a dilemma, with a president who generates such sharp reactions positive and negative and a party spirit between Democrats and Republicans that have become even more polarizing. It does seem at times that the political divisions in our nation are so great that in some ways we are experiencing a schism of some kind. Each side on the divide are convinced of their own righteousness. Are we meant to dismiss each other? Will the ties that bind our nation together hold? I wonder if the gulf that divides our nation requires finding a way to stay together that may require us to move outside the lines, to get out of our political camps and find some way to reason together without demonizing each other. I feel that is what God’s intentions are for us as a nation. But where is this happening? Do we have the courage to do this?

            What we do know is that God has a plan. God has intentions. God’s intentions are for salvation, for the mending of creation that is broken, fractured into a million pieces. God’s intentions are to make all things new, to restore, to reconcile, to establish order out of chaos, to establish righteousness, peace, harmony, and joy. God’s intention is to generate a community of all creation that sings God’s praises.

            In this world of brokenness, sin, confusion, God has intervened. The issues were different but the world was as broken and confused 2,000 years ago as it is now. But 2,000 years ago God became one of us, being born of Mary and adopted by Joseph as his own son. And now, 2,000 years later, the Church remains as a community through which God’s presence endures. God dwells in our midst. God is with us. God will never leave us, nor forsake us, in this broken, dilemma filled world in which we live.

            This is what we celebrate this time of year. In our time of dilemmas, in our time of uncertainty about which way is best, which way is righteous, we believe that God is with us all along the way. Today, let us pray for the church, for the United Methodist Church, and for our nation, where there is so much division and the open question if we are to dismiss each other. We need divine intervention. We need to hear a word from God to help us know how we are to find a way to stay together, even if that means moving outside the lines. Let us be open to God’s leading and consent to what we hear, no matter the cost, so that God’s will can be done, so that the brokenness of the world can be mended.

Go and Tell What You See and Hear

Based on Matthew 11:2-11
Revision of a sermon first delivered Dec. 15, 2013
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” That’s the question John had in his mind as he sat in jail. Here is John, who last week was proclaiming a coming messiah with an ax in one hand, a winnowing fork in the other, and a bag of unquenchable fire in his back pocket. The messiah was coming, who would purge all the wicked and redeem the righteous, clean house, make everything right. The righteous would be gathered together like wheat in the barn while the wicked would be like chaff thrown in the fire.

            But as John sits in prison, he gets word somehow that Jesus was out there, doing his thing, but there was no judging going on. The wicked powers that be were still in charge. Those who struggled to be righteous were still facing all kinds of hardships. John himself is a perfect example. He was sitting in prison because he made the mistake of speaking truth to power. He called out Herod for his illicit affair with his brother’s wife. Little does John know that before long he will have his head cut off as a consequence of the drunken foolishness of Herod and the heartless scheming of Herodias. So much for the expectation that the messiah was coming with judgment to gather in the righteous and destroy the wicked.

            John appears to be having some doubts about Jesus. And who would blame him? In those days there were great expectations that the messiah was coming to fix things, to bring down the foreign occupation, to throw Caesar off his throne and cast the Roman empire into the abyss and restore the rightful place of the House of David as the royal nation to which all the other nations will be drawn toward. That’s the kind of messiah that John was expecting. And when this wild and noble prophet of the wilderness was presented with the responsibility to baptize Jesus he resisted, saying that he ought to be the one to be baptized. He thought he knew who Jesus was…the long-expected messiah, of the line of David, who would reestablish that line and make Israel great again.

            And yet, John sits in prison. John’s imprisonment is a perfect example of what was so wrong in the world he lived in. Here is the great forerunner, the one whom Jesus declares is the greatest of all prophets, the one whose righteousness drew people out into the wilderness to see, to receive a baptism of repentance, a great and holy man. Yet he is in prison while the wicked Herod and the even more dastardly Caesar remains in charge. The messiah is here yet nothing is changing. Something is wrong. John finds himself needing some reassurance from Jesus that he is the one, or if they are to wait for another to make things right.

            So, John’s disciples go to Jesus to ask him the question. Jesus gives them an answer, but, as is typical with Jesus, he doesn’t give them a straight answer. It would have been nice if Jesus had flat out said, “Yes, I am the messiah.” Instead, Jesus gives John’s disciples a ministry report. He lists for them all the ways that he demonstrates that he is the messiah. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. No judgment? No casting the bad people into the fires of hell? No separating the wheat from the chaff? No winnowing fork? No axe lying at the root of the trees? No unquenchable fire? No. None of that. The messiah that John described in the wilderness is not the messiah that Jesus is demonstrating.

            Now it is up to John and his disciples to decide for themselves if Jesus is the messiah or not. He’s not using an axe or a winnowing fork. He’s not throwing around unquenchable fire. But he is healing people and raising people from the dead. He’s declaring good news to the poor, the downtrodden, the forgotten ones, the marginalized, the nobodies, the deplorables. John was doubting if Jesus was the messiah because Jesus wasn’t acting like John thought a messiah was supposed to act. He doubted because his expectations were wrong. John needed to rethink his preconceived notions of what the messiah was supposed to do.

            We shouldn’t be hasty in judging John’s misconceived expectations, though. In those days, messiah and king were nearly synonymous. Messiah is Hebrew for “anointed one.” Kings are anointed ones as well. When you call someone a messiah you are calling him a king. Jesus is the king of kings and Lord of Lords, as George Frederich Handel reminds us in the Hallelujah Chorus. So, what is King Jesus doing? He is healing people. He is caring for the poor and vulnerable. Jesus was acting like how a king is supposed to act. But that’s not John’s experience of kings. For John, kings are more like tyrants. A tyrant comes in guns blazing, or, in John’s day, with an axe, a winnowing fork and unquenchable fire. The tyrant, like the Caesar, takes over and gathers his chosen elite, the successful, the wealthy, the winners, the sycophants, are all gathered into the tyrant’s palace while the rest are oppressed and forced into servitude. Tyrant kings are comfortable with wielding axes and winnowing forks. When John thought of kings, the images that came to his mind were grounded in his own experience, so he laid those images on Jesus, the true messiah. But this messiah would take his axe and winnowing fork and fire to restore justice, to burn up the wicked and gather in the righteous. But Jesus is not a tyrant. Jesus is a true king. He does not confine himself to palaces. This king is with the people, helping the poor and sick, socializing with sinners, calling out the hardened hearts of the supposed leaders who care more about themselves than the people they are to shepherd. Jesus is acting like how a messiah is supposed to act and John doesn’t recognize this. John did not understand how kings were supposed to act. His experiences of kings had been quite different.

            But there is something else about John’s question that bears mentioning. Maybe the question John asked is the question the world is asking. I have a hunch that if you ask anyone if they think everything is right in the world, that person would say no, things are not right with the world. I bet that response would be at 100%. The examples of how broken the world is are massive. We get new examples every day.

            But are people looking for a messiah to come and fix everything? I’m not sure. We live in a jaded world. Most people don’t believe in messiahs anymore. We don’t have confidence that a single great person, like a superhero, will come to save the day, riding in on his white horse, or coming down his escalator in a building with his name on it, who is going to come in and make everything right in the world, someone who alone can fix it. The assassinations of John Kennedy, of Martin Luther King, of Robert Kennedy, killed the delusion of the single great leader who will turn everything around. The 20^th century as a whole destroyed for many the idea that the world can be made right. The world wars, the Holocaust, nuclear annihilation of cities and the threat of the destruction of the planet during the cold war that is being renewed in these days, the scandals that have brought down so many. It seems the best we can hope for is to muddle along somehow and hope for the best.

            Still, even though we live in a jaded world, there is still a yearning for something better. Every now and then, a great leader does touch a nerve buried deep in the heart of the world that calls forth a better world. Not a better world that the singular leader can bring about on their own, but a better world that we can create together. Martin Luther King did that with his vision of the beloved community. Although some of his luster has worn off, the first few years of the reign of Pope Francis inspired the world to be more compassionate toward the poor and to care for God’s creation. Even though the world is full of cynics, there is still a yearning to be inspired, to be given an example of how the world should be.

            Guess what? Jesus has given us a message to share with the world, a message about how the world should be. Our message is not only that Jesus is the messiah, but that Jesus heals, sets free, brings good news to the poor. Jesus is the real messiah, the true king. The message we have been given to share goes beyond words, however. It is a message that we are to demonstrate. We, the church, are sent out into the world to witness about who Jesus is, both by what we say, and especially by what we do.

            And what is so powerful is that when we are faithful witnesses, both by sharing our experience of Christ and sharing what we have to make lives better for others, those who see and hear can have their own experience of Jesus as their messiah, their king. They receive an experience through our hands, our voices, our presence, that can shape their lives and move them to bear witness themselves.

            I am thinking about those who come to the Breakfast with Santa at the Westside Free Store at Westgate and those who come to the food pantry at Parkview. I am thinking of Jordan’s Crossing and The Refuge, who bring healing and good news to the homeless and addicted. I am thinking of CATCH Court that brings new life to women trapped in the life of prostitution. I am thinking of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of churches throughout central Ohio, big, small and in between, who in big ways and small ways demonstrate a different kind of world, a world in which people are loved, embraced, built up, made well, restored, filled with hope and joy.

            We live in a world that is tired of the mindless consumerism and sappy sentimentality of the “holiday season.” People need to hear about a messiah, an anointed one, a king, who does not singlehandedly come in to dismantle and rearrange the world. We tell a story of a messiah who gives us an example of how we are to live differently in the world, a messiah who leads us to embody, make real, an alternative world. By bearing witness to this alternative story, in which people are healed, people are given new life, people are hearing good news, we give the world an example of who Jesus is, the true messiah, the anointed one, the king.

            Jesus told John’s disciples to go back and tell John what they see and hear. Jesus tells us to go and tell others what we see and hear, the ways that lives are still changed, how love is made real, that there are still moments when joy bursts forth in the darkness. Let us bear witness to the truth of the gospel, that we are created from love for love. Let us demonstrate that there is a messiah, there is one who we serve, one who, little by little, is establishing here and there peace, hope, and joy.

Getting Past John

Based on Matthew 3:1-12
Revision of a sermon delivered Dec. 8, 2013
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            Christmas is only a few more weeks away. Homes are decorated with beautiful lights and all kinds of creative lawn art, inflatable snowmen, manger scenes, Santa’s sleigh. Television has lots of holiday programming. Christmas cards are filling up our mailboxes. We are gearing up for all the holiday parties and family traditions that mark this special time of the year.

            But before we get to Christmas, we must get past John the Baptist, the one whom Barbara Brown Taylor dubs God’s Doberman Pinscher. We are walking merrily along the way to Christmas, humming Christmas carols as we go, enjoying all the pretty lights, when all of a sudden ROOH-ROOH-ROOH, and we jump back and see this snarling dog barking at us and chasing us away from their house.

            Repent, confess your sins, you brood of vipers, who warned you about the coming wrath, bear fruit worthy of repentance, an ax, a pitchfork, unquenchable fire, all these disturbing and challenging images are thrown at us, when all we want to do this time of year is light our little candles and sing “Silent Night.” Yes, John the Baptist with his clothing of camel hair and diet of locusts and wild honey and jarring message disturbs our move toward Christmas, snapping us out of our sweet musings, candy canes and sugar plum fairies and into some hard truths. Before we can get to the baby Jesus, we have to get past John. We have to hear his call to repent. That’s part of our Advent preparation…to repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And like we talked about last week, when that kingdom comes is unknown to any of us. It could happen at any moment. So, to be ready, we have to repent.

            Repentance must be the first step of our preparations for the coming of the Lord. And that makes sense. Why? Because of grace. Everything about God is bathed in grace. But grace means nothing unless you realize you need it. Grace is only needed if you have messed up first. Grace is getting to work late but not having your pay docked. Grace is a chance to retake your test if you fail the first time. Grace is getting more time to pay back your loan without a penalty. Grace is being told after you have screwed something up that it’s going to be o.k. Grace means nothing, unless we first realize that we need it. That’s what repentance, confessing our screw ups, is all about. Repentance is the key that unlocks the treasure chest of grace. To have the opportunity to repent, to confess our sins, and to hear the words, “I forgive you,” is good news indeed!

            Yet, repentance is so hard for us sometimes. We rationalize, saying to ourselves that what we did wasn’t that bad. Or we deny that we did anything wrong. We become defensive. We have a tendency to blame others for our messes. There was someone I worked with during my seminary days. He was the director of the choir, both at the church I attended and the seminary choir. I served as his secretary, which mainly meant regularly breaking copyright laws by making multiple copies of music for choir members who had a tendency to lose their music every other week. Steve was a passionate man, a real charmer but also temperamental and stubborn. Someone gave him a coffee mug for a gift which fit Steve perfectly. Written on the side of the mug was, “The boss takes full and direct responsibility for assigning blame.” Sometimes we much rather wish to assign blame than take the blame. To admit wrongdoing takes some humility. We don’t always want to admit that we failed, that we were wrong, that we are responsible for the mess up.

            Sometimes we resist repenting, acknowledging our mistakes, because we don’t expect anything better for ourselves. We sometimes think we screw up because we are screw ups. Julie goes from one relationship to the next, leaving a trail of broken hearts all along the way. She knows she is hurting people. She knows she is hurting herself. But she can’t make long term commitments. She remembers how bad her mom and dad got along. She doesn’t want to be stuck in a bad relationship. So, she always finds a way to wreck the relationship. And she doesn’t see things changing for her. It’s just who she is. She will never be able to settle down in a relationship. She will never find her soul mate.

            When the pressure builds, and he’s feeling the stress with the demands of work and family, Carl does what he always does. He escapes into the internet, shutting himself off from his family, from his job, from everything, numbing himself with the mindless diversion of computer games. He’s always been this way. He remembers how his dad would get lost in his books. Carl would have to pry the book out of his dad’s hands to get his attention when he was a boy. His father was distant at times, almost molded into his reading chair. Like his dad, Carl tunes everyone out, except instead of reading books he stares at a computer screen. This is how he is. For Julie and Carl, the idea of repenting, of acknowledging their shortcomings and committing to make a change in how they live, how they relate with others, they just don’t see that happening. They are who they are. They don’t think they can change. So why even bother repenting? There’s no point.

            Sometimes we look around us and the situation we find ourselves in, and we don’t like what we see. Our lives are not what we want them to be. They haven’t been for a long time. We’ve tried to change, but we fall back to old habits and patterns, things don’t change, and despair creeps in. Repent? Change my way of living? Been there, tried that, didn’t work.

            I am sure there were people like that who were coming out to hear John. They had tried and failed over and over. There were times when they felt bad about themselves, like they couldn’t do any better, damaged goods. But there was still a small flicker of hope. They came out to hear John’s message of repentance, to hear him say that we can start over again, that the past doesn’t have to determine our future. The past can’t be changed. What is done is done. But the future is wide open. The future doesn’t have to reflect the past. Change remains possible.

            Not only is change possible, for God change is expected. No matter what has happened to us, no matter how much we have screwed up, hurt others, hurt ourselves, we are not damaged goods. We are precious. That we were even born was a miracle. We are cherished by God. We are formed in the image of God. Because of who we are, as children of God, we are expected to live like that. We can’t use our past as an excuse for not living a holy life. We are made for holiness. When we live right, we are living as we were designed to live. When we mess up, it’s not because we are living as we were designed. That’s a manifestation of sin that distorts our inherent goodness. It is sin that has gotten us off kilter. God expects us to repent because God knows that when we mess up, it’s a failure to be who God has created us to be. We are good trees, not bad trees. God expects good fruit. God knows we can produce it.

            Like those who went out to John, we need to hear that message that repentance is possible. We want to know that today can be a new start. We want to experience the cleansing waters of the baptism of repentance, to wash off our mistakes and hurts, to start over again, and again, and again. That’s what repentance is. Repentance, acknowledging our sin and committing to change for the better, is an act of faith, the faith that God forgives and renews, the faith that God never gives up on us, the faith that change is possible. It is an act of hope, the hope that we can make different choices, that we can start over, that we can live differently.

            So, today, let us respond to the preaching of John who says to us, “Repent!” Let us confess our sins to God. Let us admit our failures to others. Let us face the hard truths about ourselves. Not to beat up on ourselves. Not so that we will feel ashamed or think that we are screw ups. Let us be honest about our shortcomings in the light of God’s mercy, the One who judges us but also graciously forgives us when we repent. God is for us. God is not against us. God believes in us and knows that we can live the life God desires for us because we are designed to live that life of holiness. We are God’s children. Today, we can begin again, and live today the life we are meant to live, as sons and daughters of God. Today, let us hear the plea of John, heed his call, and move past John toward the return of the King.

Some Deadlines Are Best Not Known

Based on Matt. 24:36-44
First delivered Dec. 1, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            If you knew for a fact that today will be your last day of life, how would you live it? Where would you be right now? I suspect most of us would be spending today saying good bye to those we love, saying what needs to be said. If we have an appetite, we would be eating our favorite foods. We would make sure our affairs are in order. We would spend the day with our family and friends. We would not want to waste a moment. It would be so striking to us of how precious life is when we know that in less than twenty-four hours it will be over, at least on this side of the veil. The promise of eternal life becomes much more meaningful when we know that our life on earth is about to end.

            If you knew for a fact that the Lord was coming back today, what would you do? Would it be any different from how you answered the first question I asked? I would think that if we know that Jesus is coming back today we would want to make sure that we are right with the Lord. Who do we need to forgive? Will we not be on our best behavior? We would definitely want to be our best self. We would want to make sure that when Jesus comes we are doing something good. We wouldn’t want to be angry at anybody. We would want to be in a good mood with a song on our lips, preferably a hymn or praise song. You don’t want to be caught sinning when Jesus comes back, right?

            Knowing what the future holds makes a big influence on how we live now. Everything we decide to do, how we spend our time, who we spend time with, what plans we make or what things we care about, all of this is shaped by what we believe the future holds for us. And the sharper the understanding of what is coming has a greater effect on the present.

            For example, when you know a deadline is looming, it has a tendency to sharpen your focus. For me, I know that Sunday is coming. So, once Friday rolls around, and Sunday is only two days out, my focus begins to sharpen around the need to get my sermon together. This is how deadlines work. They are a powerful motivator to set everything else aside and focus on the task at hand. It is impressive what can be accomplished when there is a hard deadline with consequences if you miss the deadline. Clarity about the future, especially the immediate future, gives us great motivation to focus and to use the time we have to accomplish what needs accomplished.

            But when you don’t have a set deadline, then there is a tendency to lose focus. Imagine if going forward you had to file your federal income tax whenever you can get around to it. If you can’t get your forms in by April 15, there is no need to apply for an extension. Just, whenever. Any thoughts on the percentage of American taxpayers who will submit their federal tax forms by April 15? I bet the percentage will drop dramatically if April 15 is just a date and not a deadline with consequences. I would like to think that I would still come to church on Sunday with a sermon to deliver, even if having a sermon for you became optional. Preparing and delivering sermons is one of the main things I do. It’s a process that I get a lot of pleasure from. But if our tendency is to not focus on things without deadlines, there is a good chance that there would be a Sunday or two when I would show up without a sermon if it’s no longer expected I have one every Sunday. If it’s a particularly hectic week, or maybe I decide to just be lazy, then I can just shrug my shoulders and say to myself, “Eh, I’ll skip this Sunday. Having a sermon for the people isn’t a requirement. They won’t mind.” If that was the case, then there is a good chance that you wouldn’t get a sermon from me every Sunday, even though it is part of my life purpose. An ambiguous future with a lack of deadlines has the tendency to influence us to live a less focused life. When we don’t know what we are aiming for, what we are working for, what is expected of us, what deadlines are laying out there to meet, then our tendency is to bounce from interest to interest, fritter away time, and live without a sense of purpose or urgency. Just ask someone who is recently retired what this must be like when they suddenly have no job to go to, no one to report to, no work-related tasks to complete. Adjusting to retired life takes some time, to get some kind of structure in your life, some purpose and focus. I imagine retired life can be a wonderful time, when you finally have the time to do all those things and take up all those interests and hobbies you didn’t have time for when you were working. But until you get some kind of established routine or set some kind of deadlines for yourself, I imagine life can be pretty unfocused and, if not addressed, can become frustrating and maybe even a bit depressing. What is it like to live without a purpose or goal in front of you to work toward? As kids we didn’t have purposes or goals. But once you hit the age of responsibility, purpose and goals are critical to having a meaningful life. Without them, life can be less meaningful. And the clearer the purpose of our living, the sharper the goals, the more pressing the deadlines, the more focused and meaningful is our lives. We need clarity to help us live with intentionality.

            This is part of what is a little frustrating about what Jesus says in this passage today. No one knows when the end will come and the Lord will return except the Father. There is no hard and fast deadline. It’s going to happen but no one knows when. It’s open ended. It could happen today or it could happen next week, or it could happen next year, or not until another century, or two, or ten or twenty. No one knows.

            Because there is uncertainty about when the Lord will come back, what are we to do? I think for most of us, since there is no hard date for the Lord’s return, we don’t really think about it. We have more pressing concerns, other deadlines that need met, other plans to make, tasks to be done, work to do. As Jesus puts it, we have harvesting to do and grain to process at the mill. We have to get supper ready and plan Jenny’s wedding. The return of the Lord may be in the back of our minds from time to time. We may think more about it when it is brought up this time of year, in the season of Advent. Or we might hear a song about the Lord coming soon, or maybe we hear someone who points to signs of the end times and gets us thinking about the Lord’s return. But most of the time we don’t even think about the Lord’s return. It’s something that will happen but there is such uncertainty about when that it’s just not something that demands our attention or focus. I wonder how things would be different if we all knew for a fact what date that would happen. What difference would it make in how we live our lives?

            I have heard of a military base in Iraq that has this sentence written above the exit out of the base in huge letters. You see it every time you leave the base. It says, “Is this the day?” What a striking statement. Every time the troops head out of the base to go on patrol or execute a mission they are reminded that today could be the day that they lose their lives, pay the ultimate sacrifice, in service to our nation. It is a sobering reminder that when they leave the relatively safe confines of the base they need to be aware of their surroundings, be vigilant, do everything possible in the execution of their mission to make sure that they and their team get back alive. They don’t know the answer if this is the day. But the posing of the question generates a powerful motivation to be vigilant, to do everything possible so at the end of the day you can say, “no, today was not the day.” The possibility that this could be the day was all it took to give them the motivation they needed to be vigilant and to look after their brothers and sisters in uniform.

            Let me ask a slightly different question than the first one I asked. What if you knew for a fact that your life will end in two months? What would you do with that time? Well, you probably won’t be making long term plans for yourself. You would be wanting to go to as many places as you have been wanting to go as you are able. There would be pressure to complete your so-called “bucket list.” You probably won’t be wanting to spend your time on trivial things. At the same time, would you be able to have a good night’s sleep? I can imagine that the knowledge of that literal deadline would weigh on you like nothing else. It would press on everything you think about. Who would you tell? Would you want people to know? I can imagine that if you told people when you got the news that you only have 60 days of life left some people wouldn’t believe you, others would start acting differently around you and maybe others would avoid you. I just think that if we knew that we only have 60 days of life that this knowledge would be overwhelming. It would spark a wave of emotions and quite a bit of anxiety. I bet there would be times that we would wish we didn’t know the day.

            I wonder if it is part of God’s wisdom to keep from us when will be our last day of life and when the Lord will come back. Even though we are more focused and intentional about how we live and what we do when there is a hard deadline in front of us, the end of our lives or the end of this world are pretty heavy-duty deadlines. To know that date would just be too much. The weight of that knowledge could be crushing. So, perhaps it is an act of grace that the knowledge of when the end will come is kept from us. We all know that the end will come. We all know that one day each of us will die and we believe that one day the Lord will return. Exactly when is kept from us. And that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing to keep it in the back of your mind that today could be the day. Not something to obsess over, but just as a gentle reminder that life is precious and how we live day by day matters. If we have the privilege of being alive when the Lord returns we want to be ready. When the time comes for us to draw our last breath we want to be ready. There is wisdom to live each day as if it could be our last. Because it might be.