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.