“But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. As the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be . . . Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one will be left. Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.”—Matthew 24: 36-42, World English Bible.
By Erin Wiens St. John for prayr.cc (CC BY 2.0)
I love almost everything about Advent. I love the special liturgy after Ordinary Time. I love reflecting on the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love. I love the focus on Mary and women’s response to the sacred.
There is, however, one thing I hate about Advent. That’s the Bible texts on the first Sunday. Texts like Matthew 24.
Like many other Christians, I have mixed feelings about the idea of the End Times.
I’m intrigued by the various doctrines, like the Second Coming and the bodily resurrection. But it’s always felt presumptuous to claim that I know exactly how the End Times will go. And theologizing about then seems rather superfluous to how I think and pray in the here and now.
A few months ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and took a personality quiz. Yeah, I know, it was bad—but I really needed a guilty pleasure.
Three catastrophic events had happened in a single day. A dear friend was unexpectedly on the verge of death, my health was crumbling, and my career had seemed to stall out. It was an impressively awful day.
As I absentmindedly sought refuge in the quiz, I read one of the questions. It asked how I defined a “good” day. Was it a day when I could look in the mirror and smile? A day when I felt happy? A day when I finished my to-do list?
I didn’t answer the question for a long time. Because, at the end of this long and horrifically difficult day, I was neither happy nor productive nor smiling. But was I prepared to call it a bad day?
The Gospel text for today tells us that Jesus comes at an unpredictable time. And as I sat through the end of the day, I realized I was the unprepared woman in the parable.
I was taking the day on the surface, seeing it as “the world” would see it. One where bad news was irredeemable. Where God only showed up in the good places.
So I tried to become the other woman, the woman who looked for God even though she didn’t know where or when the Divine would show up. I tried to reach out and see God in the unexpected, in the unusual, in the difficult.
I didn’t do it perfectly. I doubt I ever will. But when I began to look, I did find God showing up in the “bad” things, turning them into beauty.
I took solace in the way my friend’s illness brought our families together. I realized I could use my own health problems to sink deeper into my dependence on God. And I was able to look forward to how the career difficulties would strengthen my ability to sit with uncertainty and mystery.
Don’t get me wrong—the day was still hard. But it was made so much easier by my choice to prepare for Jesus in the unexpected, rather than burying my head in the sand and refusing to “keep awake.”
That’s one of the biggest gifts my faith has given me. Jesus tells us to be alert, for we do not know when and where he might show up. If we just look for him in the wonderful and good, we’ll miss him in the hopelessly ordinary, in the grinding of meal or the harvesting in the field.
Harder still, we’ll miss his presence in the catastrophically difficult moments.
What if Matthew 24 is about keeping awake for Jesus in the here and now? Perhaps it is preparing us to look for Christ in unexpected places in the world around us. Look sharp–if you keep awake, you may even find Christ in a manger.
Related Scripture
World English Bible, Matthew 24: 36-44:
“But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven,* but my Father only. 37 As the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, 39 and they didn’t know until the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.
Related Media
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The Apocalyptic Literature by Stephen Cook
A great book for chewing on the End Times.
Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi
On how making space can be generative indeed.