Matthew 24.36-34 The sudden coming of salvation

“For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

An interesting choice of example for Jesus Christ. Who knew the flood was coming? Noah.

Who prepared for the flood that was coming? Noah.

Who was saved when the flood came? Those who had prepared.

Which begs the question: Who knew Jesus Christ was coming? Who was prepared for when he arrived? Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, and Rebecca knew, didn’t they? Who else knew? The 3 wise men. The strangers from the East.

And where did Christianity spread first? Who was saved first? Did you know that the Middle East was once a thriving Christian area? Did you know that through the Dark Ages of Europe, the Middle East was the center of enlightenment and knowledge? While Europeans were wallowing in darkness and despair, waiting for peace and prosperity to return, other parts of the world didn’t stop spreading the hope of Christ.

Waiting is hard. I use umcdiscipleship.org to check the lectionary readings each week. While I am doing this, I generally read the message in their “Planning Worship” section just because I’m the kind of person who, when I see words, I have to read them. It’s a compulsion. This week, the short example story was about a mom sitting in a doctor’s office waiting with her child, who kept saying, “How much longer, Mom?” We’ve all been there, even if that was us, not the child whining about waiting.

I am currently in this time of waiting. My husband and I are in the process of relocating to my hometown. We no longer live in our old home, which we are trying to sell, and despite that it has been over a month, we just closed on our new home last Friday; it will still be another week before we “might” be able to move into our new home.

I want my new life to begin. I want to move into my new house, start the process of unpacking, setting up a new home, and rearranging things twelve times until I figure out new life rhythms and where things fit best. I’ll be working remotely, trying to get my counseling business off the ground and hopefully thriving, so I can pay bills (preferably one mortgage, not two). I’ve got papers to write for seminary. I do not have an office space.

I have only a few of my belongings that I was able to fit in my car to drive here, as most of my car was filled with things that could not go into storage, such as cleaning products, paint, anything flammable, liquid, or perishable, etc. So, what I have is a pile of stuff I cannot use right now until I get into my new home, and a minimal amount of things that are of use to me and… I’m waiting. It sucks.

Imagine for a moment you are Noah, who is building his temporary home, where only he and his immediate family will reside, along with a whole lot of smelly animals. You’re really busy at first, preparing, gathering supplies in preparation for God’s promise. People are making fun of you, saying it will never happen.

I remember this time well in the month preceding my move here. Do you have any idea how much crap is in a three-bedroom house with a full basement and a garage after living there for fifteen years? So much preparation in so little time. I was exhausted every day. Filling boxes, prepping furniture, sorting out what I needed and didn’t need, getting rid of things I didn’t need, finding a new home for things that were nice but just weren’t going to fit into the new home I hope to live in one day, that I didn’t yet own. For the record, I currently own two homes and don’t live in either one.

But Noah believed in God’s promise and plan, so Noah prepared. I believe that one day… I don’t know when yet, but I am hopeful it’s next week. God will put me into my new home, and God will make sure we can keep our finances from collapsing. Because we know that the flood came just as God said it would. Not on Noah’s timeline but on God’s.

So, God shut Noah and all the animals up in the ark and then… they waited. They hung out in limbo as it rained for forty days and forty nights. I can relate. It’s been 30 already, and yes, it has rained, and it has snowed, and I have been cold and feeding the old wood stove of this tiny little summer cabin to prevent pipes, myself and my dog from freezing. Every day I whine, “How much longer?” Every day, I pray, please don’t let it be like Noah.

Can you imagine how excited Noah must have been when the rain stopped? I’m sure there was quite a celebration. But what happened after the rain stopped? We don’t think about this too often, but what happened after the rain stopped? Did they suddenly and magically have a new place to live and start their new life? No! They did not! They celebrated the end of the rain and then… they waited an indefinite amount of time because the earth was covered with water.

The waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DAYS, oh please God don’t leave me here that long, the waters had abated, and the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. So, 150 days after the rain stops, the ark finally hits something like the Titanic. Crash. Great. We’re no longer adrift, but we’re still stuck in the ark surrounded by water. Three months later, the tops of the mountains appear. Forty days later, Noah opens the window of the ark and tosses out the first bird. And then…

In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth… then at the end of the second month the ground was no longer muck that you would sink into and suffocate and they finally got to step out of the ark. That’s a lot of waiting. A whole lot of waiting. I’m pretty sure one of the big lessons to learn here is that in life, you will wait.

The question Jesus is asking us, which incidentally do you know how long the Israelites waited for Jesus? Thousands of years. But, that’s not the topic today, that’s a different sermon on waiting.  Jesus asks us, what are you doing while you wait? How are you preparing for the second coming? Are you just sitting there staring at the wall or are you actively preparing. Are you building an ark? Not literally, God tells us they’re not going to flood the earth again but we are told Jesus Christ will return and judgment day will come. And we are told that we must be prepared.

I’ve not just been sitting here in this cabin enjoying the view of the lake, although I have done a lot of that. I’ve been preparing for when I get to move in to my new home. As it gets closer, preparations get more rushed and I realize things I probably should have been doing all along. Writing sermons aka blog posts is one of those things.

I have two jobs. I am a therapist and I am a minister. Those jobs don’t stop just because I’m in limbo between locations. I don’t stop being who I am. I don’t stop preparing for what is to come. Preparing does not mean stock-piling. It does not mean storing up things for the future. Preparing means living as if tomorrow might be here today. It means purposeful waiting.

We know not the day or the hour. We know only that the second coming will happen when we do not expect it. It might not come in this generation but it will come. Preparing means our children and our children’s children and our children’s children’s children’s children’s children’s children must be prepared. I can say with 100% certainty at this point that I have not relocated to my new home when I expected it to happen, but it will and I need to be prepared.

To be prepared means, I continue living and working while I wait. Some of you may notice a sudden shift in the way this message is written. I’m not writing to a congregation today. I’m writing to you, the ones who are reading this. And please, for my sake, pass this link along to others to read it. Like this post, share this post, follow my blog, subscribe to my website, if you get anything out of this message, don’t wait. Stop waiting and start living as things are.

We do not need to be like the Europeans hiding in the Dark Ages relying on the outside world to change before they continued to spread the hope of Christ and the knowledge of creation that God has so graciously blessed us with. We do not need to live in fear that somehow, we will become gods if we learn about the world around us because we are lowly human beings that can’t even wait fifteen minutes in a doctor’s office before we start whining what makes you possibly think you could be a god that waits thousands of years without complaint for things to grow and evolve?

We live in the now. And, the second coming is still coming. We need to prepare. Whatever the next flood may be if we want to be part of the small number that come out on the other side of it we must prepare and we must know how to wait productively. We cannot lose hope just because things haven’t happened on our timeline.

We are the ones who know what is coming. We are the ones who are expected to not be idle during this time of preparation. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.