Matthew 24:36-44

Sandy’s sister and her boyfriend were coming to visit us a few weeks ago. They’d not been to Tennessee before, and we were looking forward to showing them around and introducing them to many of the things that have become important to us since moving here two years ago. For days before their arrival, Sandy worked hard to get everything ready, and I tried to complete in advance some of my work so we could spend some time with them.

They were leaving from Massachusetts on Saturday morning. The plan was to either drive straight through to Tennessee, arriving on Saturday night, or to stay overnight in Virginia, getting here sometime Sunday morning. So when late Saturday afternoon came, we cancelled everything to await their arrival. And we waited. Six o’clock. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Finally, we went to bed, but neither of us slept very well, anticipating the possibility that the doorbell might ring at any moment.

When Sunday morning dawned, Sandy decided that she’d better come to early church since Gail and Brian had obviously stayed overnight in Virginia. We figured they’d arrive at our house sometime in the mid to late morning. Just in case they came while we were at church, Sandy left the door unlocked, along with a note welcoming them. So off to church we went. Later, when Sandy arrived home, the note was still there – untouched. So she busied herself preparing a nice lunch which she, of course, shooed me away from when I got home at noontime.

We waited. Getting antsy. And hungry.

One o’clock. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

The phone rang. It was them.

They were just crossing into Tennessee!

Would be at the house around nine!

Hadn’t left Massachusetts until that morning!!!!.

Hadn’t thought to call to let us know.

Sandy was pretty upset. I got up and headed straight for the lunch.

We were so ticked off! Two whole days had been completely wasted…just waiting for them to arrive!

Now, this is not a sermon about waiting for inconsiderate relatives. Rather, it’s a roundabout way of getting to a message about how our lives are shaped by our expectations.

Your life – and how you live it – is determined by what you expect.

And as this Advent Season begins, I want to invite you to explore with me the spiritual expectations that Jesus creates within us. My Advent series of sermons is called “The ‘Other’ Side of Christmas” with the emphasis on the word other. How can we play a role in bringing others to Christ and Christ to others? Today’s sermon is titled “Expectant Others” and is about how we can help others raise their expectations and so discover Christ.

I can vividly remember encountering the words of today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew 24 when I was serving my first church. Someone invited me to bring my youth group to see a Christian film called A Thief In The Night. The movie was based upon the idea expressed in Matthew as well as in First Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord – Judgment Day – the second coming of Christ – will come like a thief in the night. It will be at a time you don’t expect. It will take you by surprise. And so the passage in Matthew contains descriptions of how two people are working in the field – one is taken up into heaven, the other is left behind. Two women are grinding with a hand mill – one is taken, the other is not. And the movie graphically portrays in a modern setting what this moment might look like as drivers are suddenly gone from their cars, creating chaos on the highways – and family members are gone from their homes, leaving spouses, parents and siblings wondering where in the world they’ve gone. And those who are left behind experience a time of horrifying tribulation under the rule of the antichrist. And they wish out loud that they had taken Christ more seriously when they had the chance.

And when the movie ends, it turns out that the whole thing has been a dream sequence! Just the nightmare of one of the characters. It hasn’t happened at all! At least…not yet.

And the pointed message is YOU’D better be ready! YOU’D better be prepared! YOU’D better live expectantly! And when the altar call was given at the end of the movie that night, you can’t even begin to imagine how fast many of these little kids – scared to death that they might be left behind – ran forward to give their lives to Christ.

Today, I’m embarrassed by how emotionally and spiritually manipulative that was. And by how shallowly and incorrectly the passage was interpreted in the movie.

Roland MacGregor has helped me to understand that there is much more to this passage than an irresponsible attempt to scare people into being ready for Judgment Day.

It is, first of all, a scripture written for people who’ve already committed their lives to Jesus Christ, not for those who haven’t. Second, it is written for people who are living in a world that incessantly attempts to draw them away from Christian values and into the darkness of secular culture. And third, it is written for people who genuinely love others – family members, friends, neighbors, strangers – and who want to help them find Christ’s presence and power in their own lives.

In many respects, this passage is written for people like us.

And the message is not that one person is taken and another is not – not that one person makes it to heaven and another does not. Rather, the message is this: “Every day that you are alive, remember WHO you are and WHAT you are about, and live that way!”

And what are we about? Roland MacGregor says we are about another world. We are about a world much different than the one that is most obvious to people. We are about another reality than the one which others focus on. We are about a world under God’s rule and a reality described as the kingdom of heaven.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.

That’s what we are about!

And the passage in Matthew is a bold statement that an important part of being ready for the return of the Lord is to keep watch for and bring witness to the real thing of the kingdom rather than being drawn into the cheap substitutes that are offered all around us.

In other words, to be prepared is to keep yourself focused on God’s high expectations for your life. And to help others find Christ’s presence and power, we need to raise their expectations.

There is an old story about a frontier settlement in the West whose people were engaged in the lumbering trade. The town wanted a church, so they built one and called a minister. The preacher was well received until one day when he happened to see some of his parishioners pulling up onto the bank of the river some logs that had been floated downstream from another village. Each log was marked with the owner’s stamp on the end of it so the sawmill people would know who to give credit to. But to the minister’s great distress, he watched his own church members cutting the ends off the logs where the stamp appeared. Then they replaced the stamp with their own mark, and re-floated the logs to the sawmill. Well, the next Sunday the minister prepared a forceful sermon on the 8th commandment – “Thou Shalt Not Steal”. At the close of the service, his people came through the door and congratulated him. “Great sermon!” they said.

The next day, the preacher visited the river again. To his great dismay, he saw his parishioners continuing to steal the logs. This really bothered him. How could they have missed the point of last week’s message? So he went home and worked on another sermon. He called it: “Thou Shalt Not Cut The Ends Off Thy Neighbor’s Logs.” When he finished the sermon, the people ran him out of town.

You see, we live in a world of low expectations. And even we Christians get caught up in it. To a great extent, many of us have co-opted our Christian values, replacing them with the meaningless values of secular culture. It’s okay to cut the ends off your neighbor’s logs, or to lie under oath, or to not keep marriage promises, or to think of your own needs before you consider the needs of others. And its not until we lift our eyes higher – to Christ – to the kingdom – or help others lift their eyes, that we seize who and what we are about, and begin to make a difference in the world.

A couple of nights ago, I was engaged in a conversation with some family members about some events taking place in the corporate world. One of them manages a large department in a big multinational company, and there are rumors that there will probably be layoffs in the not-too-distant future. This person related how they had spent a great deal of time and effort drawing up a mental list of who in the department would be the first to go, and described how the person at the top of the list probably deserved it since he wasn’t pulling his weight anymore.

It was then that another family member made an interesting comment. It was probably not a reasonable thing to suggest, considering the harsh realities of the corporate world. In many respects, it was very naive. And yet, it was a fascinating word for the effect it had upon the conversation. This family member said, “Gee, what do you think would happen if you put as much energy into helping this guy save his job as you have into making up your list?”

There was a huge pause. How do you respond to something like that without sounding really stupid or selfish? How do you answer that without exposing yourself as someone who has been sucked into the sin of a society that truly believes that I am NOT my brother’s keeper – at least, not when I’m at work?

It was an amazing moment. And what produced it was a simple little statement that did one thing and one thing only. It introduced a new value – a higher expectation – than what was being considered.

The world around us – and the people we care about – desperately need new values and expectations injected into the conversation of their lives. And there are no higher expectations to place upon ourselves or others than the expectations of the kingdom of God.

You may have heard the true story about the Baptist minister whose great ambition in life was to become president of one of the nation’s seminaries. It finally happened. The seminary was struggling, barely keeping afloat when he was called to become the president. And under his leadership, the seminary began a great turnaround, flourished and started to grow. And then one day – just a year or so into his office – the man’s wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It progressed very rapidly, and soon, she had to be cared for in a memory-loss facility. It was then that the president tendered his resignation in order to devote himself to caring for his wife.

Other administrators and faculty members were upset by his decision. The school faced tremendous challenges and they needed him to lead the way. This was a calling from God, they reminded him. Besides, they said, your wife is confined in a safe place and doesn’t even know who you are.

He looked at them and gently said, “Yes…but I know who SHE is. And I remember the promise I made when we were married.”

I believe the most remarkable lives in the world are those lived by people who stand in the face of our culture’s low expectations and see something greater, something higher, and devote themselves to living it. And I believe the greatest Christmas gifts we can give ourselves and others – at any time of the year – are these gifts of heightened expectation.

In my own life, I can recall loving people who said things to me like: That’s a big decision you have to make. I hope you’ll pray about it and ask for God’s guidance…I know that what you’re considering seems BEST for you, but have you thought about whether it’s the RIGHT thing to do in God’s eyes?…God has blessed you, Marty, have you given any thought to how you can use those blessings to benefit others?…You have such strong views about that subject. How do you think Jesus would feel about it?

Two thousand years ago, those who became Jesus’ disciples did so because he called them to greater things. “Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus invited the blind to see, the deaf to hear. He challenged the sinned against to forgive, and sinners to sin no more. Jesus asked people to believe that the day will come when losers will win, the last will become first, the poor will inherit the earth, and nations will beat their swords into ploughshares and learn war no more. Jesus called husbands and wives to keep their promises, and parents to lay down their own lives to nurture their children. Jesus dared people who were blessed with material blessings to devise creative ways to use those resources to help those without.

You see, we are a people called to high expectations – seemingly unachievable expectations sometimes!

But we are given an Advent promise. When we lift the expectations of our lives and take aim at the values of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus will come to us, and provide what we need, and be our Savior, our Guide and our Friend.

So as this Advent season begins, what are your expectations? And what new values will you gently and lovingly introduce to the conversation of others’ lives, so that Christ may become real to them?

Be ready! Be prepared! Look up!

Christ is coming!