The end is the beginning.
That’s what our texts today,
our texts all season,
are about.
Advent doesn’t mean
“Countdown.”
It means beginning,
as in the beginning
of God’s reign made manifest.
Jesus has been talking to the disciples
a lot more explicitly
about the end of days
just before this passage we hear
from Matthew 24.
Jesus talks now about
how no one knows the day nor the hour
that he will return.
Not even him.
As Jesus is talking about the end, though,
Isaiah is telling us about what is to come.
Isaiah is offering a lonely, exiled people
hope for the day of their salvation.
“In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’…
“He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”
The end is the beginning.
That’s what our texts today,
our texts all season,
are about.
In her phenomenal book simply titled Advent
the Rev. Fleming Rutledge says right on page 1,
“Advent is not simply a transitional season
but in and of itself communicates a message
of immense, even ultimate, importance.
Of all the seasons of the church year,
Advent most closely mirrors the daily lives
of Christians and of the church,
asks the most important ethical questions,
presents the most accurate picture
of the human condition,
and above all,
orients us to the future of the God
who will come again.”
“Of all the seasons of the church year,
Advent most closely mirrors the daily lives
of Christians and of the church.”
Paul writes to the church at Philippi,
“our citizenship is in heaven”
and we find ourselves like the people
to whom Isaiah is writing.
This place, this time, this life
are not our true, ultimate home.
Stanley Hauerwas elaborates on that theme extensively
in his book Resident Aliens.
We live the lives we have about us,
but we know that this is not the end.
Throughout the year
I talk about God’s reign being made manifest
and the hope that we have —
that this is not the end —
because of Jesus’ defeat
of death and the grave.
Advent points us, reorients us
to what is the end.
Advent offers “This is the end will be”
in contrast to the constant reminder
“All of this is not the end.”
The end, when this world ceases to be,
is the beginning of God’s ultimate creation.
“They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”
The end is the beginning.
That’s what our texts today,
our texts all season,
are about.
As Jesus tells the stories about
women grinding meal together
and two in the field —
where one is taken in both instances —
Jesus is not talking about the rapture.
He’s offering a warning
about the necessity of being ready
for God’s return.
“Keep awake therefore,
for you do not know on what day
your Lord is coming.
But understand this:
if the owner of the house
had known in what part of the night
the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and would not have let his house be broken into.
Therefore you also must be ready,
for the Son of Man
is coming at an unexpected hour.”
Next Sunday we’ll hear
John the Baptizer calling us
to prepare the way of the Lord.
The Taizé Community has a delightful refrain
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
and all people will know
the salvation of our God.”
Preparing the way of the Lord,
being ready for Jesus’ return
is about people knowing
the salvation of our God.
This isn’t trying to scare people
to turn or burn.
None of the New Testaments writings
about the end of days —
especially not even Revelation —
is about scaring people
to turn or burn.
The warnings to Jesus’ disciples
are warnings that we have a task
to make God’s love known
and to show the ways
that Jesus has changed creation.
The warnings to Jesus’ disciples —
among which we count ourselves —
are about making God’s salvation known.
Isaiah tells us
what God’s salvation looks like.
Today we hear Paul write to the church at Rome,
“You know what time it is,
how it is now the moment
for you to wake from sleep.
For salvation is nearer to us now
than when we became believers;
the night is far gone,
the day is near.
Let us then lay aside the works of darkness
and put on the armor of light;
let us live honorably as in the day.”
Jesus makes clear
that we don’t know the day or the hour
that he will return.
Nevertheless,
Paul says what Advent tells us:
now is the time
to put away the works of darkness.
As we live as resident aliens,
separated from the fullness of God’s reign
like the Israelites in exile
now is the time
to prepare the way of the Lord
by making known to the world
the salvation of our God.
“Of all the seasons of the church year,
Advent most closely mirrors the daily lives
of Christians and of the church.”
Some may choose a fast during this season
and others will simply take time
to reset and settle into some quiet
before the hustle of the holiday season
completely consumes them.
Every day,
every Advent,
offers the invitation
to reorient us to what is the end.
The end, when this world ceases to be,
is the beginning of God’s ultimate creation.
The end is just the beginning. Amen.