Advent 1A + 12.1.13 + The light of a loving God

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image from: http://www.blogos.org/organicfruit/jesus-love.html
M. Campbell-Langdell
All Santos, Oxnard
(Isaiah 2:1–5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11–14; Matthew 24:36–44)

“Ten-year-old ‘Josh’ came home from school to an empty house.  His mother, normally at home to greet him, was nowhere to be found. She might have been at the store or at a neighbor’s, but Josh was terrified. His immediate response was a terrible fear that all his family had been ‘Raptured’ without him.  Josh was sure he had been left behind.”[1]
So begins a chapter in Barbara R. Rossing’s book, The Rapture Exposed, narrating a typical incident in the life of a child who has been raised with the particular and relatively recent concept of the Rapture favored by some aspects of the evangelical Christian tradition.  A quick Facebook survey (very technical) told me that this is not an uncommon experience if you were raised within certain Christian traditions.  If you weren’t raised with a concept of the Rapture, you might not know much about this phenomenon. 
It is based on the book of Revelation, this passage in Matthew that we heard today and other scriptures, including the letters of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, and it details a two-part return of Jesus in which Jesus first comes to secretly draw believers up to the heavens, and then comes a second time after a seven year period of great tribulation.[2]  Although this concept is very popular, with roots in everything but the amazing apocalyptic visions of John Martin that Alene and I saw at the Tate Britain (although I think those are based more specifically on the book of Revelation alone)[3] and spreading out into popular culture in the form of 1970s Christian scare flicks and the Left Behind  series some of you may have spotted in bookstores a while back, its modern incarnation dates back to 1830, when a British evangelical preacher named John Nelson Darby apparently heard the vision of a young girl prophesying this exact return schedule of Jesus.  Instead of the “urgent and hopeful” approach many Christians had to the second coming of Jesus up to that point, many evangelical Christians in the United Kingdom and around the world became increasingly agitated at the concept of a more judgmental and turbulent end-time.[4]
Okay, so this is all based loosely on scripture.  But does it take into concept the over-arching messages of the Bible?  Does the concept of a vengeful, wrathful God line up with the image of Jesus, resurrected, appearing to the disciples, breathing peace on them?  Can we, as we look toward Christmas, imagine the angels saying “Be Not Afraid” right alongside this vision?  Surely our God, of love and peace, a God whose judgment brings all things into peaceful alignment, literally turning the weapons of war into tools for thriving, as we hear in Isaiah, surely our God does not align with the Rapture theology.   I cannot square a loving God with a concept of the Rapture presented in the films from the 1970s in which planes crash because pilots are raptured, in which God’s judgment is all about terrifying images of blood and death.
So what is Jesus talking about then, in this intense, urgent gospel passage about being ready? About the ladies being suddenly gone?  I am not entirely sure, but I am guessing it doesn’t mean planes falling out of the air for lots of gruesome movie effects.   Jesus doesn’t even mention if it’s actually better to be left or to be taken.  Perhaps a clue lies in the talk of the days of Noah.  Yes, they were eating and drinking, and in my post-Thanksgiving stupor, I don’t see all that much wrong with that.  But remember back to what you know about that story.  Do you remember that Noah is judged the only righteous fellow? 
Because it wasn’t just that the people were attending to their social and bodily needs, but it was that they had just about forgotten God.  They didn’t know they were needful of their Creator’s aid.  So perhaps our call is twofold.  First, we know that the most popular phrase in the gospels is “Be not afraid.” Therefore, we should heed it.  But then we should make sure that in our living and going about our lives we do not forget the Creator and source of all things. 
Maybe this is a bit of what Advent’s about.  It is very easy to get wrapped up in the practicalities of this season—buying the presents, the tree, decorating the house.  All the busy-ness is fun and brings joy and light to a busy time of year, a time when the darkness seems to come faster and stay with us longer.  But our challenge is not to forget what God is doing in all of this, that in the middle of all the festivities we are really enacting the reality of waiting for Jesus-and not just thinking of Jesus’ first arrival, but awaiting his coming again.  We know it will be in great glory.  We know there will be judgment and reckoning involved, but we can also be unafraid about that because we know we are the children of a loving God and as long as we attempt to continue to follow God’s ways, we are doing what we must to be awake to Jesus in the world.
You know, people say about Black Friday that it is ironic that we have this day of acquiring more right after a national holiday of celebrating what we have. 
But we might say the same of the Advent season if we jump right to Christmas—that it is ironic that we enact the joy of awaiting Jesus without taking the time to really process the bracing joy, the awe-and God-fearing-tinged wonder that will be involved in Jesus’ return to us. 
Advent reminds us what Christmas is really all about-it’s not just nostalgically remembering a baby in a manger, but it is about our urgent and hopeful current and future state of a-waiting Jesus.  We remember the first time, and we await the second time, without too much fear of judgment, but with a concept that we must attend to God and others, and not just to ourselves.
God’s judgment brings peace.  An alignment in our hearts when we know the God of love; the love of God to be real.
One of the responses to my Facebook post was quite enlightening, and I am sharing it with permission.  My friend Evan said that he did learn this rapture theology as a young adult and was constantly repressing supposedly sinful aspects of himself, including his identity as a gay man, for many years.  But amazingly, miraculously, the pressure didn’t drive him away from God, as it has so many others.  Amazingly, he says that the fear and pressure eventually “drove [him] into the light of the realization of a loving and understanding God.”[5] 
What was that we heard in today’s collect?  “Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light,” something like that? 
How can we, too, be driven into the light of a loving and understanding God in this season of quiet and gathering darkness?  How can we seek beyond the cheerful lights and find a deeper peace?  May we light our advent candles and the lamps in our hearts and connect with a God who loves us, understands us better than anyone else ever will, who will not leave us comfortless, who never abandons us, for God “does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men (Lamentations 3:33 RSV).”

[1] Barbara R. Rossing, The Rapture Exposed (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 19.
[2] Ibid, 22.
[4] Rossing, 22.
[5] Thank you, Evan Strano!

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