The End of the World Has Already Started
A Sermon on the First Sunday of Advent
Matthew 24:36-44
Jesus said: 36“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But 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. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
At the center of England stands the city of Coventry. Many of you know Coventry’s famous citizen, Lady Godiva, since so many of you are fans of the chocolate named after her. During World War II, Coventry was known throughout Europe as the center of England’s armaments, munitions, aircraft and aero-engine plants. On November 14, 1940, the German Air Force devastated Coventry with intense firebombing. Eight hundred people died and thousands were injured or homeless.
The citizens of the city also mourned the destruction of their beloved cathedral. Incendiary devices hit the roof of St. Michael’s Cathedral and the building was consumed by flames. All that survived were the stone walls and the soaring bell tower.
For the citizens of Coventry, November 14 marked the end of their world. Out of that terrible loss and destruction, hope emerged for the people. The day after the church was destroyed, the Rev. Richard Howard, Provost of the Cathedral, assured the people that a new cathedral would be built. Not as an act of bitterness, hatred or revenge, but as the beginning of a ministry of reconciliation and peace.
Coventry Cathedral would be transformed by the flames of war. In 1956, Queen Elizabeth II laid the cornerstone of the new Cathedral which was consecrated in 1962. The front of the cathedral was constructed of thick glass and into the glass the artist John Hutton etched images of saints and angels. Not like the comforting angels we see at the nativity; you know the angels that look as if they are dressed for a prom or as bridesmaids for a wedding.
The Advent angels frighten the hell out of us. Their eyes flash like oversized diamonds, their faces are stern with warning, their gestures are contorted as they blow the trumpets announcing the end of the world. These Advent angels herald the end of all things. They could have hovered over Coventry on the night the Germans rained down fire from the heavens. These Advent angels continue to fly among us, blasting their trumpets, announcing the end of one world and the beginning of a new world.
When we hear Jesus talk of the approaching end of the world, some of us think of that end as the final and great fireworks display that we hear described in the Book of Revelation. Yet how many of us, how many Christians, understand that the end of the world has already begun? How many of us believe that the world has already begun to fall apart, that God is birthing among us a new universe. The old order of things is falling apart. The end of the world begins with the coming of Jesus.
Angels always accompany the end of things. When the angel visited Mary with news of the birth of the Messiah, the cracks appeared in the structure of the old world. When an angel assured Joseph to take Mary as his wife, the foundations began to sway. When angels announced to shepherds that a child king was born in a stable, the old order knew that its time had come. When those angels returned to an empty tomb on Easter morning, when they told frightened women that the world of death was overturned when God raised up Jesus from the dead, then the old world knew that it was only a matter of time until all the forces of evil would be overturned, all the power of darkness would surrender to the light, all the alliances of evil would crumble.
When Jesus is talking about the reign of God, whenever we hear him speaking of the Kingdom of God, we should not imagine some distant time when we leave this world and enter into heaven. No, we should look and be attentive now, at this very time in our lives, at this very hour, for the new reign of God is breaking into our midst and we must be attentive to its dawn.
Jesus tells us: Keep awake for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. The Son of Man is coming not in bombast and splendor but, as at his first coming, in hiddenness, in obscurity, in the unexpected. Jesus is coming in the hiddenness of relationships that shape your life, in the give and take of love and friendship and those ever challenging family dynamics. Jesus is coming in the obscurity of a kind word exchanged with a stranger, a smile to a person who seems depressed, a gentle touch to connect with someone lost and displaced. Jesus is coming in the unexpected insight of a person whom we dislike, the colleague at work who irritates us, the pesty Aunt Gertrude who always brings up a new demand.
In the days when the ash of Coventry Cathedral no longer concealed smoldering fire, Father Arthur Wales was poking in the remains of the medieval cathedral and he discovered three nails, hand crafted in the Middle Ages, and used to fasten the wood that burned only days before. Fr. Wales took those three nails and fashioned them into a cross, connecting them with wire at their center and beginning the Community of the Cross of Nails. After the war, the people of Coventry reached out to the people of Germany, the very people whose air force destroyed their city, to discover the Son of Man coming to them in the midst of their efforts for reconciliation and peace. From that initial outreach at the end of World War II to an ever-expanding international fellowship of reconciliation, the Son of Man continues to show up, at unexpected times and places, to discover hope in the ash remnants of the past to create in the present a cross of reconciliation.
Not in power, bombast and extravagance but the Son of Man is coming, again and again, in hiddenness, in obscurity, in the unexpected. The Advent Angels herald that arrival. They continue to chant their song. Listen closely for the herald angels are singing.