Fear Not, Keep Faithful

• Fifth Sunday of Easter

Matthew 24:15-51, the Little Apocalypse

With Deuteronomy 31:1-8, Moses retires, God’s continued presence promised

FirstChurchBville@gmail.com   @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

• I went on a zipline course last week.
I don’t typically step off high platforms, but I did trust in system.

• Once again, long text, could spend weeks here, but also weeks would be very similar. This is called the Little Apocalypse, and we the reader have to decide what to do with narration of a sudden and horrific cataclysmic event, the coming of the Son of Man. We have to decide even what to do with that term. We look to the OT book of Daniel for Son of Man language and are left with even more baffling language and narration.

I recalled a promise of God from Deuteronomy:
I will not abandon you.

Apocalyptic literature can make you feel pretty vulnerable,
& God is a god of presence and commitment.
Ultimate presence, ultimate commitment. FEAR NOT.

• Couple things I noted in Matthew: What Jesus describes is horrible.
Unimaginable, Unpreventable, Unstoppable, and Unmistakable.

Curiously, this passage both says Here are some things that will happen before the appearance of the Christ AND there’s really no telling when the Christ will appear; in fact if someone says the Christ has appeared, don’t listen to them. 
Nobody knows when,
but happy is the servant who is found doing his duty
when the master returns.

• Rabbi Johanen ben Zakai, a contemporary of Jesus,
quoted as saying
If you have a sapling in your hand
and someone says Come quickly, Messiah is here,
first plant the tree and then go to greet Messiah.

• What we don’t know: Year, month, day, hour.
What we DO know: live kingdomly.
Live with mercy, forgiveness & peace.
Don’t quit job or stop paying bills,
rather [continue to] live missionally.

• I officiated a wedding yesterday, it was lovely.
Not perfectly punctual, which caused anxiety for some,
but not me. No point. My anxiety wasn’t going to help,
and my calm was.

Somewhat how I feel about apocalyptic.
My anxiety won’t do anything positive,
& there’s already plentiful opportunity to be distracted or vulnerable. So be. Don’t bog down in details. Live kingdom.

• I’m reading a book about marriage and conflict, and at the heart of many marital conflicts is not the presenting issue but fear (false evidence appearing real) of some sort, fear of abandonment, fear of loss. Behind the tension and the arguments is the question Are you there for me, will you be there when I need you? I need you now and I want assurance of you again.

And so with apocalyptic discourse. Jesus probing are you there if the mountains fall and the hills turn to dust? Tell you what, God is there…Fear not. Remain connected regardless.

• Horatio Spafford had had a few great years in the 1860s. Newly married, a prominent lawyer with a fair amount of real estate in Chicago, his life took a turn for the worse when his only son died of scarlet fever in 1870. Then in 1871 the Chicago fire destroyed his properties, consuming his life savings. Then in 1873 while traveling to England follow evangelist Dwight Moody, the ship carrying his wife and four daughters (ages 11, 9, 5, 2) sank in the Atlantic. His wife was among the survivors, but their daughters were not.

What did Horatio Spafford do in his grief? First, he wrote the hymn It Is Well With My Soul, and then he and his wife moved to Jerusalem and started the American Colony, a religious society and mission which served the needy of the community for three quarters of a century.       

• UMH377 It Is Well With My Soul

Deuteronomy 31:1-8   (CEB)       

31 Then Moses said these words to all Israel, ² telling them:

I’m 120 years old today. I can’t move around well anymore. Plus, the Lord told me “You won’t cross the Jordan River.” ³ But the Lord your God, he’s the one who will cross over before you! He’s the one who will destroy these nations before you so you can displace them. Joshua too will cross over before you just like the Lord indicated. ⁴ The Lord will do to these enemies the same thing he did to the Amorite kings Sihon and Og, and to their land, when he destroyed them. ⁵ The Lord will lay them out before you, and you will do to them exactly what the command I’ve given you dictates. ⁶ Be strong! Be fearless! Don’t be afraid and don’t be scared by your enemies, because the Lord your God is the one who marches with you. He won’t let you down, and he won’t abandon you.

⁷ Then Moses called Joshua and, with all Israel watching, said to him: “Be strong and fearless because you are the one who will lead this people to the land the Lord swore to their ancestors to give to them; you are the one who will divide up the land for them. ⁸ But the Lord is the one who is marching before you! He is the one who will be with you! He won’t let you down. He won’t abandon you. So don’t be afraid or scared!”

Matthew 24:15-51       (CEB)        

¹⁵ “When you see the disgusting and destructive thing that Daniel talked about standing in the holy place (the reader should understand this), ¹⁶ then those in Judea must escape to the mountains. ¹⁷ Those on the roof shouldn’t come down to grab things from their houses. ¹⁸ Those in the field shouldn’t come back to grab their clothes. ¹⁹ How terrible it will be at that time for women who are pregnant and for women who are nursing their children. ²⁰ Pray that it doesn’t happen in winter or on the Sabbath day. ²¹ There will be great suffering such as the world has never before seen and will never again see. ²² If that time weren’t shortened, nobody would be rescued. But for the sake of the ones whom God chose, that time will be cut short.

²³ “Then if somebody says to you, ‘Look, here’s the Christ,’ or ‘He’s over here,’ don’t believe it. ²⁴ False christs and false prophets will appear, and they will offer great signs and wonders in order to deceive, if possible, even those whom God has chosen. ²⁵ Look, I’ve told you ahead of time. ²⁶ So if they say to you, ‘Look, he’s in the desert,’ don’t go out. And if they say, ‘Look, he’s in the rooms deep inside the house,’ don’t believe it. ²⁷ Just as the lightning flashes from the east to the west, so it will be with the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Vultures gather wherever there’s a dead body.

²⁹ “Now immediately after the suffering of that time the sun will become dark, and the moon won’t give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken. ³⁰ Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky.       At that time all the tribes of the earth will be full of sadness, and they will see the Son of Man coming in the heavenly clouds^{[Daniel 7:13]} with power and great splendor. ³¹ He will send his angels with the sound of a great trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from the four corners of the earth, from one end of the sky to the other.

³² “Learn this parable from the fig tree. After its branch becomes tender and it sprouts new leaves, you know that summer is near.   ³³ In the same way, when you see all these things, you know that the Son of Man is near, at the door. ³⁴ I assure you that this generation won’t pass away until all these things happen. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away.

³⁶ “But nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the heavenly angels and not the Son. Only the Father knows. ³⁷ As it was in the time of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  ³⁸ In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. ³⁹ They didn’t know what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away. The coming of the Son of Man will be like that. ⁴⁰ At that time there will be two men in the field. One will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left. ⁴² Therefore, stay alert! You don’t know what day the Lord is coming. ⁴³ But you understand that   if the head of the house knew at what time the thief would come,    he would keep alert and wouldn’t allow the thief to break into his house. ⁴⁴ Therefore, you also should be prepared, because the Son    of Man will come at a time you don’t know.

⁴⁵ “Who then are the faithful and wise servants whom their master puts in charge of giving food at the right time to those who live in his house? ⁴⁶ Happy are those servants whom the master finds fulfilling their responsibilities when he comes. ⁴⁷ I assure you that he will put them in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But suppose those bad servants should say to themselves, My master won’t come until later. ⁴⁹ And suppose they began to beat their fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunks? ⁵⁰ The master of those servants will come on a day when they are not expecting him, at a time they couldn’t predict. ⁵¹ He will cut them in pieces and put them in a place with the hypocrites. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.