Sunday, November 19, 2023

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Zephaniah 1:7-18
Psalm 90:1-12
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30

So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

We have been studying the book of Romans in our adult Sunday school class. Paul begins that letter reminding the people of God that their righteousness is not based on anything they have done or can do. All are sinners, Jew and Gentile. One chapter in a resource is titled, “The religious need the Gospel, too.” We have been encouraged to read Paul’s statement “You call yourself a Jew...” by replacing “Jew” with “Christian.” You call yourself a Christian, but you... We point fingers. We judge others. We do the very things we accuse the others of doing. We call ourselves good, we live moral lives, but we sin daily against God and our neighbors.

A few weeks ago, Amos reminded us that we should not look forward to the day of the Lord. It won’t be what we expect. We are still sinners in need of salvation. Eternity for us is both a present reality and a future hope, yet we have no reason to believe that the judgment that awaits us at the end of all days will be pleasant. We don’t deserve to be protected from times of trouble. We are just as guilty as our neighbor. All of us deserve to be left behind.

The passage from Zephaniah this week is not very hopeful. As a matter of fact, there is nothing but doom and gloom in his words. There is no promise. There is no Gospel. There is only a word of warning describing that the Day of the Lord will be horrifying. God will be searching for sinners, setting forth to punish those who are indifferent. God’s people thought that He would let them be because they were His people, but in this passage, we see that God will not hold back from dealing with the sins of His people. This isn’t a pretty passage. It is not an image of God we want to see. As a matter of fact, we’d rather ignore it.

But as we draw to the end of the Church year, we are reminded that the Day of the Lord is still to come. We find comfort in the images of Christ returning, taking His people with Him. I cry out “Come, Lord Jesus,” on a daily basis as I look forward to His promises fulfilled finally after so much time. Yet, we cannot forget that the people of Israel were God’s people and that they had turned from the God who had blessed them above all other nations. They were set aside for a purpose, and they had failed. They were unfaithful to God and the coming Day of the Lord was not about God defeating His enemies, but about causing His people to turn back to Him.

It does us well to listen to the warnings of the Old Testament promise. It is true we live under a new covenant, but we are the same as those who throughout the ages have believed in God. We call ourselves Christians, but we, too, can become complacent. We can forget God when our focus is on other things. We can turn our hope toward earthly things and lose sight of the One who is our only true hope. Zephaniah talks about the people building houses and making wine, building up wealth that they would never use. Aren’t we doing the same? And when our lives are threatened by forces beyond our control, we mumble like the people in Zephaniah’s day that God won’t do anything, good or bad. We think we can “settle on our lees.” But God is offended by our indifference.

He calls us to know Him fully, to know His power as well as His grace. He reminds us with passages such as this one from Zephaniah that we can fall, turning away from the grace He so freely gives. We can lose sight of Him by focusing on our own desires and resting in our own wealth. Zephaniah wrote, “Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath.” We can’t buy our way out of learning that lesson all over again. We can only fall on our knees in repentance, crying out to the God who can ensure our deliverance or allow our destruction. Has He, even now, been consecrating the enemy for that great and terrible Day of the Lord? Will we see it? Are we ready?

This is certainly not a message we want to hear. But we do have something that trumps Zephaniah’s words: hope in God. He has promised, and He is faithful. We may not hear it clearly, but the Gospel underlies every text we can read. We read a message like this through the eyes of faith, resting in God’s love. We know that through His story, He relented from destruction over and over again. He changed His mind. We also know that He has given us His own Son to overcome our faithlessness and sin. The image in this passage may seem hopeless, but we are called to believe that there is always hope even when we can’t see it. God does not forget His promises. Despite the warnings there is always a promise. Zephaniah wrote later in his book, “Yahweh, your God, is in the midst of you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”

It seems like more and more people are talking about the end of time. I don’t know if it is wishful thinking in these dark times, or if people are interpreting signs they see, but we join in a long history of longing for Christ to come again. Every generation of Christian and religious folk from many faiths since the beginning of time have wondered about the end of the world. The imagination can go wild with the possibilities. We see the end as some sort of catastrophic event. People have watched for signs on earth and in the heavens. Comets, eclipses, meteor showers foretold doom. The people have always pointed to world events as proof that they are the generation that will see the end. War, rumors of war, natural disasters are all signs or omens and have been for every generation of humans. The same is true today.

It is interesting, then, that the passage from Matthew talks about the work and successes or failures of the people waiting for the return of the landowner. The story foretells Jesus’ own leaving and return. He is the landowner who gives gifts to the servants and goes away on a trip. When the landowner returns, he finds two of his servants have not only worked hard but have profited from their work. They took what they had and made it into something bigger and better. In faith terms, they took their gifts and grew them which glorifies God as it grows His kingdom.

Even though the text does hint at an end time scenario, the focus this week is about what to do while we wait. God’s people don’t often have the patience to wait; we do what we think will hurry God along. In recent history we’ve seen false prophets convince whole communities to do foolish things to spur Christ’s return. They aren’t much different than the people in the Old Testament. Take, for instance, Abraham and Sarah. They could not wait for God to fulfill His promise that they would be the father and mother of nations, so they took matters into their own hands. They decided to use Sarah’s servant to get the long-awaited heir. Their impatience still impacts our world today. Moses had little patience with God and the people as they journeyed through the wilderness. David had little patience and dealt with his sin against Uriah with more sin. The consequences of our decisions can be life altering, not just for ourselves, but for the world in which we live.

We know Christ is coming again, but we do not know when. How do we respond to the hope we have in Him as we wait? The problem in Paul’s day is that the people were getting frantic because they were dying, and Jesus had not yet returned. They were afraid and doubted the promise. They didn’t know what to do. Some were falling for false preaching. Others were oppressive with their own preaching, forcing others to believe in the hope that they could create the necessary conditions for Jesus’ return. Yet others gave up. They stopped waiting and turned to the world for comfort and peace.

We look at the story of the talents and realize that we are called to be like the two servants who used their talents for the glory of God. Jesus has gone away but has left us each with sufficient talents to make a difference in the world while we wait. It does us no good to sit around waiting for the Day of the Lord because there is so much to be accomplished. It does us no good to bury our talents when there are so many people who still need to experience God’s kingdom in this world. So, instead of waiting and wondering when the Day of the Lord will happen, or even wonder what it will be like, we are called to get to work, doing God’s business today. Then we have no need to worry, or fear or doubt, because we’ll be doing exactly what God is expecting from us when Christ comes again. He’d find us actively living in faith and hope and love, ready to see what He has planned for us in eternity.

We often focus specifically on the spiritual gifts when talking about this passage, particularly since most translations call the coin called a “talent.” We think about our own talents and consider whether or not we are using them in a way that will grow the Kingdom of God. But this story isn’t necessary just about those spiritual gifts and talents; it is about our whole lives. After all, everything is God’s, isn’t it? We can probably list all the many ways we’ve served the Lord through our churches; the Sunday school classes we’ve taught or the songs we’ve sung in the choir. But do we take our faith out into the world in which we live, glorifying God with everything we do? Do we bury our gifts in the church and go about our daily lives without a thought about God’s Kingdom?

We are often just as afraid as that third servant; we are afraid to use what God has given us where it is risky. It is risky to share our faith with our neighbors. It is risky to serve people. It is risky to give everything we have for an outcome we can’t guarantee. It is much safer to keep our faith among friends, to share our gifts with those we know, to do the things that we are sure will make a difference in the world. It isn’t enough to dedicate a few hours in one place each week to the glory of God. God calls us to use everything He has given us (life, breath, love, time, hope, peace, faith, along with our tangible possessions and our spiritual gifts) every day for the sake of His Kingdom and people.

But we get complacent. We become self-satisfied and conceited. Though we don’t necessarily say it, we begin to act as if God will not do anything, good or bad. We let the world convince us that if God exists, He isn’t much more than a faraway creator-king who is no longer involved with His creation. We hide our faith because we are accused of believing in myths and fairytales; it is simply easier to have a private faith without the risk of being rejected or persecuted by the world. Unfortunately, that’s no better than the third servant who buried his talent in the ground, returning to the master only what he had given.

It takes time to get complacent. God’s people did not start out the way they were in Zephaniah’s time. They had passion and living, active faith. But time and the world mellowed their passion. They didn’t teach their children to have the same passion or faith. They conformed to the world. They allowed their leaders, their kings, to be allied with enemies and to concede to foreign friends. They made their faith fit their circumstances. Don’t we do the same?

A light bulb glows brightly when it is new, but it slowly dims as time goes by. As it gets older, the light bulb eventually burns itself out until that day when the filament breaks, and the light is gone forever. Then we have to replace the bulb and it is shocking how bright it is when we turn on the light again. We do not realize how dim it was until it burnt out and was replaced with a new and brighter light. We do not know when a light bulb will burn out, but when it is replaced, we realize that we had been seeing the signs all along, we just didn’t realize it.

One of the advantages of the nomadic military life we lived for the first eighteen years of our marriage is that we moved every few years. Each move offered us the chance to change. We purged our excess baggage when we packed our household goods. We said good-bye to old friends and made new ones in our new home. The children adapted to new schools, new teachers, and new activities. We couldn’t always ensure that we would find a group to join or that the school would be teaching the same curriculum. We experienced the shock of changing cultures, even when we moved within the United States, since every place we’ve lived has been somewhat different from the last. We had to find a new church, get used to new food, and establish a new schedule. Everything was new over and over again. We moved before our lives in one place became too settled. We changed our life before our old life burned out.

We have lived in Texas for nearly twenty years now. We have lived in two different homes, our current one for nearly twelve years. The days of being a transient family is long over and we have not had to purge our excess baggage for a long time. We have given things away, but I would never be able to move to a smaller house without a major cleaning. Speaking of cleaning: I was vacuuming a room the other day and looked under a piece of furniture that I hadn’t moved in at least a decade. I couldn’t believe the dust. I asked my husband to move that piece of furniture for me, and he couldn’t believe the dust. We’ve become complacent, allowing piles of stuff to gather and dust bunnies to grow. We always cleaned them out once our furniture was on a truck, but with no move in sight I need to think about getting into those corners or ignore the dust bunnies altogether. I don’t care so much about the dust bunnies, so they’ll probably continue to live quietly in those corners.

We stop noticing the little things that are wrong when we set down roots. We don’t notice that the paint on the walls has faded and chipped. We don’t notice the worn carpets or the grime in between the tiles. We don’t notice the change because we stop looking. We are not worried about the paint on the walls or the dust bunnies in the corners because it happens so slowly we do not notice. But as we sit back unconcerned, our world slowly falls apart around us like a light bulb about to burn out.

We have talked about how the lectionary at this time of year focuses on the second coming of Christ, but how many of us are truly waiting for the Day of the LORD? How many of us really think we’ll see Him return in our lifetimes? There are those who think so, and they are counting down the days, studying the texts and certain they have figured it out. There are even those who are working to put the pieces in place to guarantee His coming soon. But most of us, most Christians, go about our daily lives worried about how we’ll pay the mortgage and what we will have for dinner rather than whether or not we are ready for Jesus’ return. After all, it has been two thousand years; perhaps we misunderstood. Some have suggested that He has already come or that the second coming is spiritual. That kind of thinking makes us stop preparing and waiting.

And so, as we draw closer to the Day of the Lord, we are reminded that God cannot be kept in a box, but we do have our limits. Time passes for us. We get older. Things change. The world becomes different. Our magnificent buildings get old and crumble, the things we deem important become obsolete. Even our words pass away; they are forgotten, or they become irrelevant. But God and His Word are from everlasting to everlasting. He does not dwell in a world we have created for Him; we dwell in Him. He does not exist within time as we have ordered it; He has ordered the world in which we dwell. We need not put God in a box to understand Him because He has given us all we need. Whether our time is short or long, our home large or small, we dwell in the midst of the One who is outside time and space even while we are limited by our flesh in this world. And while we find comfort in our understanding of God, we must never forget that He is more than we can imagine.

We are to see the world in which we live through the light which we have been given by our Lord and our God. Despite two thousand years of waiting, we are called to stay awake. Paul might have thought that Jesus would return during his lifetime, but his words are for us today. It is easy to become complacent, to settle into the world without concern for the heavenly things. It is easy to let the dust bunnies of our lives grow in those hidden and unnoticeable corners. It is easy to let the light bulb slowly dim making it hard to see how our lives are falling apart around us. But we are called to be in the light, to be the light along with our Lord Jesus Christ. We are called to suit up and dwell in the promise of God, whose hope and salvation are true. We won’t be disappointed unless we allow ourselves to settle too deeply into the world and forget that the immediacy of Paul’s warnings is for now as well as then. Jesus can still come soon, and if we lose sight of His kingdom, He will come like a thief in the night. But we are people of the day, of the light. Let us pray that we will not fall asleep as we wait patiently and longingly for the Day of the Lord.

May we be watchful and alert, doing as God has called us to do, living as God has created and redeemed us to be. We are in Christ, saved by His blood and Spirit, called out of darkness into the light. In that light, we are to love God with our whole being, doing His work every day. God is faithful and His Word is true. The Day will come, whether it is today or in a thousand years and God has provided us with everything we need as we wait. We need not be afraid to risk what He has given us for He will provide the growth.

The psalmist writes, “For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.” We live in a world with instant gratification. We send a text and have a response in seconds. We type a few words into an Internet search engine, and we have a million resources to help our research. We order a burger and fries, and it is delivered to our car window in seconds. We buy a book from a bookseller, and it is downloaded to our e-reader instantly. We do not have to wait for anything anymore, and so we have lost the ability to wait.

Not that people were ever very good at being patient. The early Christians wanted Jesus to return in their day. We still have that same longing, and it manifests occasionally when some charismatic cult leader decides to proclaim that the time is now. I have seen the would-be prophets proclaiming that everything that has happened recently are signs that Jesus is coming, as if no other generation has had to face difficult times. There will be people who believe those proclamations, they may even quit their jobs and take up their signs that say, “The End of the World is Near!” They will try to scare people into salvation rather than shine the light of Jesus. And when the end of the world doesn’t happen, they will be left without a job, home, or food. They will be disappointed and perhaps even lose heart. They may even lose faith.

Even worse, though, is when people are complacent. In Thessalonica, the people were self-satisfied, believing everything was fine. When we are complacent, we also become apathetic since there is no need for hope beyond today and no need to reach beyond oneself. Yet, our passages for today speak of a day when everything will fall apart, when the Master will bring an end to our complacency. They call us to live as if Jesus were coming today, doing His work in the world.

Our time in this world will not last forever, though at times it may seem to be too long. God has a plan, and we are called to live each day as if this is the day, knowing that only He knows when it will happen. For now, we have been given everything we need to actively shine the Light of Christ in the world. The words of the prophets about the Day of the Lord may be frightening, but we have a promise that we who have waited faithfully will, one day, hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” In that Day, we will be invited to share in His joy, to bask in His glory, to dwell in His Kingdom forever.