Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Teaching Nonviolent Atonement

Home
Progressive Christian
Wednesday Sermon: Build Your Ark!

Wednesday Sermon: Build Your Ark!

Last updated on: November 30, 2016 at 2:00 pm by Tom Truby

Wednesday Sermon: Build Your Ark! 2016-11-30T14:00:28-05:00 Tom Truby

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pastors have a frequent question when they begin to discover mimetic theory. “That’s great. But how does it preach?”

Reverends Tom and Laura Truby show that mimetic theory is a powerful tool that enables pastors to preach the Gospel in a way that is meaningful and refreshing to the modern world. Each Wednesday, Teaching Nonviolent Atonement will highlight their sermons as an example of preaching the Gospel through mimetic theory.

In this sermon, they explore an apocalyptic passage from Jesus that is often misunderstood. Like the flood during Noah’s day, the flood that threatens our world is a flood of human violence, not divine. Jesus came to take away our capacity to unite in accusation against our enemies. Instead, we must learn to love and forgive, lest we drown in a flood of our own violence.

Year A, Advent 1
November 27th, 2016
Thomas L. and Laura C. Truby
Matthew 24:36-44

Build Your Ark!

On Advent One we always start by preparing for his coming again, his second coming, not his first. The text begins, “Nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the heavenly angels and not the Son. Only the Father knows.” This Father is all powerful, like Caesar in Rome, only just the opposite and more powerful.

What kind of Father is he? What will it be like just before his Son returns to our earth? Here are some clues. The time of his coming will be just like the time of Noah. It will be ordinary time when the Human One comes. People will be doing what people do….eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.

At another level it will be a time of mimetic crisis, of polarization and strong and differing positions throughout culture. After all, that was what the flood was really. It wasn’t water, it was violence and it was spreading everywhere. The archaic deep was welling up and no one knew quite what to do.

This violence entered a critical phase when Noah entered the ark. He and the animals would be riding above the violence in a boat God told him to construct. Is violence rising in our world and does God want us to construct a boat? What would this boat look like?

In the times of Noah violence came down in buckets and the people all got caught up in it and it swept them away. But not Noah! He was in a boat. It was the boat God told him to build and he listened. He had a safe place.

I’ve been working on my boat, hopefully constructing it according to God’s specifications as revealed in scripture. It is a theological/anthropological boat that allows me to see the violence around us. I am hoping this boat will protect me from getting swept away by the flood of violence; by finger pointing on all sides. If we don’t see the dangers of finger pointing by both the political left and the right, and everywhere in between, how can we protect ourselves against it? We, too, can get swept up in it.

The people of Noah’s time “didn’t know what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away.” They waited too long. They needed to build their ark in advance of the flood. This is what I am hoping we can do together.

The text continues. “At that time there will be two men in the field. One will be taken and the other left.” We have always assumed that meant one will go up to heaven while the other remains on earth and has to go through a great ordeal. It’s much better, we thought, to be taken and be out of the mess. But what if we have been reading it wrong? What if the one who gets taken from the field is an illegal alien and he gets taken to jail or he is an outspoken opponent of the regime in power or maybe he represents the regime in power and gets kidnaped for ransom. Or maybe we are talking about terrorism where people are randomly taken so that the population will be afraid and easier to control?

Maybe these are indicators of rising tides of world violence. This is an interpretation that moves what Jesus is saying from spiritual realms, ethereal and other-worldly, to events in human history; events that regularly happen on this earth.

“Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left.” Why did the one get taken and who took her? We thought we knew but do we really? What made the one left different from the one taken? In view of these disturbing disappearances Jesus says, “Stay alert.” Be aware of the times and what is going on around you. Build an ark; open yourself to a way of seeing that enables you to float on the rising flood of violence.

“You don’t know what day the Lord is coming.” What does that even mean? What is the day of the Lord’s Coming? We have assumed it was an awful day for a majority of the world’s people. All the bad people will get found out and destroyed. We think it will be a day of vengeance and retribution. But what if we got that wrong too? What if it were the upside-down of that? What if the day of the Lord’s coming turned out to be a day when compassion, love and mercy were suddenly revealed as the real force in history. What if we discovered that all the violence, horror and suffering we had visited on each other were all in vain, unnecessary and made our world into hell? What if in our exhaustion and despair we suddenly see violence itself as the problem? Would that be a kind of Second Coming of Christ?

It didn’t matter if it were state-sponsored violence or private violence; it was all wrong-headed. Wouldn’t that be a judgment on all people through the revelation of grace and forgiveness? God’s judgment is God’s grace and it’s for all people. Could that revelation be the coming of the Human One?

“Therefore, stay alert!” Be ready and open to seeing him in any form in which he appears. He wants to give us a boat that can lift us above the turbulent and chaotic flood of violence. Build your boats now in preparation.

Our lection ends with a strange image. Let me read it again so that you can feel its strangeness. “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.” This enigmatic passage raises several questions for me. Who is the head of the household that gets broken into? Why can’t he predict when the thief will come? The thief seems to be the coming Human One, how can this be? What is the coming Human One going to steal when he breaks into this house?

What if he broke in and stole violence, the pointing of the finger, our commitment to accusing and defending? What will we do without pointing the finger, how will we manage, how will we keep empire; whether on a nation to nation level, or in our little fiefdoms at many churches where the pastor reigns supreme and in our homes? If father doesn’t know best, who does?

And truth is the Human One has already broken into the house of human habitation and the “head of the house”, the principalities and powers, that have always run it, didn’t see him coming. It occurred at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ and it has already happened.

As Jesus spoke these words recorded in Matthew 24 the thief was about to break into the house. The crucifixion was about to commence. Jesus was telling them they were asleep and being broken into at that very moment. Had they been alert they wouldn’t be proceeding with their plans to crucify him. The crucifixion and resurrection allowed the Human One as thief to break in and steal their thunder. He took what was hidden and revealed it. He exposed how they used finger-pointing to divide and conquer, maintain and exploit, diminish and dismiss, all the while engendering fear and killing hope.

And just as they couldn’t see how Jesus and his cross were active in their world, so our generation doesn’t see how he is active in ours. Jesus’ second coming, in whatever form, comes to us out of the blue and surprises us with its grace, compassion and benevolence.

“Therefore you also should be prepared, because the Human One will come at a time you don’t know.” But we have an advantage. We know that he is coming and that he has already broken into the house of human bondage. We know that Jesus, the thief who comes in the night, has stolen the sacredness of violence and revealed it for the sham it is. We know there is no good violence, only violence and Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection has undone it. Knowing this, we build our ark while there is still time, so that we can stay in God’s peace. You see, the ark is a symbol for a new way of seeing and living that allows us to float on the waters of chaos and violence without being submerged and swept away.

Charles Wesley’s hymn “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” carries the same idea only Wesley sees Jesus himself as the ark. Verse one reads:

Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high. Hide me, o my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past; safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.

On this first Sunday of Advent, in the name of our Lord who is coming soon, the Human One, I urge you to build your ark. Amen.

Image: Copyright: kevron2001 / 123RF Stock Photo

Stay in the loop! Like Teaching Nonviolent Atonement on Facebook!

scapegoating accusation

sermon

Previous Post

November 29, 2016

Live Webinar: Understanding Islam with Safi Kaskas

Next Post

December 1, 2016 How to Be Prophetic in the Age of Trump

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atonement and Current Events Curriculum Faith and Families Interviews Jesus the Forgiving Victim Lent Montessori politics Reviews The Bible Explained Uncategorized Valentine's Day Wednesday Sermon Who is God?

Select a Month July 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 January 2014 December 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz