The passage we read today from Matthew’s Gospel is ground zero for adherents to the kind of theology promoted by the Left Behind books, and those preachers and others who make a big deal of the rapture. It’s not fair to say their whole theological system was built on Matthew 24:39 where we read about “two men working in the field–one taken, the other left behind, two women grinding at a mill–one taken, the other left behind,” but that system does rest heavily on this one verse.

  But, it turns, out that there are a variety of ways to look at that passage. Did you know, for example, that the word ‘taken’ in this verse could also be translated ‘swept away?’ If this verse were translated this way, “two men working in the field–one swept away, the other left behind, two women grinding mill–one swept away, the other left behind,” suddenly being left behind is a good thing.

  We get a hint that might be a reading worth considering, anyway, when we realize that the Noah story, to which this passage refers, talks about all those people who weren’t in the ark as being swept away by the waters. And Noah and his family end up being the people left behind. Is Jesus saying our fear isn’t what the popular theological fear is: being left behind, but rather we should fear being swept away? And if so, swept away by what?

  What was happening in the days of Noah? The Noah story begins in Genesis 6:6 with these words, “God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil–evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry to have made the human race in the first place, it broke God’s heart. God said, “I’ll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds–the works. I’m sorry I made them.”

  In the next verses we are given another beginning to the Noah story which reads, “As far as God was concerned, the Earth had become a sewer, there was violence everywhere. God took one look and saw how bad it was, everyone corrupt and corrupting–life itself corrupt to the core. God said to Noah, “It’s all over. It’s the end of the human race. The violence is everywhere, I’m making a clean sweep.”

  It seems that everyone was swept away by evil and corruption and violence. Is that the warning Jesus is offering us here?  Is Jesus cautioning us that there can be two men in the field, or two women at the mill and one swept away by the violence and corruption of this world, while the ones left are like Noah on the Ark, people not swept away by all the violence but are left behind looking for something better for this world, the new creation that Jesus talked about and gave his life for.

This verse may be key to some people’s left behind theology, but it’s not even key to this passage. Even if Jesus had a rapture theology, which some, of course, argue he did, this story is not primarily about the rapture. It’s about watching and waiting. It’s about not missing the signs of God’s work and God’s ways so we don’t get swept away by all those forces that are so opposed to the ways of God.

  In Noah’s day, Jesus says, “everyone was carrying on as normal, having a good time right until the day Noah entered the ark.” They had missed the signs of God’s work and believed that violence and corruption and evil were a normal part of things. It’s kind of like what people say when they are convinced that peace can never come, that things can’t get better in this world because with human nature, being what it is, we can’t expect things to be any different.

  Jesus isn’t calling us in this passage to look to human nature. He’s calling us to look to God’s nature. And God’s intention is for God’s desires to be lived out in this world. Jesus never imagined human nature would have the final say, but God’s nature would.

  So he wants us to keep looking for the things of God in this world and not be swept away by what seems normal. We have lowered our standards for this world but God hasn’t. And the things of God are still here, we just need to keep watching and waiting, paying attention to the abnormal ways of God, the ways of love and mercy and peace and forgiveness and hospitality and welcome and faith.

It’s Advent. We are celebrating a most amazing story, the birth of Jesus. As the days and weeks go on, we’ll talk about the handful of shepherds who made their way to the barn where he was born. We’ll talk about the three or maybe it was a couple of more wise men who came to see him. But, the story is clear that most people missed it. They weren’t paying attention any more than the people in Noah’s day were.  

  The folk in Bethlehem weren’t expecting God to act in such a way because it just wasn’t normal. They had gotten real used to the violence of empire, and just assumed that was the way things would always be. They weren’t watching and waiting because they weren’t expecting anything else. They had been lulled to sleep by what was normal. The normal violence. The normal corruption. The normal evil. The normalcy of empire. They had been swept away, and just a few were left behind to wonder at the work of God that was unfolding in the cry of that baby.

  We are doing a Bible Study on Monday nights on the Apocalypse. We have talked in the study about how apocalypse means unveiling or uncovering and much of apocalyptic literature is about the unveiling of violence and evil in this world. Someone asked a very insightful question the other night. Why are we just seeing the unveiling of such awful things in the apocalypse? Why not the unveiling of God’s goodness?

  Well, Advent is some of that. Advent has a similar meaning to apocalypse. Advent is about appearing. Not like somebody or something showing up, but how something appears out of the darkness when the dawn breaks. It’s another kind of unveiling or uncovering. But as the Christmas story reminds us time after time, we have to let our eyes adjust to the light. Darkness is too much our norm, and we turn away from the light because it’s hard for our eyes to adjust, and we don’t see the things of God. But Jesus keeps telling us its worth it to open our eyes to the ways of God, or as he says it in other places to have eyes to see.

We all have lots of questions about the second coming of Jesus. That’s one of the reasons there is so much written and preached about things like the rapture. It’s a way for people to try to figure this all out. But it is really beyond our figuring, so all the prophecy seminars and Left Behind books in the world aren’t going to help. The gospels tell us it was a surprise when Jesus came the first time and it will be as much of a surprise the second.

  Our call is to simply keep watching for the signs of God, to not get swept away by the norms of the culture, but to let it pass us up, to leave us behind to the ways of God.

  Jesus says God is watching and waiting for the faithful who take God’s ways seriously, people who believe wholly in God, who love God, and look for God’s ways at work. They are the ones who don’t get swept away by the violence of war, and racism, and sexism, and nationalism, and greed. They are the faithful stewards that God is glad to put in positions of responsibility in God’s realm.

All right, so maybe I have gotten swept away myself by my reworking of this passage. Maybe being taken is meant to be something good in this passage and being left behind something bad. But even then, I would argue that we are taken up by something, the things of God, loving God with all our hearts, and souls, and minds, rather than left behind to the violence and corruption and evil that have become so normal to us.  

  I guess my bottom line argument is that there are more ways to look at this passage than what we find in the Left Behind books. As long as we are watching and paying attention and expecting God’s ways to prevail over the violence and corruption that we have come to regard as normal, then we are catching on to what Jesus is saying.

  Advent is our reminder that the surprising ways of God are the new normal. God comes to us in such disarming and delightful ways. There is a revolution afoot, not one with weapons of mass destruction, but a revolution that begins in a manger. It’s a revolution that a Roman execution couldn’t defeat, nor the guards in front of an empty tomb prevent.

  Are we watching and waiting for it? While others are swept away by violence and corruption and evil have we been left behind, stood our ground, for the purposes of the new normal of Bethlehem?