30 November 2025

30 November 2025 - First Sunday of Advent

Transcript

Reading:  

Isaiah 2:4

Matthew 24:37, 40-41

Write:  

From Isaiah:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares
 and their spears into pruning hooks;

From Matthew:

"As it was in the days of Noah,
 so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man…
 Two men will be out in the field;
 one will be taken, and one will be left.
 Two women will be grinding at the mill;
 one will be taken, and one will be left.”

Reflect:   

I start this weekend with a short revisit from last weekend. Remember I referenced the prophet Joel: “Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning knives into spears; let the weakling boast, ‘I am a warrior!’” Does this give enough ammunition for those who hate Christianity to say: “See! The Bible contradicts itself, therefore it cannot be reliable!” No! These are opposite sides of the same coin. They are not in opposition to each other, but rather support one another. While Isaiah is focusing on a heavenly peace, Joel is recognizing that the peace we want in Christ must be fought for. We must be armed for spiritual combat in order to pursue the peace of Christ. There. That was a simple explanation. If we are not in spiritual combat, there will never be peace on earth. Well, that issue was easy to fix. Shall we try for two? Yes.

In recent decades, there have been authors and even filmmakers trying to build on a misunderstanding that has been perpetuated in many Protestant churches. Not everyone buys this issue, but it is certainly a big issue in some circles. It is the mixed-up notion of “THE RAPTURE.”

First of all, let me give you a little history on the idea. Someone in his own personal Bible wrote in the margins something about The Rapture. Unfortunately, rather than remaining just a note in someone’s Bible, it made it to a publisher who put it in the footnotes. Published footnotes in a Bible oftentimes are thought of as having some special or important meaning. We have footnotes in our Catholic Bibles and they are meant to supplement our understanding. But in the case of “The Rapture,” it was a theory that was presented by a man named John Darby in the first part of the nineteenth century – less than two hundred years ago, compared to the almost two thousand years of Christianity.

This has been popularized in the twenty first century by a series of books called “Left Behind”. They are fun novels, but I have to emphasize they are just novels. It does not hurt to read them, provided you do not use them to form a basis for your theology, because it is a flawed interpretation of Scripture.

We have the proof of that in our gospel story today. You see, the rapture theory is that God will remove all Christians before the time of the “Great Tribulation”. This would be a time that would keep Christians from facing massive persecution, according to this theory. (Tell that to the Christians in Nigeria.) Jesus would return and take all the Christians into heaven and leave all the sinners here on earth.

But that is the exact opposite of what the gospel tells us today! “As it was in the days of Noah…” Who was left behind? Who died? Who continue to live on the earth? Noah and his family. Those wiped out were all the other human beings. “So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man” Jesus said. “One will be taken, and one will be left.”

So the idea of The Rapture has it exactly inside out and backwards.

Apply:   

So, how do we tie these two points together? Jesus also warns us to “… stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” If we are not spiritually ready for combat, which Joel urges us to do, we put ourselves in great peril of being asleep. This is what Advent is for. It is intended to help us get ready for the return of Christ. It is not about readying for Christmas, but readying for the return of Christ. This is what St. Paul in the letter to the Romans was urging us toward:

Let us then throw off the works of darkness
 and put on the armor of light;
 let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day,
 not in orgies and drunkenness,
 not in promiscuity and lust,
 not in rivalry and jealousy.
 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
 and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

He does not say make no provision for the flesh, but to make no provision for the desires of the flesh. Our desires should be set on the Lord. There is a line in one of the Psalms that says, “set your heart on the Lord and he will give you the desire of your heart.” Well, if your heart is set on the Lord, what is the desire of your heart? He is!

If our heart is set on the Lord, our face will be set like flint against the world. Put simply, there is no way we can reconcile a broken and damaged world. Jesus is the only one who can do that. We, for our part, live for Christ and try to pursue his holiness. It is a battle we are in. It is one that we dare not lose – for the sake of our souls.

Live well! Live Christ!

Pray/Praise:   

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, you have told us to stay awake and have warned us of the pitfalls this world holds for us. (Sigh!) We have failed and have fallen into those pitfalls time and again. But you know what those pitfalls are, for you faced them in the temptations of your own life – but you… never fell. We thank you for that example. We ask that you continue to go before us; guiding us on toward the rewards of heaven. Help us to set aside the fleeting pleasures of this world as we keep our eyes fixed on the eternal pleasure of your presence in heaven.

Help us to make this Advent a time of searching for you – of longing for you – of crying out from our souls that you keep us prepared “for at an hour [we] do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Amen.

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