The First Sunday of Advent, November 20, 2025
September 1, 2025 | by Mark Feldmeir
| Reading 1 | Reading 2 | Reading 3 | Reading 4 | Reading 1 Alt | Reading 2 Alt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew 24:36-44 |
An Unexpected Beginning to Advent
On the first Sunday of Advent, the Gospel lection seems to quickly pull the rug out from underneath any nascent Christmas joy our congregants may already be feeling. Instead of recalling the poignant biblical events leading up to Christ’s first coming, our text from Matthew startles us awake us with troubling portrayals of real-world events foretelling Christ’s second coming. While we may come to church already dreaming of a white Christmas on Advent 1, we are quickly confronted by disturbing predictions of the apocalypse which, we are told, will come unexpectedly—like a “thief in the night.”
Matthew’s Apocalyptic Vision
Some Christians actually love this kind of apocalyptic talk. “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left” (vss. 40-41). It sounds for all the world like Jesus is describing what many like to call the “rapture” in which the faithful will be abruptly taken to heaven and the unfaithful woefully “left behind,” although this is not at all what Matthew’s Jesus has in mind.
In Matthew’s gospel, we encounter a distinctive apocalyptic, or end-time, worldview in which history is divided into two ages: this present age, and the age to come. In this present age, evil, idolatry, sin, violence, oppression, injustice and death reign unchecked. In the age to come, the realm of God or “kingdom of heaven” will prevail. Life in the age to come will be characterized by the rule of righteousness, mercy, grace, mutuality, wholeness, wellbeing, and eternal life.
The Call to Stay Awake
According to Matthew’s Jesus, we are somewhere between this present age and the age to come. It is a dark time—the middle of the night—and it is no time to sleep. A thief is coming.
Perhaps many in Matthew’s congregation were losing confidence in the coming of the new age. The end of this present age, which Jesus promised, was delayed. Their hope was fading, their witness to the age to come was diminishing. Matthew’s message, as dark and dire as it may seem to modern readers, was written to encourage them to “stay awake” and to not lose hope. “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (vs. 44).
Beyond Escapist Theology
Many preachers might weaponize this passage, and other such apocalyptic texts, by exploiting our natural human fears of being “left behind” and separated from God for our unfaithfulness. But here is an opportunity to draw on Matthew’s true intent to encourage and provoke the community of faith to continue to model and work for the age to come—to witness faithfully to God’s ultimate purposes of love, peace, joy, wholeness, inclusive wellbeing, and abundance. Here is an opportunity to name the real-world experiences that characterize the darkness of this age and the “night” our real lived experiences—experiences which are profoundly apocalyptic (or “uncovering” or revealing) in nature: systemic injustices, environmental crises and ecological collapse, wars and genocide, Christian Nationalism, to name a few. Matthew’s Jesus calls us to stay awake, to be vigilant, to see and name the darkness of this present age and to work for and witness to the age to come.
A Process Vision: Harmony of Harmonies
While many Christians today gravitate toward a theology of the rapture that advocates escapism from the tensions of this world and rescue from tragedy and suffering, the process preacher might affirm instead that the “age to come” is a profound depth of experience that gathers together, in this world, all the tensions of life—its dreams, its sorrows, its achievements, and its disasters—into what Alfred North Whitehead called a Harmony of Harmonies. This harmony does not avoid or erase suffering but weaves it into a deeper form of beauty—what Whitehead called tragic beauty. Whitehead says, “At the heart of the nature of things, there are always the dream of youth and the harvest of tragedy. The Adventure of the Universe starts with the dream and reaps tragic Beauty. This is the secret of the union of Zest with Peace:–that the suffering attains its end in a Harmony of Harmonies” (Adventures of Ideas).
The Hope of Advent
The hope that lies at the heart of Advent is that despite the pain and suffering and deep grief of this present age, God will not leave us alone but, instead, will come to us again. It’s a hope that believes that the love of God in Jesus, working in us and through us, can somehow transform even the darkest night of our lives and our world, if only we can stay awake. While we may not know exactly how or when that may happen, we must remain vigilant and live as people of hope.
Mark Feldmeir is Sr. Pastor at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch, CO, and the author of five books, including A House Divided: Engaging the Issues through the Politics of Compassion (Chalice Press, 2020) and his latest, Life After God: Finding Faith When You Can’t Believe Anymore (Westminster John Knox, 2023). Learn more about Mark at www.markfeldmeir.com.