“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”May I speak in God’s name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.The Coming of the Son of ManThe context for our passage today is the coming of the Son of Man, meaning the return of Christ. This is a basic part of our orthodox profession of faith: ‘He shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead’, as the Nicene Creed puts it.In this passage, Christ tells us some crucial facts about what his return will look like. And if we listen to him and really take him seriously then our mindset and our lives should change. We cannot possibly hear these words and believe that Christ really spoke them and not be shaken to the core.What, then, do we learn about his return from this discourse?Nobody knows when it will beFirstly, nobody knows when the return of Christ will be: not the angels of heaven, not even the Son himself, but only the Father. The precise timing of the return of Christ is a mystery hidden deep within the Godhead. Nobody knows it. (Matt. 24:36)There have been many attempts to predict the return of Christ but such attempts are folly and lead to disaster and distraction. There is a reason that God has kept this a secret. We can speculate that the reason is because God desires us to live the kind of life that Jesus tells us to live: one of spiritual alertness and preparation. We wouldn’t do that quite so readily if we had convinced ourselves that the return of Christ would not happen for, say, ten thousand years.The fact that we do not know and that it could be now or it could be in ten thousand years means that we must always be prepared for it.It will be as in the days of NoahSecondly, the return will be as it was in the days of Noah: “…in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage…they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away” (Matt. 24:38-39).Christ could not be plainer: the ordinary course of the world will be continuing as it usually does and people will not be expecting what is to come.In those days – that is the days of Noah – people were doing all the normal things – eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. In the final days, it will be the same. People will be doing those things. In our day, we might say that people will be binge-watching TV and going to work and taking their children to birthday parties and going on holidays.All of those things will be going on as normal and most people will be oblivious.Again, we might be tempted to soften what Christ is saying here. But he is speaking of Noah’s flood as a literal historical event in which the vast majority of the human race were swept away. It will be like that before I come also, says Christ. Most people will be getting on with things as per normal and they will be taken by surprise.The Greek word from which we get “flood” in this passage is very resonant: kataklusmos. This is where the modern English word “cataclysm” comes from. Kataklusmos means literally a deluge that passes over everything. Nothing is untouched by it. It affects everything in the world.As was Noah’s flood, so will it be when the Son of Man comes.“One will be taken and one left…”“Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left” (Matt. 24:40-41).What does Christ mean by this? There is a very widespread misinterpretation of this passage that has been around for about two-hundred years. That misinterpretation says that the ones who are taken are those who are “raptured” by Christ into Heaven before a period of tribulation through which the rest of the earth’s population will pass. This interpretation did not exist in the Church until about 1830 and it is a misunderstanding.The immediate context helps us to see: “…they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.” Those who are swept away are the same ones who are taken. They are swept away or taken by the kataklusmos of the Coming of the Son of the Man. And the ones who are left are the ones who are not.The nature of this sweeping away is not entirely clear but we can speculate that it is not positive but constitutes a judgement upon the sin of the world. Like those who were caught in the flood, it is not something that we wish to face ourselves.“Stay Awake…Be Ready”Again, if we take seriously what Christ is saying then we will be shaken by these words. And we will ask ourselves what exactly can be done? Christ tells us, “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not what on what day your Lord is coming” (Matt. 24:42) And, “you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matt. 24:44).You must stay awake and be ready.Let’s go back to the story of the flood for a moment and draw out another implication: in the days of Noah a flood came and swept away most of the people. But God also provided a means of salvation: a warning and an ark. And everyone who stepped aboard that ark was saved from the coming judgement.As it was in those days, so it is now. God has provided a means for us to be saved from the coming judgment, and the means is Christ, the Gospel and the Church. As the second century Church Father Tertullian said,The ark of Noah was a type of the church, and Christ is the true Noah. Just as the ark, made of wood, carried within it those who were delivered from the flood, so the church, built upon the wood of the cross of Christ, carries safely through the waves of this world those who are washed in the baptism of Christ.Friends, the coming judgement is a hard reality to get our heads around. But I would like to emphasise again two things: firstly, these are the words of Christ and we should take them seriously. And, secondly, God has done everything he can to give us a way to be saved and that way is still available now.Elsewhere, Christ tells us, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (John 10:9). Christ is the ark of salvation and Christ is the door. The door is open still and he invites all to walk through it.How would I live in this were true?What then is spiritual this awake-ness and preparedness of which Christ speaks? It is keeping the reality of the Gospel before our eyes and living as though it were actually true.Think about this for a moment: if all of this were true – if Christ really were coming back at some point which I did not know and if a flood-like cataclysm would follow in his wake and if the Gospel and the Church were the ark of salvation – how would I live?Speaking for myself personally, I would remind myself of this reality constantly and do everything I could not to allow myself not to be sucked into the ordinary concerns of others who did not share this knowledge.I would stop sinning as much as I possibly could and I would seek to cultivate a love for God above a love for the things of this passing life.I would invest in the things of God every day and lay up my treasures in heaven – my wealth, my energy, my attention, my focus – in the expectation of an eternal reward.I would pray all the time for myself and for others and I would seek for opportunities to share this news with everyone and anyone who would listen. I would also avail myself of the other means of grace.I would turn everything I do towards this one end. I would make all of my activities serve this one purpose: to be awake, to be alert, and to be ready at all times.Let me ask you, then: What would you do, if you believed this were true? If you believed that Christ may return at any moment but that you and others around you might not be ready for such a thing? How might this change your mindset? How might this change your life?Images of Total CommitmentWhen studying this, I was put in mind of a passage from the Apostle Paul. To his young protégé Timothy, he wrote:‘No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.‘An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.‘It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.’2 Timothy 2:4-6Paul uses three images in rapid succession to describe the Christian life: a soldier, an athlete, a farmer.What do all those three lifestyles have in common? Total commitment to the cause.A soldier prepares for the battle. If his preparation is not diligent, he and perhaps his friends will die at the hands of the enemy. He therefore commits himself with total focus to the mastery of his weapons and to the tactics that are most likely to secure the victory.The athlete similarly conditions his life to the greatest degree possible: his food, his drink, his sleeping, his exercise and practice. He diligently learns his craft and gives every day to its mastery. Everything is tailored to this one end: to compete and to win the prize.The farmer rises early to spend all day wracking his body to tend to his animals and his crops. The farm needs constant attention and he can rarely – if ever – leave it. It is his life’s love and his life’s commitment.Similarly, the Christian life is a calling to total commitment, thinking to yourself: What does Christ call me to do? What does Christ call me to be? How does Christ call me to think if these things are really so?Let me be somewhat confrontational (and I ask myself the same question here): Is that how you make decisions? The athlete, when offered a tempting snack, says “No” because he is training for the event. Do you have a similar mindset when you a presented with a choice? Do you think first and foremost of your commitment to Christ or do you instead simply evaluate things according to your own judgment and the spirit of this age?Friends, let’s wake up and recognise that the reality of which Christ speaks is a far greater and more lasting reality than the one we encounter in the everyday. ‘The hour has come for you to wake from sleep,’ says Paul in our New Testame