Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44 Series: Advent 2025
The mercy of God revealed in Christ’s coming is the great unexpected twist of the world’s story, and Advent calls us to stay ready by not delaying the love and service we owe our neighbor.
Illustrations: mystery-stories-act-of-faith, murder-on-the-orient-express, doomsday-preppers, thief-in-the-night, worst-thing-youve-ever-done
November 30, 2025
Mercy Revealed
The First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 2:1-5
Matthew 24:36-44
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! - Isaiah 2:1-5
“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. - Matthew 24:36-44
I really like twists in stories. They keep my attention, especially when I’m caught off guard. I love reading mysteries. My mother and grandmother raised me on them.
Mystery stories are built on expectations, and the good ones flip those expectations. Most people know the basic beats of what is going to happen in a story: the exposition, the crime, et cetera. And then it’s the question lingering while you read: is the author going to be able to pull this off in a surprising way?
Realistically speaking, the payoff is usually not there, but that’s okay. It’s en- enjoyable to go through and, and figure it out. There’s this great British mystery writer, PD James, who wrote a small essay once about how, like, reading a mystery is an act of faith, both that the author is going to reveal the truth at the end, but also that there is a truth to be revealed. In the midst of the chaos of the modern world, there is a truth that can be discovered: someone did it. The story unveils who did it, how it took place, and offers justice.
There’s a satisfaction in reaching justice in the story or the TV show or things like that. But for the justice to be effective, it needs to be revealed at some point. If the butler did it, and you thought at the very beginning, “Oh, the butler did it,” it’s not really an interesting or good story.
One of my favorites, classic mysteries, is the Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, which holds up this sense of justice throughout. And I must warn you, there gonna be spoilers here for a book published in 1934. So if you haven’t read or seen one of the film adaptations, this would be the time to just go to the bathroom.
Okay. So, Hercule Poirot is on this train, the Orient Express, and it gets snowed in. The rest of the passengers on the car all seem so very different, radically different people. There’s a murder that takes place, and none of them seem connected to the murderer at all. It is very confusing, but eventually the truth is revealed that there was a famous kidnapping many years before, and everyone on the car was connected to that family. The person who was murdered on the train was the kidnapper of so many years ago. The big twist at the end that’s revealed is that they all did it. They all stabbed him, and they don’t know which one was the killing blow. It was a great twist that offered a sense of surprise and of justice.
I want us to think about that revelation and awareness of justice that takes place at the end of a good mystery. We need to connect that twist to mercy and forgiveness.
Anytime you’ve ever truly been forgiven, it has come as a shock, a surprise. When someone didn’t need to do it. When you have wronged someone, hurt someone in your life and they forgave you, it is a twist just as bold as realizing that all the people on the train did it.
But we could go even deeper in this because mercy only makes sense if we go back to the beginning of the story. And the beginning of the story is not when you first met this person. It was at the advent of the coming of Jesus Christ when mercy was revealed to the world.
My friends, we are entering into the Season of Advent. We are hanging our greens. We are changing the decorations. We are telling this story of Christmas in the decorations we have placed around the sanctuary. What I want us to hold on to throughout this Season of Advent, the season of preparation for the coming of our Lord, is the amazing mercy of God in coming to us, that twist, that twist at the heart of this world; that all is not lost, that brokenness and injustice does not define us. Hope is found in the God who became flesh as a child.
The first Sunday of advent has a dramatic reading in the gospels. It has an apocalyptic reading that doesn’t often fit with contemporary understandings of Advent. It doesn’t fit with the niceness of decorations, of presents and family and cocoa and fireplaces and stockings and all of that. The first Sunday of Advent is about the destruction of the world because, it’s about something dramatic being revealed to us, something dramatic and deep that changes us to our core. The mercy of God is that we are not forsaken, that you are not forsaken, that you are not lost, that your story is not hopeless. And this is as dramatic a twist as any mystery.
We have to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man. It is going to happen like a thief in the night. Advent is this season of staying ready, getting ready and staying ready. And what that means for Jesus is not that we all have to become preppers, saving 365 meals and 100 gallons of water and getting ready for when the lights go off and electricity fails across the world.
No. Being ready for the coming of Jesus is about not waiting around to love our neighbor. It’s not waiting to serve our neighbor. It’s not waiting to worship. It’s not waiting to give. It’s not saying, “I’ll get around to it tomorrow.” Mercy has come as this giant twist. When you thought you were guilty, when you thought you were lost, the twist is that you are forgiven. Think of the worst thing you’ve ever done, really, now.
God offers mercy for you. You are not the worst thing you ever done. You are not your mistakes. God offers mercy for you.
In our reading from Isaiah, “Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God that he may teach us his ways.” It shall be established.
It is offered to us. We’re offered mercy and offered a path to follow the ways of God. Mercy has been revealed as a twist. The twist is that you are not the bad guy, that I am not the bad guy, that you are not the villain of your story. Even if your life to this point has been filled with self-sabotage, you are not the villain of this story. You are forgiven. And not just that, not just offered mirth, mercy, offered a path, offered a path to follow in the way of the Lord.
My brothers and sisters, in this Season of Advent, may you follow the path of the way of the Lord. May you start today by loving your neighbor more, by praying more, by going to the Scriptures, by reading the Gospels more. If you want know what to read or how to read or how to spend some more time with your Bible, talk to me about it. I’d love to have a conversation about things to study and look at. Praying more, giving more. Do not delay. We’ve already seen who wins. We already know the hero of the story who came for us as a child. So let us prepare for his coming by not delaying the love he has given us; let us share it.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.