Reading 37
As in the days of Noah
The reading
Matthew 24:36-44
But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Then two men will be 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. Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.
The companions
Psalm 90:1-12 (selected)
Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations. Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night. For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh. The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away. So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Isaiah 54:9
For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
The note
The days of Noah, in his telling, are not lurid. Nobody is doing anything spectacular. They are eating and drinking and marrying, going on with the week, right up to the day the ship closes.
That is the entire description. The failure he names is not wickedness. It is never looking up.
Then the sharpest image in the passage. Two men in the same field. Two women at the same mill, doing the identical task, side by side.
One is taken and one is left, and nothing about the work tells you which is which. Whatever separates them is invisible from outside and it was not decided that morning.
He is not telling you to stop doing ordinary things. The mill still has to be turned. He is telling you that the day arrives inside ordinary days and does not announce itself as it comes.
This week
Name the hour of your day when you are most on autopilot: the commute, the third meeting, the scroll before bed. Once a day this week, at that hour, stop for thirty seconds and look up.
Nothing mystical. Just register where you are and who is near you. Most people cannot say what they did between nine and eleven this morning. That is the state the passage is describing.
For the watch
This is the heart of why we watch, and why we watch now. The change we may be living through does not announce itself; it arrives inside ordinary days, in tools that feel like conveniences, in a new kind of mind that slips into the routine before anyone looks up. We are not saying the flood is here. We are saying: do not sleep through your own days. Keep one eye on the road, at the sink, on the Tuesday.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain).
This page is made for paper too: print it and the reading prints clean, ready for the table.