Sermon 28th November 2021 – First Sunday in Advent
Text: Luke 21:25-36 – God knows.
Waiting is not my strong
point. I would rather take longer to get somewhere without needing to wait in a
traffic jam even if the route with the traffic jam would get me there sooner. If
I have an appointment I will ask for the first appointment of the day even if I
have to wait longer to get that appointment. I would rather wait extra days than sit in a
waiting room. I’ve often wondered why that is about me but I think it’s because
when you’re delayed because you have to wait you don’t have control of the
situation. You don’t know if the delay is actually going to be a few minutes or
a lot longer.
Sometimes we ask ourselves
“how long is this going to take” and our response to ourselves might be “God
knows”. Whilst that might be a sort of blasphemous use of God’s name, the truth
of it is that “God knows”.
As we begin the Advent season
we recall more serious and persistent questions: “When will there be justice on the earth? When will wars cease? When will this pandemic
be over and life get back to fully normal? When will Christ return to bring about the
fullness of God’s kingdom?” “God
knows!” And that’s the truth of the matter. God Knows.
We may not have the answers to
these questions, but God has a plan not to let evil go on and on. That’s why
God removed the Tree of Life when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of Knowledge
of Good and EVIL. God now limited the life span of Evil by no allowing Adam and
Eve and future generations to live forever in this lifetime.
God will do something about
the world we live in and bring about true justice. The gospel promises that
Jesus will return. Because of impatience
some people have tried to calculate the exact day of Jesus’ return even though
Jesus once said that no one knows the day nor the hour, not even himself.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses tried
on several occasions to do so and obviously got them all wrong. 1878, 1881,
1914, 1918 and 1925. Why do people keep predicting his date of return and
creating fear. I’m sure you’ve heard the Last Days evangelists – “Repent Now –
Jesus is Coming”. They probably read today’s gospel and observed events on
earth – pandemics, earthquakes, wars, tidal waves, global warming, eclipses of
the sun and moon, etc. and figured they knew precisely the moment of Jesus’s
arrival. Obviously every guess was wrong
because we are still waiting.
Biblical description of Jesus’
return isn’t meant for people to undertake mathematical calculations or to live
in fear. Instead, it speaks to our hope
and what we do while we wait. Jesus may be a long time in coming, but he can be
present when we mirror his life in our lives through acts of forgiving; caring
for the poor and those in need; pursuing peace; and a whole range of activities
that fulfil the great commandments of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind
and strength, and loving our neighbour as ourselves. But it’s not just about
helping others to be ready but also ourselves being vigilant in our faith. That
was something else that Jesus encouraged in his disciples – to stay awake,
watch and wait. Remaining strong and vigilant in our prayer life, our Scripture
life, our worship life and any other ways that keep us close to and focused on
God. That’s what Jesus said in our Gospel reading: Be on guard so that your
hearts are not weighed down with the worries of this life. Be alert at all
times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that
will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. And, most importantly,
when these things begin to take place: Jesus says - stand up and raise your
heads, because your redemption is drawing near. This is a proud moment – stand
up – raise your heads.
We hear in our Gospel reading
some dire warnings for our personal and universal world with both coming to an
end. And so we must be vigilant and “stand before the Son of Man” and maintain
our faith and keep our focus on Christ. We
don’t want to be like Peter who took his eyes of Jesus and focused on the
troubles around him and began to sink – or even worse, he denied knowing Jesus
when his life was threatened.
We trust that God is in charge, not only over
our final days, but each and every day till the “Son of Man returns.” At that
time our trust in God will be confirmed. Meanwhile we will not be defeated by
evil or catastrophe since we have placed our trust in a faithful God who, as
Jeremiah has described, fulfills promises.
As Jeremiah said: The days are
surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made. Luke
doesn’t really emphasize the negative aspects of the world but the glory of the
returning Christ that they point to. The things that Luke warns about have been
going on since the beginning of creation. We are not to focus on them and live
in fear or create fear in others but to use them as signposts pointing us
towards Jesus Christ.
Advent is a season of hope. It is a time that reminds us that the things
happening in the world are not primarily a call for us to try and fix them. Yes
we pray for world peace – we pray for our climate – we pray for healing from
this pandemic. But Jesus says they are primarily to focus our hope elsewhere: He
says: Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you
can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you
see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
Wars will come and go. Our
climate will continue to change; It wasn’t that long ago when we were fearing
an ice age and now global warming. The pandemic will end and a new threat to
our health will arrive. But Jesus reassures us “Our redemption is drawing
near.”
As disciples of Christ let us
remain vigilant and on guard for the coming of God’s kingdom in a world such as
ours. And let us remember that no matter
what happens to this world – a world that is passing away before our very eyes.
That Christ’s word and his promises to his people “will not pass away.”
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