Sermon Advent Sunday 2022 St Oswald’s Rugby
‘Hope for a broken world – Jesus is returning’ Matthew 24: 36 – 44
This picture was taken I would guess in around 1956. I am the youngest of three brothers and here we are getting ready to go on holiday in my dad’s motorcycle and sidecar with my grandma coming to see us off.
Ponder on how much things
have changed since then.
Consider the changes in the
last three years, changes that have been supercharged with the Covid pandemic.
When I was a young boy Zoom
was an ice lolly shaped like a rocket!
And as we look out at our world now it would seem that everything is being shaken.
Nothing appears secure.
For us in the UK that has been exacerbated by the death of Queen Elizabeth 11.
Along with the machinations of our government that seems to have hit the buffers, run out of ideas, run out of steam, and perhaps run out of Prime Ministers!
We have had Cop 27 amidst a
climate crisis, we have nurses voting to go out on strike for the first time in
their long history, plus numerous others strikes.
We have food poverty and fuel
costs crisis while in East Africa severe droughts are causing thousands of
deaths.
We also have a war in Europe
that is threatening to escalate and is affecting all our lives.
And the catalogue could continue – whichever way you look, if this was a Dad’s Army film, we would hear Frazer saying, ‘we’re all doomed.’
Is it little wonder given
this seismic shaking and paradigmatic shift that some Christians have looked at
the Scriptures and perhaps heeded the words of the prophet Haggai.
“This is what the LORD
Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the
earth, the sea and the dry land.
That they have looked at the
Book of Revelation and decided that all this turmoil must presage the second
coming of Jesus.
And today on this Advent
Sunday we are invited to reflect upon Matthew 24: 36-44 – a section in
Matthew’s Gospel often referred to as a Little Apocalypse.
As we do that, remembering
our underlying theme of ‘hope for a broken world.’ Let’s first take a deep
breath.
Advent is of course the time
when our reflections turn directly to the celebrations associated with the
birth of Yeshua bar Joseph – aka Jesus.
It is also the time when we
are invited to reflect upon his Second Coming.
Coming into a broken and
divided world, corrupt and full of injustice. When all wrong things will be put
right.
That is in part why Advent is
a solemn season with purple as it colour.
And why in some traditions the Four Last Things form a weekly reflection – Death, Judgement, Heaven, and Hell.
Which isn’t so far removed
from our Advent Table Talk exploring Suffering, Forgiveness, Death and Hope
But are we living the last
days?
Is Jesus about to return?
Is all this global upheaval a
sign for us to prepare?
And amid all this turmoil how
can we possibly be a people of hope, offering hope and living in hope?
The section of Matthew’s Gospel we heard is highly complex and to do it real justice I would suggest sitting down and working through Tom Wrights’ ‘Matthew for Everyone.’
But on the question of ‘is
this the time for Jesus’ return’ let us read again the top and tail verses of
our reading.
“But about that day or hour
no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
And…
“So, you also must be ready,
because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
We could look elsewhere and
find similar verses, but these will do for me – is Jesus coming again, well
yes, we claim that when we say our Creed, our Statement of Faith, but we do not
know when.
And on the when there is a
dire warning within our reading about being ready, ‘like a thief in the night -
if we had known then we would have prepared.’
And while we are looking at
this Little Apocalypse let me point out a few other things.
Then I do want to say
something about where our hope lies but first let’s clear up this word
Apocalypse.
Despite what Hollywood films might want to say it is not about the end of the world – apocalypse simple means ‘revelation.’
And if you want to dig deeper
into the apocalyptic genre, I can highly recommend the Bible Projects set of
podcasts and studies on ‘How to Read Apocalyptic Literature.’
Study the Story of the Bible With Free Tools | BibleProject™
Two final comments on
apocalyptic literature before I move on to say something about our hope.
If a picture is worth a
thousand words, then the Jewish people who were forbidden to create any graven
image, used a thousand words to paint a picture!
And they used metaphors,
hyperbole, exaggerations, and idioms.
Much as we do in our
language, take for example this sentence.
‘I was flying down the road because
I was late, and I bumped into an old friend. He told me something that quite
literally blew my mind and I had to stop and try and get my head around what he
had told me. Then the heavens opened, and it started raining stair rods. This
was such a pain as I planned to have a BBQ that night. It had been so hot for
days before, we were boiling to death.’
So – HOPE, which I like to
spell as Holding Onto Past Experience.
Genesis 3.8 is a very
important verse that sets out our hope - and a problem.
They heard the sound of the
Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees
of the garden.
They heard the sound of the
Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze…
Here we have God’s original
plan and purpose – to live with humans and the created order. He had appointed
them as image bearers, as Royal Priest, he had commissioned them to be fruitful
and multiply.
But the problem comes in the
second half of this verse…
‘…the man and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.’
We know the story about how
God had provided for their every need but had given them one instruction, a
test, to see if they would be willing to trust God for everything – but they failed
to pass the test and immediately felt naked and ashamed.
‘…the man and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.’
Contrast that with 1 John
2.28
‘And now, little children,
abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put
to shame before him at his coming.’
In between we have stories of
God’s mission to live among his creation.
The choosing of Abram, the
call of Moses and most significantly allowing Moses to enter the heavenly
throne room on top of Mount Sinai.
This in turn led to the building
of the tabernacle with its exacting instructions so that it mirrored it
heavenly counterpart.
God also provided a way for
rebellious, sin-stained humans to enter his presence, well at least a selection
of people from his special people, the Israelites. To act as representatives,
of God to his people and people to God.
We need to read all the
sacrifices not so much as to appease an angry God or to get him to do something
or not do something and more about offering a way of approach.
It takes it out of the personal but think of a nuclear reactor and the need to wear layers of protective clothing.
Hebrews 12.29 reminds us that
“God is a consuming fire.”
And this swings this way and
that, good and bad but gradually building up a hope as outlined in another
apocalyptic work, the Book of Daniel and in Isaiah, plus some of the Psalms and
in other prophetic writings.
That there would come a time
when a chosen one, someone like a ‘son of man’ would appear.
Daniel chapter 7 is key to
this aspiration – look at Matthew 24.30ff and then to these words from
Daniel…
In my vision in the night I continued to watch,
and I saw One like the Son of
Man
coming with the clouds of
heaven.
He approached the Ancient of
Days
and was led into His
presence.
And He was given dominion,
glory, and kingship,
that the people of every
nation and language
should serve Him.
His dominion is an
everlasting dominion
that will not pass away,
and His kingdom is one
that will never be destroyed.
And then, and then - words
that will hear as we celebrate the Birth of Jesus from John’s prologue as he
reframes the creation narrative of Genesis…
And the WORD became flesh, and tabernacled among us...
And we come full circle to
Genesis 3.8 with God’s plans and purposes, to live with his creation, to
restore humans to their dignity, to their first calling as royal priest.
But the story doesn’t end
there – there is more.
For on the Day of Pentecost
the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples who became God’s dwelling place,
God’s temples, the very living image and presence of God to the world, as God’s
royal priest.
And there is yet more for the
story has yet another chapter and we get some of the detail of that in
Revelation, especially chapter 21.
There will come a time when
heaven and earth will become conjoined as God originally intended. That there
will be a new heaven and earth reality. When justice will come, and all wrongs will
be put right.
However, when that will come
to pass, we simply do not know.
But our hope as this world
rocks and shakes, as we hear of wars and rumours of wars, as there are famines
and earthquakes and all manner of disturbances – our hope is that God’s heart’s
desire, God’s plans and purposes remains as outlined in Genesis – to walk
amongst his creation living in perfect harmony with his creation living in
perfect harmony with itself.
That’s the story our
Scripture tells us, and that story is where we place our hope.
And as we watch, wait,
wonder, work and worship as the world slips this way and that we can heed the
words of Paul in his letter to the Romans.
We can take these words and
place them alongside the framework of God’s plans and purposes and tuck them
away deep into our hearts and yet having them always before our eyes – speaking
metaphorically!
Romans 8:38-39
For I am sure that neither
death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the hope we have and
hold out to the world as we read in Hebrews 6:19-20
We have this hope as an
anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the
curtain, where Jesus our forerunner has entered on our behalf.
And from there, the
Bridegroom will one day come to claim his Bride, the Church. And therefore, our
heart cry is Marantha – even so come quickly Lord Jesus.
Let us worship God the
Faithful One as we rise to sing…
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