from a sermon preached 3rd Dec Advent 1 2023 St Lukes
Happy New Year! Today is the first day of the new year of the Church – I don’t think its just the CofE I think that all churches do this – certainly methodists and RCs. Anyway Happy New Year. You can go about wishing people happy new year and see how that puzzles them!
Its good to start the new year now, before the rush, because if you have plans for new years resolutions then you can have two goes at them, you can start now and then try starting again in January if you want. Or if you have made a plan to read the whole bible this year, then start now and give yourself 13 months.
Its also good for those of you thinking We’ve had enough OT can we have some NT please – so Yes. That was the year of the OT, and now we have the Year of the NT. We will mostly be doing Lectionary Year B but that will mean looking at Hebrews, at Ep of James, Ephesians, 2 Cor, 1 John, quite a bit of John’s gospel and quite a lot of Mark’s. And every now and then some OT.
Happy New Year
Happy Advent. So advent is all about the Arrival, the Coming, – if you’re thinking the Arrival of Christmas – then Okay – then have a think about how you will be preparing over this season – you will have lists, lists of cards to be writing, presents to be buying, how about a list of people to be inviting to our Carol services?
Advent – yes it is about preparing to celebrate the birth of the Messiah – and in our preparations for that we start with the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs, and then next week the Prophets, and then the pink candle for John the Baptist and Gaudete Sunday, and then Mary for Advent 4 though she will be a bit short changed this year as we will start the morning in Advent 4 and by lunch time have slipped into Christmas Eve.
So today we give thanks to God for the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs, the founding fathers and mothers of the Faith.
But its also a worthy time to pause and give thanks to God for those who were key to the foundation of your faith.
For me I suppose that would be my parents, my godparents too, and some friends at University, and my little village home church that I grew up in that was incredibly incredibly dull (I can say this because my Dad was vicar!) and the way that they prayed and supported me.
So today take a little time to remember those who were part of your journey to faith.
But Advent is also about the Second Coming of Jesus and I have previously preached sermon series on the 4 last things – Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell!
And in today’s Gospel reading we have this – simply the longest speech – certainly in Mark – by Jesus. Our reading did not start well – it started with ‘But in those days following that distress’ which should rather leave you thinking What? What distress?
Back in Mark 11, Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a Donkey – Hosanna Heysanna Sanna Sanna Ho!
And then Jesus, the next day, feeling a bit peckish, sees a fig tree and is expecting it to have a little fruit on it, but no nothing, its full of leaves but alas no fruit. So Jesus curses it.
Then up to the temple, and the overturning of tables and a bunch of silly questions to try to trap Jesus -all a bit frustrating for the Trappers. And then Chapter 13 Jesus starts to talk to his disciples about the end of time the final judgement.
So we have the destruction of the Temple – which we have seen in AD70, the Romans literally blew it up
We have the warning against false messiahs – and we saw a famous one in the Bar Kochba revolution of 135AD – but we have seen lots of Would be heroes and Messiahs since then who would seem to offer us a hope and salvation of sorts if only we could pay the price – and for the most part these have come to nothing, but I suspect we will see some more.
And we have seen wars and wars and more wars, since then, and Constantly rumours of wars.
And then comes the first warning of the future – that Christians will be arrested. And that has continued to happen ever since.
I was once told how a church in Nepal used to invite the local police to their baptisms because when you got baptised you then had to go to prison for 3 months I think. Perhaps the laws have changed since that story.
One of the Grill-a vicar questions was about whether or not Stefan and I could change our religion. I said we were free to choose our religion so yes, but if we did I would lose my job and Stefan wouldn’t get paid, but that’s all.
Into this mess of persecution Jesus speaks about the Abomination that Causes Desolation. I’m not really sure what that is. Its possible that when the prophet Daniel (as in Daniel and the Lions Den) spoke about it the Abomination that he saw- he was thinking of Antiochus Epiphanes the 4th and his desecration of the temple in Jerusalem and the Maccabean revolt and the first festival of Hannukah in 164BC.
But Jesus clearly thinks there’s another Abomination to come – perhaps he meant the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70.
That would make sense with the odd promise of Jesus – that ‘This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened’.
I’ve always read that as meaning a chronological sense of the word Generation. But a recent commentary says Maybe not, Mark often uses this word that we translate Generation, to mean this nation, this Jewish nation.
In which case you could read into this the promise that the Jewish nation will never pass away. And there’s some comfort in that.
But I find that the real comfort is in Jesus saying “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away”. I’m not sure what it means to say that Heaven and earth will pass away – though John in Revelation does talk about a New heaven and a new earth – so there’s some interesting surprises to come. But whatever any of that might mean, whatever craziness of worlds collapsing, stars falling from the sky, still the promises of Jesus remain solid. They hold us and anchor us in the love of Jesus.
So Jesus concludes with this advice – Be A Lert.
Be on your Guard, Stay Alert, Keep Alert. Or if you remember the old phrase – Britain needs Lerts, Keep a Lert.
So how do you do that? How do you keep watch, what does that look like?
I asked one of the St Leonard’s Church watchers and she thought it was about looking out for Evil – that makes some sense. Especially when some of you have had a scam email purporting to come from me asking you to buy me some vouchers. Thank you for thinking generously about it, and Well done for thinking This looks a bit fishy.
So being Alert there meant seeing something and suspecting that it might be a scam and then reacting appropriately. That’s what being alert means.
Jesus’s example is that of a Fig tree – it looks like summer is on the way – and that’s a sign of warmth and hope, so hang on in there!
I suppose when we see a disaster on the news – then it means Praying fervently for an end to the war in Ukraine, for Peace in the Holy Land. It might lead you to give money to Christian Aid or something – that’s what being Alert looks like.
I think it could also be about spotting Kindnesses and Blessings – I think it would be okay to see Goodness and to be Alert to it, to let it feed your faith and hope and remind you that there are plenty of good and loving people about.
Many of whom may not share our faith but still live a life that aims to show goodness and love. Hurrah. So then giving thanks, that’s what keeping alert looks like.
So I think this cautionary warning from Jesus, to be on our guard, to keep alert – I think it’s the call to keep your oil topped up and your lamp wick trimmed – I think it’s the reminder to stay connected.
Connected to God in prayer and worship, connected to each other in praying for each other and encouraging and helping each other.
Let that Corinthians reading be our conclusion here.
Here we’re reminded of God’s grace and peace, of reasons to be thankful for each other, of the plenteous spiritual gifts that God has given us as a community, of the faithfulness of God, of the persistence of Jesus to keep us firm, to hold us close as we enjoy fellowship with each other and with God.
So keep a lert. Amen.
(photo is of ‘Merry Christmas Seaford’ on Seaford Magic Day)