ARE YOU READY?Our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Luke 21, verses 25-36.On 26th December 2004 an earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter Scale ripped apart the sea floor off the coast of Sumatra. Over 100 years of accumulated geological stress was released in the second biggest earthquake in recorded history. It unleashed a devastating tsunami that travelled thousands of miles across the Indian Ocean. In a matter of moments, it took the lives of well over 200 000 people, in countries as far apart as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Somalia, and Thailand. Nobody who saw the dramatic pictures will ever forget them – let alone those who saw and survived the wall of water that was up to 80 feet high.
Most of us live in a comfortable state of delusion! We like to think that our homes and lives are safe and secure behind the various walls that we buy or put up. But in an instant – quite literally – those illusions can so easily be shattered. It could be a tsunami, a volcano eruption, storms, floods, or any other natural disaster. With it can go our homes, our futures, our dreams, our lives – our everything! And then it will be too late. It will be too late to wish that we’d lived or acted differently – and far too late to do anything about it, of course! But still we live on, pretty much as we like, safe in our comfortable delusion that nothing like that will ever happen to people like us!
Welcome to Advent! Traditionally this is the time of year for Christians to prepare for Christmas. We have the next four Sundays to get ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus to be our Saviour. The way we’re encouraged to do so is by reflecting on the four last things – death, hell, judgement, and heaven. It’s a far cry from all the Nativity productions, school fares, tinsel and Christmas trees, present-buying and relative-visiting that usually occupy our December. But is that because we may perhaps have missed the point of Advent? And, if so, is this the year that we could and should get the point? Or are the disasters just too distant for that?
Well, they shouldn’t be that distant, not after today’s Bible passage. On Advent Sunday each year we have a version of this prediction that Jesus made just before his death. As we’d expect, there are differences between how Mark, Matthew and Luke reported what Jesus said. But they are mostly differences in detail rather than in substance. In each gospel account Jesus predicted that these sorts of events would happen. Forewarned is forearmed of course – and Jesus didn’t want his followers to be ignorant about what their future held. But actually, that wasn’t the main point Jesus wanted to make – even if it is the one that his disciples were most hoping that he would tell them about.
At this stage we need to pause, to put these verses from Luke into context. To do that we only need to look across the page in our Bibles, to 21 verse 5. Jesus and his disciples were sitting outside the Temple in Jerusalem. It was, by all accounts, a truly magnificent building – but Jesus said that it would become nothing more than rubble! His disciples, not surprisingly, wanted to know when that would happen. Jesus’ lengthy reply to their question began in verse 8, so we’ve only heard the last part of it. And most scholars are agreed that by the time we get to our passage, Jesus had actually moved on to a quite different topic.
There are huge debates over just what Jesus meant here. I don’t intend to go into those debates today, because the short answer is that nobody knows for sure! I also think that to engage in the debates means we’re more likely to miss the important issue – which is how Christians are to live now. The fact is that we do live in an in-between time. We live between when Jesus was born, and when he will come back. That, of course, is what Jesus was predicting – and promising – in this part of his answer: that he will come back. He didn’t say when – and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise hasn’t read the Bible properly! All Jesus did say was that he will come back. And so part of what we do at the start of each Advent is to remind ourselves of that fact: Jesus, the king, is coming back!
So, as we prepare for the anniversary of Jesus’ 1st arrival, at Christmas, we think about his promised 2nd arrival. We don’t know when that will be – though Jesus did give some handy hints about what to look out for. We say – or used to anyway! – that we know spring is nearly here when we see daffodils coming up. Well, in ancient Israel they had tree leaves, particularly on the fig tree, to let them know that summer was arriving. Jesus said that the sort of events he described here would, in the same way, let his followers know that the time for his return wasn’t far off.
Now these events aren’t exactly easy to miss! There’ll be strange things happening in the sky and on the earth – so much so that people will faint with fear, Jesus said! And we need only think back to those images of the tsunami to know that it’s not just superstitious, primitive people who react like that to disasters! But, even then we won’t have seen anything compared to what will happen. Because this is what will follow after those things. The Son of Man, Jesus, will appear, with great power and glory – and that will surely be the most awe-inspiring event the world has ever seen!
The events that precede Jesus’ return are meant to alert us to what is about to happen. Even in the midst of our fear and confusion, Christians are supposed to stand up, to lift up our heads – because we know! We know that the waiting is nearly over! It’s already been almost 2 000 years – which admittedly isn’t very long in God’s sight. God alone knows if it’s going to happen in our time. But, if it does, we are to greet that moment with joy, because this is what we have been waiting for. All the issues we struggle with, all we’ve had to go through, any uncertainties and questions will all disappear as we enter God’s presence for eternity!
The only truly important question, then, is if we are ready for all this? Now, Jesus didn’t say that the terrifying events that will happen before his return are meant to make us ask ourselves that question. But there’s nothing quite like a disaster to focus our minds on what matters in life! How much more true is that if we know that the disaster marks the end of the world as we know it? What would you want to do, or stop, or put right if you knew your life was about to end? What preparation would you want to make before you met God face-to-face on the Day of judgement? That is the big question that we each face this Advent Sunday, then: are you ready for Jesus’ return?
It was precisely that matter of being ready that was upper-most in Jesus’ mind in the closing part of our passage. Jesus told his disciples how not to be caught unawares by his return. He warned them – and, by extension, us too – not to get too wrapped up in this life. It is easy to think that the next promotion, the next exam, the next holiday, the next party, the latest gadget, or whatever, are the be-all and end-all. But in this perspective, of Jesus’ sure return, they matter not at all! Christians do live in this in-between time. This life is far from all there is. It could end at any point! If it ended today, or tomorrow, would it catch you unawares?
How can you make sure that it won’t catch you unaware? Think GAP! That’s this year’s alternative to the WAG and the ABC I’ve used here before. GAP, of course, isn’t the shop, or the Tube announcer’s reminder. No, it stands for: Guard; Alert; and Pray. It’s easier to see them in GNB than NIV, but it’s both handy and does convey well the sense of the original Greek. Importantly, it tells us just what we need to do so that we’re not caught unawares by Jesus’ return – which we don’t want to be!
First, Christians need to be on our guard about how we live, about what we value. We’re to live in the light of the fact that Jesus is coming back, and that it could be today. The acid test is to ask if you would want Jesus to see what you were doing, or to know what you were thinking. If the answer is ‘no’, then you probably have your answer about if that is a good thing to do or think! Be on your guard about how you live and what you value – because it does matter! Don’t get caught up in what ultimately are trivialities. And if you need to make changes, I’d suggest that you do it today: there just might not be a tomorrow!
So, G is for Guard. A is for Alert. If you are a Christian, be alert to the facts. Notice what’s going on around you: are there any signs happening that suggest Jesus is going to come back soon? Is it time to stand up, to raise your head? Is the fullness of your salvation about to become reality? And always be alert to the ultimate fact – which is that Jesus is going to come back. It’s really not a case of if, just when he does – and that’s as true for those who don’t believe it! Ready or not, Jesus is coming back: so be alert!
So, G’s for Guard; A is for Alert; and P is for Pray! That’s the third key piece of advice that Jesus gave for his followers to be ready for his return. Pray – always! What for? Jesus told his followers to pray for two things. First, we’re to pray for strength to endure all that happens before his return. Life isn’t easy if we are on our guard about how we live, and are alert for Jesus’ return. We need God’s strength to live with the tensions of that life – being always waiting and ready for something that might not happen. So we’re to pray for strength to live like that, and to stay faithful to God through these terrifying events. And, second, we’re to pray that we will be able to stand before the Son of Man when he returns.
Think GAP, then. Think ‘Guard, Alert and Pray’. Think it especially today because it’s Advent Sunday. But think it tomorrow too – if tomorrow comes! Think it the next time there’s a big natural disaster: does that mean the time is almost here? Jesus told us that such things are going to happen. So is this the time to stand up and lift your head? Think it too when you next have a major lifestyle decision to make. Is this what Jesus would want to find you doing when he comes back? Will you be able to stand before him on that day?
Be alert to the fact that Jesus is coming back – and that you don’t know when that will be. And pray, always! Pray for strength to go through all that will happen before Jesus returns. And pray that you will be able to stand before him when he does. The King is coming back! Are you ready for that? Well, be ready: think GAP; and now let’s pray …
