Advent Sunday 27th November 016

Today, one of Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, preaches. The reading is from Matthew 24: 32-44.

Tell us when all this will be,” they asked, “and what will happen to show that it is the time for your coming and the end of the age.” [GNT] Matt 24:3

‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’[NIV]

1.              I am a member of two tribes:  I was brought up supporting my tribe of origin is Northampton Town;  and so as a youngster, I stood on the Hotel End stand joining in the witty tribal songs such as:  We support N’ton Town so pull your …. down”.  I revelled in the pie-stall folklore that told of mythical days when the Town held the record as the team who had the fastest rise from Division 3 North to Division 1 and then the fastest drop back to Division 4 (9 seasons).  And then I was there the day George Best came and scored 6 goals against us.  Inhumanity.  I needed a fitter tribe to survive and Best’s rivals offered the outlet:  the sky blue and white of City, Francis Lee, Colin Best, Mike Summerbee.  And now look at us!  But remember it has been a tough ride - even singing Blue Moon and dancing with my back to the TV:  locked in at the New Den with a  riot outside after a 1-1 draw against Millwall in the Second Division on a wet September night in the 98/99 season marked the low point.

2.              Advent Sunday and football.  That is a challenging link.  I could look to develop the theme of the coming Messiah and use the newspapers’ favourite description of the next great managerial hopeful? Perhaps, but I won’t.  I use the (imperfect) football supporter analogy for one limited purpose:  to help us capture the experience of Jesus’ disciples as he speaks the words of our Gospel this morning.

                  Our passage is a part of a longer section in which Jesus meets the challenge thrown down by his disciples:  tell us when and how we will know you are coming?  A question itself prompted by Jesus’ observation that the great edifice of the Temple in Jerusalem would one day fall.  In some respects Jesus’ words in our passage are shocking – but were we to read the whole section we might conclude that our “taster” is relatively moderate in tone.  So at the outset, I want to acknowledge that Advent brings us face-to-face with some elements of our faith that may appear unfamiliar and so difficult.  But I want us also to have in mind our everyday experience of life.  And I hope that in the next 10 minutes we may find that these words contain truths and patterns of faith that in fact we recognize.

3.              “Advent” is about “coming”.  The church’s season of Advent has traditionally been a time of preparation for the coming of Christ.  If we were in some Orthodox traditions, today would be the start of a period of fasting, similar to Lent ahead of Easter:  a time to discipline ourselves to meditate on the coming Christ.  And within all of the church, the coming of Christ is seen in two ways:  the incarnation in the events of Christmas, when God became man;  and in the promise of the time when Christ will return and the kingdom of God established.

                  The tension between these views can be sensed in the experience of the disciples in these last days of Jesus in Jerusalem.  On the one hand the triumph of the entry into the City on Palm Sunday, the deeply-significant and dramatic act of cleansing the Temple, the futility of the establishment’s attempts to outwit Jesus in debate – all this might have seemed to be leading to the inevitable conclusion that now, right now, was the time when the Kingdom of God was not just “at hand” but would be established.  And yet, Jesus spoke both of a future time when this would happen and spoke too of his own death.  How could, this be?  We can imagine how difficult it was for the disciples to makes sense of these two lines of expectation – on the one hand their conviction that Jesus was the expected Messiah; and on the other hand that the manner of God’s working was not as they anticipated.

                  It is an open question how much the disciples then understood what Jesus told them.  In particular how much did they understand then when he spoke about his being raised from death;  how much did they understand when he spoke about their not being left alone, about the spirit, the Comforter being sent to them;  or his last words to them in Matthew “Go and make disciples of all the nations …. And remember I am with you always even to the end of the world”.  We do know they understood more very soon after Jesus was raised and when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost:  then Peter could declaim confidently “This Jesus, . .. God has declared to be both Lord and Christ”.

                  And so the tension is dissolved.  Now they understand both that Jesus is the promised Messiah and that the work of bringing in God’s kingdom is underway, confirmed by the resurrection of Jesus bringing forgiveness and by the seal of Spirit active in their lives – and the coming of the Kingdom will one day be completed.

4.              And that is where we stand as we approach these words this morning:  we understand and believe in the coming of Jesus the Messiah at Christmas and his sacrifice for us at Easter and we believe that we are waiting and working for the coming of God’s Kingdom.

                  Or do we?  It’s OK for the preacher to make statements of faith as if they were fact, but perhaps one of the reasons that passages such as this morning’s passage may be uncomfortable is that actually we are not sure what we believe about the future?  And perhaps we are not sure it really matters:  after all, whether or not I believe in the Second Coming does not have the immediacy to the way I live that do forgiveness or the work of the Spirit?

                  We may even feel that this element of our faith is so “on the edge” that it smacks of wish-fulfillment – of fear of death and annihilation – fears that may have dogged earlier generations but from which, in our modern age, we are now free.  We might point to the fact that those instances when apocalyptic frenzy breaks through in society it is usually among those who feel most left-behind:  perhaps no coincidence that the most active and activating belief in the events of the end of time is held by followers of ISIS who seek to act out the apocalyptic vision of the final battle between Islam and its enemies on the plains north of Aleppo?

5.              If you feel like that I have some sympathy but I want to invite you to consider some countervailing ideas that have helped me:

·       Every week, perhaps every day, we pray for the coming of the God’s kingdom;  it is the first petition that Jesus gave his followers:   Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.  Does this not suggest that our expectation of the coming Kingdom may be central to God’s revelation of Himself?

·       How do we conceive of that Kingdom?  Paul was to write:  In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own (Rom 8:18).  In this he reflects the line of future hope which sees the Kingdom as not being about just about ourselves – the vertical relation – but involving the saving of the whole of God’s creation – the horizontal.  In working for the coming Kingdom we are working for the whole of creation.

·       When will it happen?  We don’t know and the early church did not know – see Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica for how they sometimes got it wrong.   As Jesus explained in our passage, when it comes it will be a surprise – like Noah’s flood, like the burglar.  So I suggest there is no advantage in our drawing parallels with the events in the world and tracking them into the events predicted in our passage or in the chapters of Revelation:  we just will not know when – at least not until it is as obvious as the signs of summer in the fig tree.

·       What shall we do?  Be ready – live lives that will be pleasing to God should the Kingdom come now.  Paul picks up the “thief in the night” metaphor, urging us not to do the things that are done at night but rather live as if always living in the open, in the light.  Lives which reflect the love of Jesus and the presence of the Holy spirit are the oil in our lamps which will differentiate us as the wise rather than foolish when the bridegroom arrives.

6.              Every Advent sermon is a challenge to be ready to celebrate the marking of Jesus’ birth at Christmas – coupled with a reminder to reorientate our everyday faith so that we take in the promise of the coming Kingdom.  We are people of faith and of hope and today is a chance to reflect on our hope.  The football analogy was just one example of how we do it in everyday life – 8-2 down at the Hotel End, locked-in at the New Den, why did I, do I still watch for my team’s results?  A hope, perhaps even, some might say a faith?  I can live with disappointments and sometimes success.  A trivial analogy:   even so we are called to live with this very hope.  And remember I am with you always even to the end of the world.

Amen

Sermon 20th November 2016

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, concludes our series where we have been studying some of the Psalms. This week, we are looking at Psalm 98.

Here is the promised link to the YouTube clip that I would have played in church, had I been able to. It really is worth viewing in its own right; but for me it’s a near-perfect picture of what Psalm 98 looks like, so I suggest that you start with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87qT5BOl2XU

[It was captured 4 years ago, in a square on the outskirts of Barcelona. A little girl puts a coin in the upturned hat of a man holding a double-bass. He begins to play, and then is joined by a woman with a cello. Soon there’s someone with a bassoon; then 2 violinists; and so it goes on: by the 5-minute mark there are about 50 instrumentalists – adding trumpets, drums, trombones, etc; and a choir of at least as many voices too. All of them, first to open-mouthed amazement, and then to the ever-widening involvement, of the gathering crowd, are blasting out … yes,] Ode to Joy; the tune to which we sing the words of Psalm 98! And if ever a flash-mob conveyed the core message of a Bible passage quite as clearly as this scene does, then I’ve not yet seen it!

This really is quite the note to end this series on, I’d say. It is, to some extent deliberate of course; having myself chosen Psalm 98 as the one to finish with. Even in the planning of all this, many months ago, it seemed most appropriate to end our learning – and the church year – on a note of high praise of God. And 98 has long been one of my go-to Psalms for doing that: it’s wildly visual, punchy, engaging, and helps us to encounter God at work in the past, in the present, and in the future; and all in just 9 short verses. Of course it was written as a song, with all of these obvious musical instructions included; and even very non-musical-types can surely feel the song that is waiting to burst forth from such bubbling-up words of praise!

Our For Everyone commentary series friend, John Goldingay, is amongst those who offer good reason for this excitement. Yes, 98 is in a liturgical block of 6 Psalms that celebrate God as king. But key to 98 in particular is the likelihood that it was written (by some unknown person) around 539 BC. That is the year when the Babylonian Empire was toppled – by God alone is what the Psalmist is clearly claiming here. Yes, it was done through the human agency of the Persians; but God was force behind that, this Psalmist, and various prophets, stated. And this was as huge a change in its time as the tearing down of the Iron Curtain was at the end of 1980’s.

Yes, God had been at work, re-shaping the world; including the daily reality of his people in their 70-year exile in Babylon. The Psalmist says that it was primarily for them that God had done it – though there were benefits for everyone else who was also being crushed until that particular tyrannical heel. God had indeed set his people free; but that had been seen ‘to the ends of the earth’ – and so they too were invited to respond to it. A key aspect of this that we could miss without some Hebrew-speaking help is this. The word translated ‘victory’ in GNB and ‘salvation’ in NIV comes from the root yeshuah; and that should sound a bell in any Christian ear. With the benefit of our hindsight we are indeed being invited to make connections with the end of Psalm 98.

Of course it is in the person of Yeshuah – Jesus – that God has come to earth as promised here. And it’s also in the person of Yeshuah, Jesus, that he will come again both to rule (GNB) and judge (NIV) the earth and all its peoples. In Advent, from next week that is meant to be the focus of our Christmas build-up. Yes, I am getting a little ahead of myself here even in terms of this Psalm; and a long way so in terms of the people who first sang it with such joy and relief in light of the events of 539 BC. But this has been, and is, a key part of our last 3 months here. We’ve spent them thinking, and learning, about engaging with God wherever and however we are, by using these words written so long ago. The circumstances that they were written in may have been different to our own, perhaps; but this has all been about encountering God in the circumstances that we are in.

As ever, there’s been way too much ground covered in this series for me to begin even to try and summarise. Also as ever then I’ll point you the parts of our website where all the other sermons from it are also posted. They’re always on here: be it for specific reference on any particular Psalm; or for more general use about how the Psalms can help us to respond in whatever our circumstances might be. As I said at the outset of this series, the Psalms offer some 135 examples of things that we can say to God! There really is one available for any occasion, then. (In case you missed it, the other 10% of this 150-strong collection are either God, or one of his people, talking to us, so need listening to rather than being used as our own.) But the 135 fall into general categories which are the same as those that we also use for and in our essential everyday relating with other people.

As I said too in September, the story the Bible tells – from start to finish – is of God’s consistent longing and attempts to communicate with people. He made us to know, and be known by, Him; and the Psalms are a written record of how certain people have tried to express, or develop that relationship through the centuries. The Psalms are mostly left deliberately vague in terms of their own circumstances, so that other people in other ages – people like us – can try them for size; to see if their words can help us in our relating to God in our own circumstances. So the best way in which we can use the Psalms is not just to read them but to adopt them; make them our own: to sing them, to say them, and/or to pray them. That is after all not least what they have been given to us for.

So, in theory at least, that’s what preachers have been doing in this series. We have each taken specific Psalms that have meant, or said, something to us at some point, and tried to explain how they helped us relate with God in those circumstances. As you’d hope, with the riches of a 7-strong preaching team, there has been a wide variety offered. But as the sermon titles have hinted, there has been a key common denominator each time – and yes, that is God! It’s all too easy to get caught up in life’s every-day; from all the mundane repetitions, right through to the unexpected societal shifts of a Brexit, or Donald Trump becoming US President. The challenge for anyone of faith is to relate to whatever God is doing, or saying, in those circumstances.

Again and again, this is where the Psalms come into their own, potentially; and so that is what I hope you will above all take from this series on them. As I also said at the outset, what we have done could only ever be illustrative of how we might each go about using these wonderful resources of the Psalms for ourselves, whatever circumstances we are ever in. And that is the main reason that I’ve chosen 98 to end this series. What it put in front of us is the ultimate perspective for our lives: God at work in the past; God at work in the present; and God at work in the future. And of course what that demands of us is to respond to that work, to God; most especially and very specifically with praise for wonderful deeds

Psalm 98 – quite rightly – trumpets God’s salvation/victory that all have seen. Amazing as God’s ending the Babylon Empire was, it doesn’t begin to compare to God’s salvation/ victory yeshuah that He has accomplished in the person of Yeshuah. As we will be reminded when we come to Communion later this really has changed all things for all people for all time. The death of Jesus has permanently dealt with the consequences of all sin. His resurrection from the dead has put an end to death; let alone some human empire. And there really literally isn’t now any end of the earth that’s not heard the Good News of God’s salvation in Christ. All peoples everywhere have been, and are, invited to respond to what they have seen and heard: with praise of God.

All that, quite clearly, is God at work in the past – though it very much has implications and consequences in the present, of course. As the upcoming season of Advent will remind us, there are just as significant implications and consequence in the future too. This is where Psalm 98 ends, with its third 3-verse section. Again the Psalmist wrote from a much less informed place than we now live, after the human life of Yeshuah. We realise much more fully what it means that God will come to rule, and judge, the earth. We know from what Jesus said that this will be the end of all that we know when he returns. We know too that there is an urgency about sharing God’s Good News now, in the present, with all people everywhere – as Jesus told his followers to do. And that is, of course, God at work in the present: helping us to respond to Him, and do what He has commanded.

Psalm 98 really does set it all out; and is the best way to end this series, and this year, before Advent. It reminds us of the context in which we live – of God’s yeshuah: His salvation; His victory; His son. That is in the past; but it completely shapes our future; and very much our present too. Whatever may happen to us personally or corporately; whatever we may go through, we are, it is, in the hands of the God who has already won the victory. We are going to see the fullness of His yeshuah, of his salvation, his victory, and his son, in the future; and so in the present we can and must live lives of praise that invite the whole world to join in too …

So then, as the Message version of Psalm 98 puts it, let’s:

Sing to God a brand-new song.

He’s made a world of wonders!

He rolled up his sleeves,

He set things right.

God made history with salvation,

He showed the world what he could do.

He remembered to love us, a bonus

To his dear family, Israel – indefatigable love.

The whole earth comes to attention.

Look - God’s work of salvation!

Shout your praises to God, everybody!

Let loose and sing! Strike up the band!

Round up an orchestra to play for God

Add on a hundred-voice choir.

Feature trumpets and big trombones,

Fill the air with praises to King God.

Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,

With everything living on earth joining in.

Let ocean breakers call out, “Encore!”

And mountains harmonise the finale –

A tribute to God when he comes,

When he comes to set the earth right.

He’ll straighten out the whole world,

He’ll put the world right, and everyone in it.

And so let’s now pray to Him …