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