Sermon 3rd December 2017

Today, on this first day of Advent, Ben Hughes, one of our Assistant Ministers, preaches. The reading
is from Mark 13: 24-37

²⁴ “But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[a]

²⁶ “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

²⁸ “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it^[b] is near, right at the door. ³⁰ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown

³² “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert^[c]!You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

When I spent time at sea on one of the duties expected of everyone on ship was to be on watch throughout the times of day and night. Watch duties could be on the bridge, bridge wings, quarter deck, navigation, radar, engines, pumps and dynamos and so on.

Anyone know how many night watches there are in a ship?

Six

Anyone know the names of them

Dog watch 1

Dog watch 2

First

Middle

Morning

The one I least enjoyed was the first watch as it meant proper broken sleep and unlikelihood getting back to sleep afterwards.

In the world of the time of Jesus the night was not divided into hours but into four watches of the night.

Thinking in such time spans as watches helps us better understand our faith for example Jesus often talks about watchful praying – and Jesus praying to God through  night watches is mentioned a number of times in the Gospels

This use of watches appear all over the bible including (Lamentations 2:19) the middle watch, (Judges 7:19) and the morning watch. (Exodus 14:24; 1 Samuel 11:11).

So the Jews at that time, like the Greeks and Romans, divided the night into four military watches each watch representing the period for which sentinels or pickets remained on duty.

The Roman watch system was used at the time of Jesus and was four, (Matthew 14:25)  known by the terms "even," "midnight," "cock-crowing" and "morning." (Mark 13:35) These terminated respectively at 9 P.M., midnight, 3 A.M. and 6 A.M. An example of such time measurement is when Peter denied Christ three times at the end of the midnight watch and the start of the cock crowing 3^rd watch around 3.00am. Three denials at 3.

In our verse – the watches are precisely named – here they are in   Verse 36 ³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening (1^st watch) or at midnight (2^nd watch), or when the rooster crows (3^rd watch), or at dawn (4^th Watch). ³⁶ 

Some say that the  structure of the 13 and 14^th Chapters of Mark which describe the story of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem to his crucifixion are cleverly divided to mirror and echo the night watch system. If that is the case and I like that clever structure - Our passage today is set bang in the middle of the ‘midnight watch’.

Now the midnight watch or first watch if you are on a ship is as I have mentioned, is  the hardest watch of all to do. In the army – the midnight or black watch was the least liked.

Why is the first or midnight watch the hardest - It the one where your most likely to fall asleep, it is the one where the night seems the blackest most threatening and darkest – there are few shadows in the midnight watch and you have to re focus your brain and train your eyes in the darkness to see what is out there. It is also the part of the night where those and the things that you are watching over – your ship, your mates - seem to be in their deepest sleep. Even insects seem to disappear and stop buzzing. At first few moments of the watch everything sounds dead and silent but then as the watch unfolds the noises that you usually disregard in the day become deafening, the hum of a fridge or generator, the buzz of a light fitting, the click or drop of a dripping tap. The lap of a wave. I remember being at sea on the med in the middle of the night and the sky and sea were dead calm and flat – and merged as one – it was like hanging in space – I was mesmerized and quickly lost my bearings – a porpoise or something jumped out of the sea and I nearly had a heart attack out of fright.

Jesus talks of prayer as watch lengths – using the watch structure as a prayer form.  The monasteries followed the Roman watch system for their liturgies, prayers and lamentations – and many still do today.

So it is right then that advent 1 begins in the first watch of the night – the darkest point and trickiest watch and  if you think about our passage today – the one where the world seems at its blackest and most apocalyptic.

“But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[a

But that is not the end of the story?

There is a word used in Art called Chiaroscuro

Here is two  examples (please see attachments and if anyone can tell me where the  Blue dog pub is I will by them a pint there).

Chiaroscuro literally means light and dark.

Very popular with renaissance painters and Film noire

Part of using this technique is to understand how contrasts work and in particular how light and dark define and frame each other.

It is a powerful technique as it draws us in - it invokes mystery, transformation and change and engages us in suspense and fear, expectation and perspective.

Shadows, darkness, light, draw us in and push away at the same time.

Why is it used and why is Chiaroscuro relevant to us as we think about advent?

Advent is like Chiaroscuro because it begins with the apocalyptic dark shadows of the night then invites us and leads us into hope for the light that is about to come into the world in the birth of Jesus.

And there is the key – we have a world of darkness – a shadowy, fearful world and into that world a baby will be born – it comes into the world as light into darkness – illuminating, breathtaking, visible and giving us hope. A beacon a lantern a light to lighten our pathways, pilgrimage our journeys.

And this light of Christ does not just light up the world but it also lights up the soul too.  Your soul, my soul , the darkest recesses of the heart – all we have to do is allow it to happen and welcome the light of Christ into your lives through prayer repentance and invitation. Do it today if you have not done so already – I strongly recommend it. There are people at the back of the church to pray with you if you want some of that light.

And for us – as convicted Christians trying to live the life and light of Christ –  yes we are children of the light and should act as beacons for others. We are also at an advantage because our faith allows us to see into ourselves  but we must not become careless – we must take heed to the warnings from this passage. Nobody actually knows the time that Jesus shall return – and there will be no signs to warn us the passage says - other than it might be the time that we least expect it!  Yes Christmas is a special time but we must not become too distracted by all the worldly aspects of the festival but still think as true Christians living our lives in readiness for his return. I do not think that it means – having to watch your back and or the skies, living in fear and business in case Jesus returns and that you are caught with you spiritual trousers around your ankles sort of thing. No,  I do not think Jesus means that – it means do not be drawn into the lies that we can and will live forever by our own efforts – or that we are in control of our own destinies by what we do and how we live our lives. Elsewhere in the bible Jesus says live it day for itself – for each day has enough cares and worries and so do not worry about tomorrow because it might not happen – and it probably certainly will not happen in the way you expect of necessarily plan.

The fig tree example is a good one – and the fig tree often gets a right bruising from Jesus. Why is that –you might ask? Well the fig tree is significant to for the Jews – a symbol of the temple and the teachings of the Pharisees – the fig tree is also the symbol of a much older world religion than Christianity which was probably known to Jesus – Buddhism – Jesus teachings share many similarities. But what is different and unique to both the Pharisee and Buddhist and most other religions is what Jesus in this passage describes using the metaphor of the fig tree. Do not try and discern the will of God because only God knows his ways verse 32:   God only knows the hour and time and we must keep to that and trust. Earlier in Mark Jesus curses the fig tree outside Jerusalem for not bearing fruit. This can be interpreted as only in him Jesus Christ that we find true fruit – not from others. He says the same in the end verses today – Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Verse 31

The importance of the passage and the reference to the fig tree is absolute and no compromise belief in Jesus as the way into salvation and eternal life. The pharisaical teachings of self -righteous salvation does not get you anywhere other than hypocrisy. Or in other words, you cannot by endeavor and works get into heaven – it is faith, belief and forgiveness in a baby born into a dark world and later crucified an innocent man that saves. It is through Christ only that saves – nothing else. Religious people may say – look at this, do that, think this and you will be saved. Do not believe them – they might think that they have read all the signs correctly but they do not know end of their own time and so they will certainly never know the time that Christ will return. Instead rather than speculating on this and that – live each day as it might be your last and do so lovingly, willingly and in faith.

So this Advent – and especially this time right now is a perfect reminder to  to renew our faith and realign our spiritual priorities back into the one who is Jesus. It also serves as a marker to put the past year behind us to think about new beginnings. Advent Sunday one is the start of the Church’s year – so technically today is our new year. Advent 1 was always our past Vicar Cameron’s favourite Sunday because I think it served as an opportunity to start the work of his ministry and the work of our churches afresh. Like all is now done let us put the year behind us – and start afresh kind of thing – and I agree with that. As a church we have achieved many good things over the past year but people are tired and some a bit jaded. We might want to see today as an opportunity to step out of some of the long shadows of the last year and walk back into the light of Christ. Today is the marker for that – so let us make this communion and the peace before we share that the point of repentance, refreshment and new resolve for our parish and one another.  Today I challenge you is a marker for change.

Now that we have reached something positive and de-light –ful

We can also remind ourselves that Advent is an exciting time as we renew our year and begin new ADVENTures in God!

We sing a song here at St Saviours – not sure about St Paul’s if you know it goes like this   –it’s an ADVENTure following Jesus – it’s an ADVENTure following him and so on – As we welcome in the New Christian Year today then – let us recommit ourselves to our own and shared ADVENTures in Christ – wherever they may take us together and alone over the next church year –

So Enjoy your ADVENTures, be watchful in the mid night hour and let us begin our new Christian year with hope, peace and resolve - taking each day as it comes, looking out for each other in expectation and hope of the returning Christ victorious  - the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 

Amen