Sermon at All Saints’ Church,
Whiteparish - Advent Sunday - Sunday 2 December 2019
Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans
13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44
May the words of my
mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be always acceptable to you, O
Lord. Amen
At the beginning of our service this morning we lit the first
of the five candles which make up our Advent Wreath – the Patriarch’s Candle or the Prophecy Candle or
the Candle of Hope – and it is therefore not surprising that each of our
readings today, the Old Testament reading from Isaiah, the Epistle of Paul to
the Romans and the extract I read from Matthew’s Gospel reminds us to be ever
ready from Jesus’s return as nobody but god himself knows the day and time of
that return.
I know I have told this story before but it is true that as a
child I waited impatiently for the visit of Santa Claus, or Father Christmas as
we preferred to call him back then, and I was repeatedly told that this
wonderful mythical character would only visit our house if I went to bed early
and was asleep by the time he made his visit.
So worried was I that I might still be awake when he arrived that on one
occasion, when I had gone to bed early as requested, but full of Christmas Eve
goodies, I was feeling decidedly queasy and was violently sick in my bed rather
than reveal my wakefulness and sickness to my parents. “Be
asleep or he will not come” had been drummed into me; but the message which
we heard from the Gospel reading this morning, when we look not at the mythical
person of Father Christmas, but the true reason for our forthcoming
festivities, Jesus Christ, is that we must keep awake whilst we wait for him to
arrive – even when sometimes our patience and wakefulness is challenged by the
worries and troubles of our busy lives and the events of the world which
surround us.
Our passages from Isaiah and Paul’s letter to the Romans
remind us that we are in the dark times until he returns. The reading from Isaiah was written at the
time of the Exile, when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon pondering on why
their Temple and city at Jerusalem had been destroyed and they were now in
exile and captivity in a foreign land.
They had cried out to God for an explanation and concluded that through
their sins God had forsaken them.
The Book of Isaiah is believed, by biblical
theologians to be the work of possibly three different people over a period of
70 years. It is certainly one of the longest
books in the bible consisting of 66 chapters – the same number as books as
contained in the whole bible – and today our reading was from Chapter 2 –
towards the beginning of the book. Isaiah is describing that the Temple will be
re-established and that it will be God’s mountain – not only a high place of
safety and sanctuary but also one to look up to metaphorically as a place where
the word of God will pronounce to all nations the right way to behave – and
here we have the famous words well known to many of us – that we should beat
our swords into ploughshares – our warlike implements into implements of peace;
that nations shall not go to war any more nor lift swords against each other.
In our second hymn this morning the words of G K Chesterton,
the creator of Father Brown reminds us that we should ask God to save us from
what he calls the sword of scorn and the sword of profanation but pick up a
single sword in defence of God’s salvation.
Paul in his letter to the Romans is writing at a time beyond
Isaiah’s prophesy of the coming of Jesus and is speaking on how Christians
should behave now and in the future – prophesies like those in Isaiah 2 have
already been brought into fruition. Paul therefore saw his own mission to the
Gentiles as the fulfilment of Isaiah’s promise – the nations were already
coming in to God’s people to hear the message of salvation that the creator God
had entrusted to the Jews already and so Isaiah’s call for universal peace must
be read as our own personal call to holiness – it must be our present agenda.
This week the Archbishop of Canterbury was interviewed on
Radio 5 Live and listeners were able and encouraged to question him –
especially in the context of the current political situation and pending
General Election. A recurrent theme
promoted by the radio host was whether religious leaders should engage in
political discussion or public opinions.
This of course followed the comments of the Chief Rabbi and the
leadership of the Labour Party. Justin Welby sits on the House of Lords and as
such is at the centre of the political life of our nation but even if he were
not it is my honest opinion that we in the church should indeed voice our
opinions about the political life of our nation.
It is not easy to do, but whoever said that being a Christian
is an easy life. I am constantly reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who ultimately
gave his life for his involvement in trying to advocate the bringing down of an
evil regime.
At present much darkness seems to surround us. Liz and I recently had a two-week break in
sunny warm climes. We expected to return back here refreshed but both of us
remarked upon the cold darkness of our own country. Now, of course, returning from the Caribbean
to England in mid-October is always going to seem dark and miserable by
comparison but this year it seemed much darker than normal – and the clocks
hadn’t yet been put back either! No, it
seemed that there was a darkness of spirit which pervaded our whole
nation. Only in the last week have we
heard about the satanic symbols and slaughter of animals just down the road in
one of our neighbouring parishes and just on Friday another attack on London
Bridge. Paul re-assures us that the night is nearly over but he also reminds us
to wake from our slumber, put away any deeds of darkness and put on the armour
of light.
In our cathedral this weekend we celebrate “Darkness into
Light” and I believe that is of such importance to us as Christians. We are told by Jesus himself to be salt and
light to the world. We must uphold those
values which God has instilled in all of us.
As we celebrated Christ the the King only last week we need to remember
that our principal allegiance is always to Jesus as our Saviour and King and
not our earthy rulers. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, indeed, but also give
to God what is his too.
Let us let Jesus have the last word. In our gospel reading,
Jesus reminds us to be ever ready and recalls that it was only Noah who had
listened to God’s word and had been prepared for the Great Flood. So too must
we be ever vigilant. This is a call to us today not to be complacent, not to
just let things ride because either we feel too tired or simply just cannot be
bothered. You will recall that Jesus in
another place tells his disciples of the signs of the end times – I think I
preached on this at our service here on Advent 1 some two years ago. The number
of Christians in this country is dropping all the time yet people need and are
seeking some spiritual understanding to their lives. Yet, Christianity
is actually on the increase in the world – there are great revivals going on as
I speak in Africa and Asia. Thousands
and thousands of people are coming to Christ each week. Muslims are even being
converted to Christianity after having seen Jesus appearing in their dreams and
I also see a great yearning for spiritual understanding, direction and growth
here in our own country. Never before
have the teachings of Christ been more important on such a global scale. We are called to be the instruments of
spreading that light and dispelling the darkness.
That means being alive and awake to what is happening around
us and being ready, not sleeping. I believe that Jesus was talking directly to
each and every generation. The words are current because a generation will be
born which will observe the end times. It could be us or a future generation –
we do not know the day or the hour – just as the exiles in Babylon did not know
the hour of their release from captivity; but we do know that God does honour
his promises and in his time. We must
wait and be patient but always with the greatest of hope in our hearts.
Let this Adventide be a time for us all to reflect upon this
and ask ourselves how we will keep awake and keep the light burning in all this
darkness which surrounds us. My own
answer is that we must always start and end in prayer and if you can do
nothing else you can always pray from wherever you find yourselves.
Let us end with that famous
prayer of St. Teresa of Avila:-
Let nothing
disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change.
Patience achieves everything. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone
suffices.
Christ has
no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours
are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world.
Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands
with which He is to bless His people.
Amen
MFB/30112019/142
