SERMON 34 - SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 2013

Sermon at All Saints Parish Church, Whiteparish, Evensong  – First Sunday in Advent - Sunday 1 December 2013

Psalm 9; Isaiah 52:1-12; Matthew 24:15-28

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable to you, O God.  Amen

Today is, as we all know, the first Sunday in Advent and begins a month’s long wait until Christmas Day. A period of waiting with great anticipation – a time of preparation whether you are a Christian or not because it brings with it those stressful shopping trips (well they are for me), the Christmas card writing, trying to think what to buy Aunt Agatha or that 14-year old grandson or nephew.  These next four weeks are probably the most stressful many will experiences other than a bereavement, marriage breakdown, job loss or change or house move.  It is a well documented fact, unfortunately, that Christmas brings with it, quite often, many family and marriage breakdowns in the New Year.  Not a very happy picture is it?  And the reading we heard from Matthew this evening does little to improve the mood – being part of a much longer speech by Jesus to his disciples prophesying the sacrilege and final destruction of the Temple and the suffering which will accompany the final times.

On the face of it, therefore, this seems to be an incredibly odd reading to have on the day when we light the first of the five Advent candles – the Candle of Hope.  It seems on reflection, that Jesus is indicating that there will be little hope for many at the end of the age.

Since March of this year I have waited with great anticipation the arrival of what has been heralded by many as the Comet of the Century.  Comet ISON was discovered as a dim smudge well out beyond the solar system but appeared to be remarkable in that it was extremely large and was heading directly towards the Sun.  Astronomers, myself included, expected it to become a brilliant object as it passed around the Sun and proceeded on its way.  During the last three weeks I have scanned the early morning dawn sky for a glimpse of it – but to no avail and when it passed by the Sun on Thursday it appears to have broken up and the remnants certainly will not shine with anything like the brilliance the comet would have had if it had survived its solar encounter.

Comets appear regularly in our sky but usually you need to hunt for them if you are going to see anything – and then it is often nothing more than a smudge of gaseous light – only infrequently, and with much excitement will a comet be near enough and bright enough to be seen clearly with the naked eye – the last really bright one being Hale-Bopp in 1997.

The emergence of Comet ISON from a dim distant object into what was hoped to be a brilliant splash of light across the sky has reminded me that the first Sunday of Advent is traditionally a celebration of darkness into light – moving from the long period after Trinity Sunday towards the celebration of the light coming into the world on Christmas Day.  It has often been said that it is always darkest before the dawn and this is, I think, what Jesus is saying in Matthew.  To some extent it is an echo of the passage from Isaiah we heard in our first reading.

Isaiah is more upbeat but the situation and the times in which he was writing were, for the Jews at least, much more desperate.  Isaiah is writing at the time of the Great Babylonian Exile.  The Jewish people had largely been expelled from Judah and were living in Babylon.  They saw this as a punishment for their failure to adhere to the Godly laws given to Moses.  However, Isaiah in this passage reminds them that they were taken into captivity before – into Egypt as slaves and more recently by the Assyrians, yet God took them out of Egypt and he assures them that they will be restored to their lands again and Jerusalem will be rebuilt.  He prophesies that the return will not be like the hasty flight which accompanied the flight from Egypt or the Exile to Babylon but an orderly peaceful procession.  This message is repeated in Chapter 55 in the words of the famous song “You shall go out with joy and be led back in peace…”

Jesus’s message seems to be the complete opposite.  The beginning of Chapter 24 of Matthew starts with the disciples asking Jesus to look upon the Temple in all its glorious architecture.  In complete contrast to Isaiah, Jesus pronounces that the Temple will be destroyed so that no stone will be left one on top of another.  Here he is prophesying precisely what would happen in 70 AD when the Romans under Titus finally destroyed the city and Temple.  Jesus also predicts a hasty flight which was indeed what occurred. A complete contrast to Isaiah.

So what is the connection between these two passages and how do they link into the theme of today?

As so often happens, when faced with a difficult lectionary passage I can be tempted to put it aside and try and find something simpler but as I read these passages again and again, and indeed even discussed them with my house group – a message did begin to emerge.

Much of our world is in a deep darkness.  We hear on the news of wars and rumours of wars, death and destruction at the hands of tyrants, natural disasters such as flooding, typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.  Many charismatic Christians point to this peace of scripture and indicate that the “end is nigh”.  In fact, Christians and non-Christians alike have pointed to scripture to support their own view that the world must be coming to an end soon.  Indeed, 39 members of a religious cult in America called the Heaven’s Gate Cult committed mass suicide when Comet
Hale-Bopp appeared in the sky. 

Yes we are indeed living in the end times but not in the way these cults would have us believe.  Just as we celebrate the coming of Jesus at Christmas, we also await his second coming but until that occurs he asks us to live in hope, in the knowledge that we can continue to have a relationship with him through the power of the Holy Spirit if we seek out and maintain that relationship. God, Jesus is within us and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can produce those glimpses of the light of Christ in the world today.  We live in the end times because by his crucifixion and resurrection he punched a hole through between Heaven and Earth and we can see Heaven shining through – sometimes dimly like ISON when it was way off and sometimes like Hale-Bopp – illuminating the darkness.

Lights are more use in the darkness.  What use is there to carry a lighted torch in the middle of a summer’s the day.  Jesus asks us to carry a torch with us to light up the darkness.  His great disciple and apostle Peter also takes up this message in his first letter when he says to the new converts to Christianity. “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” [1 Peter 2:9].

There is a wonderful poem by Robert Louis Stevenson which I had the privilege of hearing a great theologian once recite – and I want to quickly share it with you.  It is entitled “The Lamplighter” :

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky.

It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by;

For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,

With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

 

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,

And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be;

But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do,

O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

 

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,

And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;

And oh! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;

O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!

I have a very strong image of a Victorian foggy night with Leerie, the lamplighter, lighting the gas lamps one by one and, little by little illuminating, the dim foggy street – punching holes of light into the gloom.

Jesus will return, like a bright comet, but in the meantime we are left here to punch holes of light into this dark world with the torch provided by the Holy Spirit.  Dim comets may come and go but we must be ready for the big one.

As we embark upon Advent, and the coming of the great light, let’s do our bit to light the way for the kingdom of heaven – let’s bring the hope of that light to all we meet.

 Amen