Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish - Sunday 5 November 2023
Micah
3:5-end; 1 Thessaolonians 2:9-13; Matthew 24:1-14
It is the strangest of “Godincidences” that,
because of Bible Sunday and All Souls Festival falling at this time, the
readings for this morning’s service at which I was asked to preach, were
changed to become the very ones upon which I have been reflecting over the past
four weeks; since the terrible events in Israel on 7th October in
fact. Much social media posting has been in the form of speculation about
whether we are now truly entering the “end times” with professed theologians
discussing interpretations of the Book of Revelation and the rise of power of
many non-democratic nations. I have no
intention of speculating further on this topic this morning but I think it is
necessary to think carefully about where our theology and philosophy lie. We can so easily be led astray by false
prophets and those who would seek to use biblical passages for their own
purposes and not the purposes for which they were written. It most walks of life it is advisable to keep
things simple – both for understanding and success – and our Faith is no
exception.
I will be looking more closely at our gospel
reading later but first of all a short reflection on our first two readings,
both of which warn us against falling into the trap of following dubious
prophets.
Micah is very clear in his message, heard in
our first reading and, back in the days of the Old Testament, warns against the
hypocrisy of those who cry peace but at the same time declare war against those
who do not follow them and their beliefs and philosophies. Sounds familiar? Micah
declares that a time will come when such people as these will be uncovered for
what they are. Micah is, of course, one
of the minor prophets who was prophesying at the time of the Great Exile – a
time for reflection by the Jewish people as to why they had been disposed of
their land and taken into captivity in Babylon.
In his first letter to the Christians in
Thessalonica Paul appeals to his readers to keep their faith simple. They have
been converted to Christianity through hearing the Word of Christ preached and
are reminded that they went through much “labour and toil” in so doing. Paul asks them simply to keep the Faith, to
continue to follow the teachings of Christ by the manner in which they live and
worship. Paul is asking them to continue
to live and proclaim the gospel to others and constantly to give thanks and
praise to God.
In the course of my own reflections upon this
morning’s gospel reading, which as mentioned earlier I was considering even
before I knew that I might be preaching on it, Paul’s words as written
principally in his letter to the Colossians - as opposed to the Thessalonians –
emphasise the need to lead a Christian life, not simply by paying lip service
to ritual and the legalities of religion, but showing the light of Christ by
the way in which we treat those nearest and dearest to us as well as to all
other members of the human race – whether believers or not. Do please read Colossians in which Paul gives
us a clear insight as to how we, as followers of Christ, are expected to lead a
Godly Christian life.
I was interested to read and listen to what
many modern Evangelical preachers had to say on the topic and have been
appalled at some of the distortions of scripture which have come out –
especially from some of those preachers who are found in the American “mega
churches”. Theology has been made
complicated and twisted with much eisegesis – that is reading into scripture
what are your own thoughts and views - as opposed to exegesis which is taking
out of scripture what is meant whether it accords with your own views or not.
It is a dangerous practice and one to be avoided. We should always ask ourselves four questions
when reading scripture – When was it written? Who wrote it? To whom was it written? Why was it
written? It is always most important to
ensure that we read any scripture in the context of its construction.
Applying that to our rather alarming gospel
reading we can discern the answer to those four questions which hopefully
assist us in understanding the passage better within its context and seeing it
in light of our present situation.
Matthew 24
To whom and when was it written? It is acknowledged that Matthew’s gospel was
written some forty years or so after Christ’s death and resurrection,
principally for Christian followers still living amongst the Jewish community
in modern day Israel with original sources attributed to the gospel of Mark. It
was written in Greek and therefore we need to be aware that it would have been
a translation of the original Aramaic. It is largely, like the other Synoptic
Gospels, a biography of the life of Christ. There is no reason, therefore to
believe that it is not primarily an accurate account of what Jesus said and
did.
Who wrote it? There is some controversary over
its authorship but the commonly held belief is that it was written by Matthew,
one of Jesus’s disciples – the tax collector Levi. Whatever, we can be fairly sure that the
author lived amongst those early 1st Century Christians who found
themselves persecuted by both the Romans and Jewish elders for their beliefs –
which accorded with neither Jewish nor Roman doctrine.
Finally, why was it written? If we accept the
authenticity of the scriptural passage, and we must remember that we are told
by Paul that all scripture is God-inspired, then we must accept what Jesus is
trying to communicate to those he is addressing.
We read that Jesus was coming out of the
Temple when he told those closest to him, his disciples, to look at the
building itself prophesying that not a stone of it would remain in the future –
that the Temple would be destroyed.
Here, Jesus is not only talking about the actual building – which indeed
would be desecrated and destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman General Titus – but
that he himself would suffer and be destroyed – prophesying his own
crucifixion.
Of course, the destruction of the edifice of
the Temple was of immense concern to the disciples who had been brought up with
the concept of the building being the centre of their Jeiwsh Faith and implored
Jesus to tell them when this would occur.
We then have Jesus’s description of all those
things which will have to occur before then with the recently much quoted list
of disasters –
Wars, rumours of wars, nations rising up against
nations, kingdoms against kingdoms, famines, earthquakes and so on.
It is quite easy for those who want to
interpret the ending being now, in the 21st Century, imminent, by
looking at these things but, if we think about it, these things have been
occurring over the last two thousand years and in some ways even worse than
they are now.
What concerns me more is the rise of so many
false prophets which Jesus predicts as an indicator of the end times. He says, because of the increase of
lawlessness the love of many will grow cold.
I look around at society today and I genuinely
mourn the loss of the respect and values which we, of an older generation, have
been brought up with. My son, who is a
teacher, informs me that respect for him and his colleague teachers by their
students has almost disappeared. The
respect we once held for our politicians has now gone – not without
justification when we see the untruths and misinformation we have been fed; and,
again, I look upon many of the evangelical preachers, especially in the States,
who use biblical eisegesis in support of less than biblical teaching for their
own ends.
But, Jesus, as ever, has the last word. He tells us in this gospel passage that “anyone
who endures to the end will be saved”. This, he tells his disciples, is the
good news. If we can discern false prophets from the true words of the gospel
we can overcome the evil and falseness all around us.
Each and every day I pray for discernment.
Discernment of hearing what God is truly telling me as opposed to what others,
or I myself are saying or thinking; discernment in understanding the true
nature of biblical teaching and recognising those who preach the true gospel
and rejecting those false prophets who teach us their distorted version.
Jesus tells us and his disciples that the true
ending will be a good ending. Don’t you
always like a good ending to a book or film?
I still cry every time I watch the last few minutes of “The Railway
Children”! Jesus says “The good news
of the [coming of] the Kingdom of Heaven will eventually be proclaimed
throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” – that will be
the true and beautiful ending. Alleluia.
What a wonderful and beautiful thought but it
does require us to keep the Faith and to keep the gospel message simple. “To
endure” as Jesus says. avoiding falseness and deceit, keeping to those great
Christian values set out in the New Testament.
Once more, Let us pray :
Father God. we ask that you give us the
gift of discernment to recognise false prophets and false teachings from the
true and simple message of your Son, Jesus Christ, as set out in the gospels.
We pray that we may go forth with confidence and strength in proclaiming the
good news through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Amen.
MFB/192/03112023
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