This sermon was delivered to Holy Trinity in Ayr, South Ayrshire, Scotland on the 28th November 2021;
a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
The readings for today are: Jeremiah 33:14-16 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Psalm 25:1-9
Main Reading: Luke 21:25-36
Prayer: My I speak in the name of the father, son and holy ghost, and let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Amen,
Introduction.
Were those readings not depressing? … Jeremiah and Luke … both of them full of doom and gloom.
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth; distress among nations … People fainting from fear, and the foreboding of what is coming upon the world … for the powers of the heavens will be shaken”.
In these strange ‘virus’ times, that really cheers us up? … And it is the first Sunday of advent as well … I like advent, I love the run up to Christmas, … so I am determined not letting these reading spoil it.
Advent
As you know, the word Advent comes from the Latin ‘adventus’ which means “coming arrival”, … and in the New Testament, this term denotes:
1. the physical nativity in Bethlehem, it also denotes
2. the reception of Christ in the heart of us believers, and it also depicts
3. the actual Second Coming of Christ himself.
Advent therefore is the time to celebrate Jesus coming into this world 2000 years ago, born as a baby, fully human but also … fully God.
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah called him Immanuel, which means: “God is with us”, and I like that … it is saying that God is not somewhere away out there in the ether, he is right there in us, right in our very hearts. … That he is a God not of this world, but a God who actually lived in this world; enabling him to relate to our own personal experiences … which is good, but we must also not forget that advent too is a time to remind us that Jesus will come again in the latter days.
Life goes on.
Speaking of the latter days, over the last few years, I have heard many people say we are presently in the latter days. … Sorry I disagree … yes, I believe we are heading towards the latter days, and the latter days are getting closer, but not yet, … There are so many signs, written in the bible that are still to happen, before we reach those days … and I personally, don’t believe I will see those days.
Yes, they are coming closer, revelations 13:16 for example tells us that there will be one currency, and yes, we can all imagine it, but not yet. … We can also imagine the mark on our right hand or even our foreheads, being chipped to buy and sell goods, … because we are all use to dogs and cats nowadays being microchipped; with a microchip smaller than a grain of rice; but not yet.
And as for the rise of Rome, well I see no any signs of that yet, although I am concerned with the whole Brexit thing and its consequences, but again, not yet. … There are many other signs in the bible predicting the start of end time, and most of them have still to happen.
The prophet Jeremiah.
With this in mind, let us look at our Old Testament reading this morning, which came from the book of Jeremiah, and Jeremiah by the way, was one of the saddest, unhappiest and gloomiest prophets of any age, with a message of doom.
However, his message was for the Israelites, you know, the ones delivered from Egypt and given the land of Israel, and if that wasn’t enough, there were promised a Messiah who would bring them even closer to God himself.
So, were the Israelites grateful, did they respond with hope and celebration, no way … in fact they constantly turned their backs on God and worshipped false idols as many do today? … The Israelites also, turned their backs on Gods his prophets, one after another, refusing to heed their words of warning; thinking only of themselves.
And with their stubbornness to act on their selfishness, God finally sent them Jeremiah, the ultimate prophet of doom, to preach the truth unto them one last time; … and the truth was that their actions, had consequences … and these consequences unless they changed, were going to be severe. … Jeremiah said, “that the harvest they were about to reap, would be the worst disaster the nation would ever go through, ending with them in exile for 95 years”.
Did they listen, no … and just like today, the cares of this world over overshadowed any good thoughts they may have had: … and so it came to pass, as they refused to listen, Jerusalem and the great Temple were destroyed, and the people, (all of them), were dragged into exile by the Babylonians for nearly one hundred years. (A whole country, about the size of our west countries, suddenly disappeared.
Anyway, this is certainly gloom and doom history, however in the passage this morning we read as more positive message, verse 14 “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise, I made to the house of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; … and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: "The Lord is our righteousness."
These are better more encouraging words, words of hope, and promises of restoration. The promise made ages before, to Abraham, Moses and David, that they would be fulfilled … that a man would act in every just way, and who would save the world.
We begin Advent therefore by proclaiming this righteous Branch, the branch we known as Jesus, the Son of God, who saved us through his passion and death; through his resurrection and ascension. … Jesus has made us one with God himself, and we therefore proclaim this message, to all those who will listen.
Luke
But who will listen? … Because we all get a bit frustrated at times when we see the world distancing themselves from his word, and it is painful to see. … We see a world today with all its injustices, but we also see a world where many people are committed to reason, and do want to change … even though we still see where this modern world is leading, as it turns its back on God.
We somehow know that it will end in disaster as foretold, however, as we read in the book of Luke this morning, it is not Jeremiah making these predictions, its Jesus himself … and these predictions are even more frightening. In fact, they are terrifyingly apocalyptic, with signs to be seen in the heavens and on earth –a seeming return to the chaos God put into order in the very beginning.
I am trying my best here, not to be all gloom and doom, but that is what Jesus is predicting, and we somehow are agreeing with him. We somehow know, that there will be a final judgement of the world, and yet there is a bit of us wanting all those who are mired in sin, to be judged and convicted.
Yes, it will be scary to those who have turned their back on God, or who have blatantly refused to listen or accept him, but for those who have accepted Jesus as their saviour, just the opposite applies.
Instead of masking fears with dissipation, drugs and alcohol, and God knows what, we are asked to lift up our heads high, because our redemption is near, with all our sins forgiven … all our sin forgiven … and with our names being written on the Lamb book of life.
What is our task this Advent?
With this therefore in mind, what then should we do? Well unlike lent, which is primarily a time of repentance / penance … advent is a time of preparation … preparation for the future. … Yes, we should continue to pray, and to study the word, but we must also contemplate how we could communicate this message to those who refuse to believe, and to those who are curious, and to those who just don’t know, and this is difficult. … And yet, to these people, the best ambassadors to them, are we ourselves … because they will partly judge Christianity … on how they see us, and how we behave and react … and in many cases, we ourselves are the ones found wanting … as my wife constantly reminds me.
And we all know, we should support the work of the evangelists, by being evangelists ourselves … given the opportunity. … We too, really have to be missionaries to our world, … and let me say at this point, that I struggle with this preaching even though I wrote this sermon, knowing it to be correct. … I find this so difficult getting this message across, particularly as I do not always see the beauty, truth and goodness of Jesus, in these modern times. … But I will say, that I know the best way to see his beauty, is to be grateful for every single thing we have, because the more grateful we become, the more we see his almighty blessings upon us.
Also, if we look at our own lives, we may not see the Christ in us, or where we have grown with his help, … but I like to relate that to a ship under way through the ocean where you never see your progress, or where you are … but if you look at the stern of a ship, as it motors under way, you can clearly see where you have been. … Even this week I looked at myself and wondered, what am I doing, where am I going, yet if I looked at where I had been and how far I had travelled, I would have seen the love of God all throughout my life, guiding and steering me through some very troubled water, to where I am today; and I will admit I have been ungrateful for most of it.
If you think back to where you were 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, and think about what you were like then, and what you are like now … what would you see. … I said to my wife, the only thing I thing I would wish for was the health of my youth … and my enthusiasm; very little else.
And please, do think of what you have went through in your life, (the good and the bad, … the enjoyable and the tough), and then … think of what you have learned and what you have gained. … Think of how you have managed to come to this point in your life: wiser, stronger, and with a certain hope for your own personal future with our maker, (later rather than sooner may I add) … but a meeting with love and excitement, rather than with fear and in trepidation.
That is what we need to communicate to others, and it will be difficult, but first we need to appreciate what we ourselves have endured … and what we ourselves have learned. … Then we can then pass it on to others in a way that is encouraging and exciting and with of hope … and where we others to see the truth in our lives, … and how in the end it will all makes perfect sense.
I am going to finish there for today, I am going to enjoy advent, but I will also be planning for the future.
Amen.
