Looking to the light - the first Sunday of Advent

 

Down through the centuries, Christians have been waiting for the fulfilment of the promise that came with Jesus.  The angels sang of peace on earth, and goodwill to all, and we still long for that peace, for the kingdom to fully come on earth as it is in heaven.

Some have looked for this to come about through human progress, and the gradual improvement in society, though the evidence of history suggests progress and decline seem to cycle around one another, and if progress is to outstrip decline, it has quite some way to go.  Others have looked for sudden and spectacular end, with the present earth passing away to make way for a new creation – some may even think that events in our world right now are beginning to show some of the signs that would herald this end is approaching, though many generations before ours also thought they were living in the end times. 

I do not profess to be a good enough scholar to be able to make a judgement on this, I can’t say if we’re close to the end or not, I can’t say how it will all come to pass.  I do believe that somehow, God’s justice will one day be sovereign on earth.  I do believe there will be peace, and goodwill to all, that all of creation will be reconciled to God.

This means it matters how we live now, whatever times we are living in.  It matters because we are already building the Kingdom of God, bringing heaven to earth.  Whenever we have the chance to good for someone else, to work for justice, to care for creation, when we do these things we are making the kingdom of God a reality here and now, in however small a way.  And what we do now for good will, somehow, echo through eternity in a restored creation.

It matters also because in doing so, we become a sign.  Jesus told his disciples to pay attention to the signs in the world around them, but in building the kingdom here and now, we become a sign to the world.  Like the budding leaves on the trees are a sign of summer coming, so as God’s people live in God’s way, the world will know the promise of peace and goodwill that has come in the person of Jesus.

It matters how we live, but it is not always easy to live in this world.  We live in times that feel uncertain, unstable.  When we turn on the news and hear about what is happening in Syria, Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, when we hear of people struggling in our own country with unemployment or homelessness or domestic violence, it can be tempting to switch off.  But that is not what we are called to do.  We are called to engage with this messy, complicated, beautiful world.  We are a sign of the coming of the kingdom, and the world cannot see this sign if we are hidden away.

So, what encouragement can we find in Jesus’s words this morning?

One thing Jesus tells us to do is pray.  When we look at the world it can be hard to know where to start praying, but perhaps we should turn that around.  We don’t start with the world, we start with prayer, we start with orienting ourselves to God, rooting and grounding ourselves in faith.  Only then do we turn to the world.

There is an old hymn which we used to sing at my first church, you may know it.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.

I remember my youth group leader used to say the hymn, lovely as it was, had got it slightly wrong.  As we looked at Jesus, it wasn’t that the things of earth would grow strangely dim, it was that the things of earthwould grow clearer still, in the light of his glory and grace.

That’s not to say that we will always be able to make sense of the world.  But our prayer together here, week by week, our prayers as we go through life day by day, these help us keep our perspective, and help us see our way through the changes and chances of this world.

Jesus also calls us to get ready, to prepare ourselves to face whatever is to come, to keep ourselves safe in the midst of the world.

What do we need to do to get ready?  I guess we are to do the opposite of what Jesus warns us against.  Jesus warns against distracting ourselves in human indulgence, or letting the weight of our worries burden us so we cannot act.  That’s not to say that we should be ascetics, separating ourselves from the world, and avoiding all earthly pleasures.  But when these become a coping mechanism, a way of avoiding the realities of life, that is a problem.  Likewise, when we look at the world today, it is a very rational response to be worried.  But we need to find our ways of managing that worry. 

Audre Lorde, the American civil rights activist, said “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”  You care for yourself so that you can fight for justice without burning yourself out, you care for yourself so that you can help others when they need it, and they in turn can look out for you.  We take the time we need to keep ourselves safe, to protect ourselves from danger, so that we are still able to live, together, in this difficult, complicated world.

There is also a word of encouragement from our old testament reading this morning, from the prophet Jeremiah – not a place we often look to for encouragement!  As Jeremiah speaks these words he is living in a land besieged by a foreign empire, and he has been put in prison by his own king, who is angry with what he is saying.  And yet he speaks of how God will make good God’s promise to bring justice to the world.  In the midst of difficult times, he holds on to hope.

We are having a running argument at work at the moment about the correct time to put up Christmas decorations.  As a good Anglican I am, of course, clear that the correct time to put up decorations is 24 December, when the season of Christmas begins.  Turns out I am in a minority of one in this position. My team are all excited to get properly Christmassy, and at some point this week our office will probably look like Santa’s grotto. The thing is – and don’t let them know I said this, I don’t want them to think I think they have a point – the thing is, they have a point.  In the midst of darkness, we need to look to the light.  I might quibble about just when we put up those Christmas lights in the office, but it is these lights that remind us of the light that came into the world, the light that the darkness cannot overcome, the light that will bring peace and goodwill to all.  And even as we wait through Advent, we hold on to the hope of Christmas.

When Jesus spoke these words, he was in the temple in Jerusalem, which would in just a few years be destroyed by the Romans.  I’ve visited that temple, our guide was an archaeologist, and she kept showing us how the stones of the torn down temple had also been used to build what came next, and what came after that.  The stones of the temple where Jesus taught were cast down, and they were built up again, and I have walked on those stones.

I don’t know how God will break into our world to fulfil the promise of the kingdom that Jesus brought.  But I know it will happen.  And I believe that whatever the kingdom looks like, it will be built from pieces of this world. 

The powers of the heavens will be shaken.  But don’t be afraid.  Because your redemption is near.