This sermon is available in audio form through Mixcloud below. For a transcript (not word perfect, I never read direct from my notes) see below.
As we begin our preparations for Christmas today as Advent begins it may seem odd to you that none of the readings seem to really be about the birth of Jesus. In fact they seem to be a lot more about His return. And that’s the tension of Advent; we are preparing to celebrate Christ coming into the world for the first time and at the same time preparing for Him to come a second time to make all things new.
That tension is most noticeable in our reading from the prophecy of Jeremiah this morning. ‘The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David.’ That seems pretty clearly to be pointing towards the birth of Christ, but the second part doesn’t quite fit. ‘In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.’ When I read the New Testament it doesn’t look like Jesus’ birth and life brought safety to Jerusalem, the Temple is destroyed a few decades after His ascension. And He doesn’t really save Judah in the conventional sense, Rome is still very much in charge. Jeremiah seems to be pointing to Jesus’ birth but at the same time pointing to His return. I’m not sure if Jeremiah knew He was talking about two different events or not, perhaps not, God doesn’t always give us the full picture, just what we need to know. This first Sunday of Advent is traditionally associated with the Patriarchs of the Old Testament, the heroes of the Old Testament who looked for the coming King. I wonder how many of you know the legends of King Arthur? My Grandma gave me a book of them when I was younger, I used to hear them in school assemblies sometimes, and I watched Merlin when it was on the BBC a few years ago. The legends of King Arthur depict this golden age of Britain, or Wales, depending on who is telling the story, where we were defended by a great king from threats both human and supernatural. This age where everything was going right and all was good. That’s how the Jews in Jesus’ day looked back at the Patriarchs. Their time, especially the rule of David, was viewed by the people of Israel in Jesus’ day as a sort of Golden Age. And just like King Arthur, who will return when Britain is under great threat to save us, (although just how bad things have to be for him to come back I’m not sure) so the people in Jesus’ day thought that a great ruler, another David, would come and save them from everything that’s going on and return them to that golden age. But if you open your Old Testament there never really was a golden age, there were good times yes, there were times when everything was going pretty well, but there wasn’t this golden age where everything was going perfectly and there were no threats. It’s so easy to rose-tint the past, to forget the challenges and just remember the good things, I certainly do it. And there’s nothing wrong with having a positive outlook on the past, the problem is when we keep trying to get back there, cos it never really was there. The Jews in Jesus’ day were so busy looking back at what had gone before and wanting to get back there that they completely missed what God was doing now. How God said in Isaiah ‘look, I am about to do something new’. God doesn’t want to go back to what came before, He’s already moved on. I don’t know if any of you have ever noticed this but there is never any going back to how things used to be with God. Even with paradise at the end of all things, we don’t end up back in the garden, back to the perfection at the start. God’s moved on, we end up in the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city. It’s still paradise, it’s still perfect, but it’s new. What are we looking back to with our rose-tinted glasses on? What are we looking at thinking ‘if only we could get back to there, everything would be great’. One church I worked in the ladies at the 8am service were lamenting the fact that there used to be 30 of them at that service and now there were only ever 5 at best. But they’d missed the fact that the 9am was growing. They were so busy looking back they couldn’t see the good of where we were going. Are we looking back at the life of our churches and thinking ‘if only we could get back there’. Do we have a vicar who’s tenure we think of as the ‘golden age’ of our church? Do we look at society today and think ‘back then was so much better, it was a simpler/safer/easier time’. Are we looking back at a time in our lives when everything seemed simpler. Are we looking back so much we don’t notice God saying ‘look, I’m about to do something new’. This is why the tension of Advent is so important, we’re not supposed to be looking back all dewy eyed at the birth of Jesus as a sort of Golden Age. We’re not supposed to be caught in reminiscing about the past, we can look to the past yes, but our focus isn’t there. The focus is forwards, the golden age is yet to come, it’s not happened yet. The birth of Christ set in motion events which aren’t finished yet. Christ finished His mission at the cross, yes, but events are still unfolding, the ripples are still on the water. The early church saw this clearly, a lot of the early letters are written with the expectation that the end is imminent. But it’s been 2000 years since then and we’ve lost that sense of urgency, we’ve lost that sense of anticipation as we watch the dominoes fall. And as we lose sight of where we are going we start to look back: ‘that was good, let’s get back there’. But God is moving forwards, moving on, and if we want to look to Him for help, that’s where He is, just ahead saying ‘follow me’. So let us use this time of Advent to pray and look for where God might be leading us. As we look back to the Incarnation to see where events started unfolding may He show us where things are going in our generation as we seek their ultimate end. As we look back to look forward may we see where God is going, to see where He is leading us now. And in looking forward may we are opened up to things being different, to things being new. Because the different and the new aren’t scary anymore because God is going with us. ‘Look’ says God ‘I am about to do something new’. May we like the Psalmist today respond ‘Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths’. Amen.
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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