The First Sunday of Advent

Preached by The Very Reverend Robert Neske, Dean, at Saint Mark’s Pro-Cathedral, Hastings, November 29, 2009

A few weeks ago our lessons reminded us that there is at the heart of Christian teaching an apocalyptic element that is never far from the surface of our faith. Now it is helpful to remember is that the word “apocalypse” in spite of the scary movie, gloom and doom implication that have come to be attached to it, simply means revelation, or better yet: “That which will be revealed. It is this revelation that we confess when; in our weekly celebrations of the Holy Eucharist we recall the mystery of our faith and say: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” For always at the back of our mind is the promise of Jesus to his disciples that he would come again at the end of time at the final judgment.

During the last week of his life, Jesus sought to impress the truth of the return of the Son of Man on his disciples; our Gospel lesson this morning is Luke’s account of our Lord’s telling his disciples what to look for at the Parousia, which is to say, his Second Coming, when the Son of Man will come again. "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

Unlike similar accounts in Mark and Matthew, in Luke’s account Jesus goes straight to the cosmic signs and their effect which is to cause people to panic at the thought of what may lie ahead…These signs in fact herald the coming of the Son of Man “in glory” the most significant phrase being “with power and great glory” for this means that this will be God’s time and the establishment of God’s reign on earth. “But if the signs spell panic for the rest of humankind, they are the signal for the disciples to take fresh heart, for the coming of the Son of Man will bring them their redemption.” (I. Howard Marshall) In other words the coming of the Son of Man is not something to be feared, but something to be embraced, because this is and will be a good thing.

All of which we forget as we get caught up in all of the hoopla that goes with the scarier understandings of the apocalypse. It is a curious thing but, the greater mass of secular society, which on the one hand believes in God but doesn’t expect much of God, also embraces all manner of end of time scenarios, but doesn’t realize for a single moment that if they believe that some great and terrible apocalyptic event might take place in the near future that they might actually want to think about their relationship with God and take it a bit more seriously.

 A few weeks ago the apocalyptic themed film 2012 came out; it is a standard (one critic called it “cheesy”) Hollywood special effects, computer generated imaging doom and destruction film which is indeed typical of the cheesy Hollywood treatment given to apocalyptic events.

But as in the past there are all manner of people out there taking this film seriously, why? Because the premise of the film is tied to the Mayan Calendar which runs out in the year 2012 and people believe this portends the end of the world.

 Forgotten in all of this is that the Mayan’s went into decline in the 8^th century and disappeared as a culture nearly five hundred years ago with the help of the conquistadors, which is to say their time ran out of time before their calendar did. This doesn’t change the fact that there is actually some poor soul who works for NASA whose is tasked with having to deal with all of the people who have been panicked by this film and call in wondering what can be done, which is a pretty sad commentary on the state of people’s spiritual awareness that a Mayan calendar can send them into despair. But people who have little faith and loads of fear and ignorance take this stuff seriously and they should not, and neither should we.

 "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

 Jesus understood that fear does not bring out the best in people but the worst and so that when the time comes, those who are his disciples need to be on their guard, lest they take counsel of their fears and give in to their worst behaviors. As we often hear in throughout the New Testament, we are not to be like others, as those without hope, as people without a living faith.

What then are we to do, or as we will hear other ask in the weeks ahead, “how then must we live?”

 The story is told that in the late 1600s in Massachusetts a Puritan Congregations was worshipping one Sunday when there was an eclipse of the Sun which sent many in the congregation into a panic. It was the end of the world; it was the Second Coming and the Day of Judgment. This was serious business for die-hard Calvinists who lived in dread of their salvation not knowing whether that had been predestined by God for the joys of heaven of the torments of hell, so the panic and fear were real. It is said that when the pandemonium was at its worst the minister silenced the congregation and called for someone to light a lamp for he said to the people if this is indeed the end let us be found doing our duty and offering our worship to God.

Jesus asks no less of us. As those who have put on Christ in baptism we never need to fear the end, whether the end of our lives, which will occur in the natural course of time, or that end marked by Christ’s second Coming upon the earth, for we are ever in the hands of our God who loves us and cares for us and only wants what is best for us, so we must never be afraid but always found doing our duty offering our worship to God and our lives to one another in service, compassion and love.