Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 1 December 2024.
• First Reading: Jeremiah 33: 14-19 (A righteous branch will sprout from David’s line)
• Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 3: 9-13 (May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else)
• Gospel: Luke 21: 25-36 (Signs in the heavens, nations in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea)
I once read Churchill’s memoirs of World War II, and in the first volume he described the Treaty of Versailles and its effects. For him, the causes of World War II lay in the settlement of World War I.
We also may reflect on the military activity in Ukraine which began in 2014 and the broken undertakings under which that country relinquished the nuclear weapons within its borders.
Again there were signs and indicators which were ignored. Life would go on, together with trade, the rule of law and the peace dividend.
And so we also are confronting uncertainties and instability in our dealings with neighbours abroad, and for that matter, neighbours, taxpayers and service providers and users at home.
Nothing seems to be reliable as we face massive levels of debt and yet still we aspire to improve our public services and, if we can afford it, our defences.
So what Jesus was telling His disciples looks very up to date. We also are taken with anxiety in the environment, our economy and the state of our laws.
Yes, He said, people would look around and wonder where their peace and security was coming from.
In Psalm 121, the author looks at the hills. Does his help come from them? The high places where all sorts of fertility and other cults were worshipped.
Emphatically, NO. It does not come from the hills, but from the Lord who made them. This kind of aid is personal: its source is personal, in the person of God and it is given to those who believe in Him and those whom they are praying for.
And so Jesus makes a point of reassuring His disciples, that while there would be times of confusion and instability, they were not the end of all things.
Even when the effects increase in numbers of people and the geographical areas affected, there is still that hand of restraint. I do not think that it is an accident or even skill in statecraft that has prevented the world from destroying itself given the scale of our military technology and its ability to do just that.
And so we come back to Jesus’ words of warning and courage.
Take heed. Do not be misled. Do not be discouraged or lose your sense of hope.
More than that, be alert and on the lookout, discerning the times and the seasons. It is still the time for proclaiming the message of hope and forgiveness, when the world delights to criticize and condemn.
Perhaps it is worth reflecting that in this season of Advent, as we mark the coming of deepest winter and the shortest of days, that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.
For light is something that can be measured and when we buy our lightbulbs the packaging shows how bright they will be. Light has a quality and is measurable, while darkness has neither. It is known for the absence of light and not for any qualities of its own. It cannot be probed or measured – and it can only be known for what it is not, and not for what it is.
And given all this, we may look again at the promise of God to Israel, spoken by Jeremiah.
At the right time, the promise of God to King David would be honoured in a wonderful and glorious way. A new shoot from a dead stump, a new kind of deliverance in the land.
Far more than the dispersal of invading armies – for they can always come back.
More, the deliverance of humanity from its deepest and darkest impulses.
God was never going to be defeated by His own creation and would always be looking for those who would put their trust in Him.
More than that, He would also act directly and personally, and far beyond the limited imagination of human agents.
His deliverance would be worldwide and for all time, even and perhaps especially when the world least sought or desired it.
And so writing to the church in Salonica in northern Greece, Paul prays that the Lord would make their love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else; that He may strengthen their hearts so that they may be blameless and holy in His presence.
Yes, for us there may still be areas of unfinished business, of relationships to be restored, priorities in life to be revised.
But then, He has also placed us here so that we also may be part of the light that He has commanded to lighten the world. Part of that message He has committed to our care and transmission.
The Lord has placed us here because He believes in us – and that is despite our own doubts and misgivings.
He has placed us in this generation, this cultural era and this political epoch.
He has given us the message of His love for God and for one another, and for our neighbours. And now is the time to stand up, for our salvation is very close.
