The crisis of Advent

Here's the sermon I'm sharing at St Catherine's Wickford this morning:

St Catherine’s has stood here in Wickford since 1876. It is a wonderful building that those of us who worship here love and which is greatly appreciated by lots of local people who have come here for many key moments in their family history - weddings, baptisms and funerals.

So, if I was to predict that soon every part of this Church would be torn down so that not one stone would be left standing on another, you would no doubt be shocked (despite the cracks in the building which occurred in 2022). But that is an equivalent to what Jesus said at the beginning of Mark 13. Jesus and his disciples had gone to the Temple in Jerusalem and were leaving when one of the disciples remarked on what a magnificent building the Temple was. Jesus’ response was to predict that it would shortly be completely and utterly destroyed. The Temple, at that time, was central to the whole Jewish faith. What Jesus was saying was that the whole way in which Judaism was practised at that time was going to be destroyed. A whole way of life wiped out. It was a shocking claim about a major crisis.

Mark records this for us because what Jesus predicted actually happened. In AD70 Titus, the adopted son of the Roman emperor Vespasian, “entered Jerusalem, burnt the Temple, destroyed the city and crucified thousands of Jews” (N.T. Wright). For Mark the fulfilment of Jesus’ prophecy, although a disaster for all those caught up in it, was the final vindication of all that Jesus had said and been and done. In that day, he said, people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. In other words, people will realise that Jesus was who he claimed to be, the Messiah. The destruction of the Temple was proof that Jesus had spoken and acted truly.

We know from history that the destruction of the Temple also meant that Christians in Jerusalem had to flee the city and settle in other parts of the world. They took the message of Jesus with them wherever they went. So as a result of this crisis, news about Jesus spread throughout the region and eventually to the whole world. Truly, people saw the power and glory of the Son of Man.

But Jesus also knew what a terrible day that day would be and he prepared those who listened to him for that day. In our Gospel reading today he says that no one will know the exact day or time when this disaster would come but that it would be within their own lifetimes and he teaches them to look for the signs that the day has arrived so that can be ready to flee the city. He tells them to be ever vigilant and watchful so that they recognise when the crisis has come upon them. So, Jesus predicts a crisis, prepares his followers for that crisis and sees that the crisis will lead to the good news about him being understood and believed.

But that was all then. What does this passage say to us now? Well, we all still face crises whether they are personal crises (perhaps caused by crime or redundancy, abuse or family breakdown) or societal (as with global warming, natural disasters, pandemics, riots or war). How should we react and respond to crises?

There is a realism about Jesus’ teaching. Crises will come, he says. We don’t know exactly when and where but we know that we will not go through life and avoid crises. So first, we need to expect crises and look out for the signs that they may be coming. Jesus here retells the story of the master going away and says that we need to be like watchmen always ready for the crisis of the master’s return. As we prepare during Advent to celebrate Christ’s first coming, so we must also always have an eye to the future and Christ’s return to bring his kingdom rule and reign throughout the world. Are we looking expectantly for the crisis of our Master’s return?

Second, we need to prepare for crises by being good stewards. Jesus, in the story of the master going away, said that the servants were left in charge. We know from the parable of the talents what that involves, the servants are to care for and use all that has been entrusted to them so that when the master returns his estate has grown and developed. God has entrusted us with this world, with those people who are our family, friends and colleagues, with money and possessions, and with our gifts and talents and abilities. All these we are to use for his praise and glory as a way of giving back to God in praise and thanksgiving for all he has given to us. How will we seek to do so this Advent?

Finally, in crises God is revealed. At some point in the future each of us will meet with God and be asked to account for the use we have made of all that God has given to us. Each Advent points us towards that moment. How will we stand in that moment of crisis? 

But in every crisis that we face God is alongside us and wishes to be known as the one who strengthens and supports us; the one who brings us through. Just as the good news about Jesus went out from Jerusalem as a result of the destruction of the Temple, so in each crisis that we face God wishes to bring good for us and for others. As Paul says, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” May it be so for each one of us this Advent. Amen.

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St Martin's Voices - Advent Calendar.

Preparing for the unexpected

Here's the sermon I shared this morning at St Mary's Runwell (and which I would also have shared at the Act of Remembrance at the Wickford War Memorial, had it not been raining heavily this morning):

A few weeks ago members of the local writer's group in Wickford, the Ladygate Scribblers, were showcasing their work at an evening of reading in St Andrew's Church. Among the stories and poems we heard, were two recounting stories of those serving in the World Wars. The first involved a lost letter from Jack to his sweetheart when he had been invalided out from the frontline and was returning home. The hopes of both for their future were then cruelly dashed when the ship on which Jack was returning was attacked and sunk. The second involved Stan and his best friend Taffy, both deployed to different ships. Through a set of strange circumstances, they decided to swap deployments and applied to change ships. This was agreed and Taffy went to serve on HMS Hood, which was sunk by The Bismarck in 1941. Stan lived out his life in the knowledge that he was only alive because of Taffy and the decision they had made together.

These two stories reminded me of the fundamental uncertainty of life and the fact that we can't know what is round the corner for us, especially in wartime. We have been recently reminded of that reality, once again, through the current war in Gaza, which began with an attack by Hamas that was wholly unexpected.

Jesus told a story about being as ready as we can for the unexpected (Matthew 25.1-13). His story is the set reading for this Remembrance Sunday. His story was about bridesmaids waiting for a bridegroom to light him to the wedding with their lamps. He was later than expected and some had not brought supplies of oil for their lamps. Those without had to go searching for oil and missed out on the wedding as a result. Those who prepared for the unexpected were ready to meet the bridegroom and go into the wedding.

With this story Jesus is asking us prepared we are for the unexpected? The bridesmaids who were prepared had rehearsed possible scenarios and were ready for those. They also had the right attitude, being ready to wait for the bridegroom’s arrival. As a result, they were able to take part in a wonderful celebration of unity and love. With this story, Jesus is also encouraging us to prepare for the unexpected recognising that we live in a world where conflict is regularly experienced at all levels of society.

While we can't prepare for the exact situation we might face, we can prepare for possible scenarios, prepare mentally and emotionally for difficult events, and practice peace ourselves in order to anticipate a peaceful society. That’s essentially what our armed forces regularly do. In peacetime they go on manoeuvres and take part in exercises in order to be ready for the moment when they are called to go to war while also acting as those who maintain the peace by preventing fresh conflict from developing.

So, while this day is about honouring the dead who laid down the lives that we might be free, it can also be about our preparation for the future. We draw inspiration from those who have gone before and learn from their experiences in order that can be as ready as we can for what will come in the future and even shape that future. The key lesson to learn from past wars is the fundamental necessity of peace. Jesus taught his followers through his stories to anticipate a future where people come together in love to celebrate unity and he calls us to be those who anticipate and practice that future reality in the here and now.

We can also prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally for difficult events by developing an attitude of resilience that can enable us to endure in times of difficulty and challenge. The Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed for his resistance to Hitler on 9 April 1945 in Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, only four weeks before VE Day. He wrote a creed just days before his execution by the Gestapo which exemplifies a resilient attitude:

“I believe that God can and will generate good out of everything, even out of the worst evil. For that, he needs people who allow that everything that happens fits into a pattern for good. I believe that God will give us in each state of emergency as much power of resistance as we need. But he will not give in advance, so that we do not rely on ourselves but on Him alone. Through such faith all anxiety concerning the future should be overcome. I believe that even our mistakes and failings are not in vain, and that it is not more difficult for God to cope with these as with our assumed good deeds. I believe that God is not a timeless fate, but that He waits for and responds to honest prayers and responsible action.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer quoted by Philip Yancey, The Question That Never Goes Away)

These are the words of a man who knew his life was in danger, whose family and country were already suffering under Hitler, the Nazis, and the war machine they had put into action. It was Bonhoeffer’s trust in the redemptive will of God that helped sustain him during the dark months of prison and interrogation, and the final days of his life. With a similar attitude, we may be able to do the same should we need to do so.

So, as we honour today those who laid down the lives that we might be free, let us also prepare for the future by drawing inspiration from those who have gone before, practising God’s peaceful kingdom and developing attitudes of resilience in order that we can be as ready as we can for what will come in the future and, perhaps, even shape that future ourselves. Amen.

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J. Lind - I Don't Know.

Preparing for the new thing God was doing

Here's my reflection for yesterday's lunchtime Eucharist for St Martin-in-the-Fields, on the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1. 57-66, 80):

Our eldest daughter is expecting and she and her husband can’t agree on a name for their son. It’s not an unusual situation for the parents of a new born child. For Zechariah and Elizabeth it should have been relatively straightforward, as the culture of the time was for the child to be named after the grandfather.

Names were kept in the family and handed down from grandfather to grandson. This was part of a culture where the firstborn son inherited all that the family owned, whilst also being responsible for maintaining the family unit. That included the role or work undertaken by the father and grandfather before him, in this case as one of the priests at the Temple.

The naming of John was problematic because it signified something different was happening; a break with tradition. The name John was not in the family line and he would not become a priest like his father and grandfather before him; instead becoming a prophet preparing the way for the new thing that God was doing in the world in sending his Son to be one of us and save us from ourselves.

The new thing that God was doing in the world entailed a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit so, in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel we read of Gabriel promising that John will be filled with the Holy Spirit from before his birth and of his growing up strong in the Spirit. The Spirit comes upon Mary at the Annunciation, Elizabeth is filled with the Spirit at Mary’s arrival (and blesses her as a result), and Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit at John’s circumcision, prophesying about John and Jesus.

This fresh move of the Holy Spirit comes after a period of over 400 years during which there was no revelation from God by the Spirit. That had fulfilled the prophecy of Micah: “Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without revelation. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them” (3:6). The new thing that God was about to do was not possible without the preparatory work of the Holy Spirit or without there being a working together of the principal characters with the Holy Spirit.

Preparation is also seen in the upbringing of John through his separation for God’s service which involved the rejection of wine and other strong drink and time spent in the wilderness, where he wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. His calling as the one preparing the way for Jesus involved a particular kind of preparation, which may or may not have been individual to John, but which was the right preparation for the calling on his life.

What can we take from these reflections on the early life of John the Baptist and how might they bite for us? First, we can reflect on the call on our lives. That is not so dissimilar to that of John. He was preparing others to encounter Jesus. We are essentially called to do the same. When I was a young Christian I read writers like Francis Schaeffer who talked about the importance of pre-Evangelism. This involves discussion of our worldviews and the extent we live according to our beliefs, whatever those beliefs may be. Exploring inconsistencies in our lifestyles or inadequacies in our beliefs opens people to the possibility of the Holy Spirit working in their lives. None of us are evangelists. It is only God the Spirit who can bring people back into relationship with God through Jesus. Yet, like John, we can prepare people to encounter Jesus for themselves.

Second, the Holy Spirit was moving in a new way through the birth of John and Jesus, and Elizabeth, Zechariah and Mary were among those who discerned it and responded. Like them, we can seek to discern what the Holy Spirit is doing and how the Spirit is moving within our own day and time. When Jesus opened the scriptures and read ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me’ that anointing was for the bringing of good news to the poor, release for captives, recovery of sight for those who were blind, freeing of the oppressed and proclamation of the Jubilee when land and property was returned to those in debt. Where we see these things happening today, we can discern the work of the Holy Spirit.

Third, John needed a specific form of preparation for his ministry which involved him making commitments, not generally made by others. That is the approach we use here within the Nazareth Community as its members commit themselves for a year at a time to silence, sacraments, study, sharing, service, Sabbath and staying with. This kind of commitment, whether the Nazareth rule of life or something different can be a helpful practice and discipline enabling us to live out and deepen the calling on our lives.

As we reflect on our calling, the needs of our world and our practices as Christians, it may well be that John the Baptist is the role model in the Gospels to whom we most need to turn.

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Godspell - Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord.

HeartEdge online workshops

HeartEdge is offering two weekly online workshops live with Revd Dr Sam Wells which may be of interest to church practitioners. 

Every Tuesday at 4.30pm there will be a live Facebook preaching workshop focusing on the forthcoming Sunday's gospel. The first online sermon workshop for the HeartEdge community took place today on the HeartEdge facebook page last Tuesday. Sam Wells and Sally Hitchiner discussed the lectionary readings for tomorrow. See the first in the series here.

Every Wednesday at 4.30pm on Zoom there will be a Community of Practitioners workshop. This is an opportunity for incumbents and other leaders of HeartEdge churches to meet together to reflect on issues relating to congregational renewal through commerce, culture and compassion. We will read together the book 'A Future Bigger than the Past Catalysing Kingdom Communities' and support one another virtually in these unprecedented times. Message us (jonathan.evens@smitf.org) if you want to take part. 

If you want to join HeartEdge visit: www.heartedge.org.

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St Martin's Voices - Gloria.