Order of service
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The Readings
Jeremiah 33. 14 - 16
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil 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; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
Luke 21. 25 - 36
‘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.’
Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not 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.’
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The Sermon
The Revd Canon Dr Alan Billings.
When I heard on Friday the news headlines and the weather forecast for this
weekend, I thought they must have picked up today’s gospel reading by
mistake. It wasn’t quite St Luke but it didn’t seem far off. This is Luke:
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.
On Friday night the weather map had red and amber alerts all over it and in
the way the broadcasters these days love to inflict cruel and unnatural
punishment on their journalists, reporters had to stand on exposed beaches
or harbour walls, lashed by wind and rain, to tell us the bad news about Storm
Arwen. They didn’t really have to say anything. They just had to stand there
and try not to get blown over. The detail of what they said was all lost on me. I
just wanted them, soaking wet and shaking with cold, to get inside
somewhere with a mug of coffee and some fish and chips.
This was after weeks of climate change warriors – like my ten year old grand-
daughter - telling us that unless we radically change our lifestyles - swap cars
for bikes and take all our holidays in Cleethorpes - we are destined to see our
summers blighted by plagues of locusts and our winters made desperate by
overflowing rivers.
And all this against a background of a pandemic that we cannot control.
I can’t remember a time when we had so much to be anxious about.
And perhaps the key to our anxiety is in that word ‘control’. For the first time
in my lifetime I have felt, as never before, that our old confidence that
whatever the world threw at us, we could in the end bring under our dominion,
our control, was shaken.
If that is what we are beginning to feel, we are right back where those who
first heard these words of Jesus were. They lived in a world that they knew
very well was beyond their control. And from time to time that scared them:
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.
Now, for us, the powers of the heavens are being shaken. And we are
experiencing what they experienced: the realisation that in the end, we
cannot control the world in which we live.
We’ve lived with that illusion for a very long time, hanging our confidence on
those words in the first creation story in the Book of Genesis. God said to the
man and the woman: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it;
and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and
over every living thing that moves upon the earth’.
We read those words ‘have dominion over’ to mean ‘do what you like with’.
We forgot that we were created in the image of God and after his likeness,
that our having dominion over was to mirror his having dominion over, which
was not exploiting the world but loving it, caring for it, looking after it.
And because we misread that text, we thought we had a God-given right to
exploit and we thought that meant the world was ours to control.
Now we know. Like those first Christians we are having to acknowledge that
the world is not ours to control and we are as frightened by events in the
natural world as they were. The centuries of hubris are over and we will learn
the hard lesson the hard way:
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.
But we cannot stop there. That would deliver us back into the world of the
pagans from which Christian faith delivers us. Jesus goes on to address us in
2021 quite directly.
The kingdom of God, he says, is near. The day of God is near. So:
Be on your guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with
dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day
does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.
What will give us back our confidence and take away our fear is not the false
god of control. We cannot control the world. We cannot control the future. But
we can find the true God in all the ever changing circumstances of our lives,
however those changing circumstances turn out.
This season of Advent starts the Church’s new year with this call to people
who are fearful, but who know that their security does not lie in trying to
control things but in knowing that they can find God in a changing world.
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.
The Prayers
In joyful expectation of his coming to our aid
we pray to Jesus.
Come to your Church as Lord and judge.
Help us to live in the light of your coming
and give us a longing for your kingdom.
Maranatha:
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Come to your world as King of the nations.
Before you rulers will stand in silence.
Maranatha:
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Come to the suffering as Saviour and comforter.
Break into our lives,
where we struggle with sickness and distress,
and set us free to serve you for ever.
Maranatha:
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Come to us as shepherd and guardian of our souls.
Give us with all the faithful departed
a share in your victory over evil and death.
Maranatha:
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Come from heaven, Lord Jesus, with power and great glory.
Lift us up to meet you,
that with Mary, Mark, John and all your saints and angels
we may live and reign with you in your new creation.
Maranatha:
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Come, Lord Jesus, do not delay;
give new courage to your people,
who trust in your love.
By your coming, raise us to share in the joy of your kingdom
on earth as in heaven,
where you live and reign with the Father and the Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
Amen.
Common Worship: Times and Seasons, material from which is included here,
is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2006 and published by Church House Publishing.