Can I ask you a direct question?
28 November 2021, Advent 1
Jeremiah 33.14-16
Luke 21. 25-36
Do you think Christ will come again?
Because in a minute we will say together:
Christ has died:
Christ is risen:
Christ will come again.
We have just heard the Gospel, which I think is difficult to understand, where Jesus talks of the Son of Man coming in clouds of glory and how we need to be ready for this. Is this Jesus coming in person or something else?
I expect that some of us may feel that we have quite enough going on in our lives without the added burden of having to prepare for the Second Coming. Others may feel the Second coming is just what we need.
This morning I want to explore this question of the “Coming of Christ” and what this reading might mean for our journeys of faith as we enter Advent.
There are some, particularly in the US, who are adherents of the “Great Rapture” when the world will be purged of sin and the elect will be carried up in heaven. Radio4 “In our Time “programme on The Rapture. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008p2k
What’s going on in this Gospel reading?
Jesus refers to: “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. This is the figure spoken of by the prophet Daniel (7.13);
This is what Daniel wrote:
As I watched in the night visions,
I saw one like a human being
Coming with the clouds of heaven.
And he came to the Ancient One
And was presented before him.
To him was given dominion and glory and kingship that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one
that shall never be destroyed.”
Would you agree with me that if some asked us who Daniel might be describing, we would say “Jesus.”
Four things grab my attention from the Luke reading.:
1. By the time of Jesus, some Jews understood these words as a Messianic promise.
Hence as his ministry grew, so there was an expectation that Jesus might be the one who Israel and the prophets had waited for – the New David
Note too how Jesus says “Your redemption is near” – a slavery metaphor – freedom from slavery. – the deepest wish for many in Roman society
Jesus used “The Son of Man” in certain key sayings which are best understood as promises that God would vindicate him and judge those who opposed him, after his own suffering.
2. This tension between the Romans and the Jewish people. Jesus was alert to this and how it could bubble over, as indeed it did not long afterwards in AD 70, when the Jewish people revolted and the Romans responded by destroying the Temple. Jesus sensed this tinderbox atmosphere.
3. Note also: There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars; remember how there was an eclipse of the sun at the time of the crucifixion. And the phrase “The Kingdom of God has come near” which of course it was in the presence of Jesus.
4. This question of “Coming.” The Greek word Parousia is translated as “Coming”. But it can also mean being present and particularly when describing the presence of a royal personage or emperor – such as the Emperor visiting an outlying province.
So is Jesus referring to all these things or the end of time or something else.
Tom Wright, the leading theologian, puts it like this:
The word eschatology, which literally means ‘the study of the last things‘, doesn’t just refer to death, judgement, heaven and hell, as used to be thought (and as many dictionaries still define the word).
it refers to the strongly held belief of many first century Jews, and virtually all early Christians, that history was going somewhere under the guidance of God; and that where it was going was towards God’s new world of justice, healing and hope.
The transition from the present world to the new one would be a matter not of destruction of the present space time universe, but of its radical healing.….
It is “radical healing of the world” that I suggest we thirst for as we enter Advent.
We only have to reflect on events of the last week, both on the shorelines of our country, on the borders of encircled countries, on peoples under authoritarian regimes, / not unlike the peoples of Palestine under the Romans, who must pray everyday that “their redemption is near.”
Nearer to home, We pray also for “radical healing” in our own neighbourhoods
And we pray at this time of Advent that what is broken in our own lives may be mended.
Advent is the start of the church’s New Year. It is a time to take stock. We know of the gap between heaven and earth
In the person of Jesus we have hope.
He shows us how to live and is the enduring fountain of love.
We celebrate his coming and we also give hearty thanks for all people who every minute of the day are undertaking works of healing, that inspired by Christ’s death and Christ’s rising, we can say confidently that Christ will come again. He is present in our world through us.
Lord Jesus, in our daily lives, Come Lord Jesus, Come.