“Real Hope”
Karen Sloan 28/11/2021
Readings - Luke 21:25-36
21:25 "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.
21:26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
21:27 Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory.
21:28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
21:29 Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees;
21:30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.
21:31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
21:32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place.
21:33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
21:34 "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,
21:35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth.
21:36 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."
Mysteries by Mary Oliver
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvellous
to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
When I gave a reflection a couple of weeks ago, it was on the gospel of Mark and we talked about true and false prophets. If it doesn’t ring a bell, you can look at my blog, as I put a version of it there, or the website. Don’t worry, I’m not going to test you. But it was interesting that the only thing people really wanted to talk about was the golf story I used for the kids, as an illustration of the difficulty we have sometimes to know what is true or not. Remember it was about the raven taking my ball.
Well I have another golf story today, about the time I got a hole in one. Standing on the tee of a par 3, I hit this beautiful 6 iron. And it hit the green and rolled quite beautifully straight into the hole. Yes, I know, amazing, although I may be exaggerating! It was actually a hole in 3, as the first ball I hit went into the lake!!! But it still felt oh so good. The best par of my life!
So clearly I am slightly obsessed by golf, and dream of being a fine golfer, even a great golfer.
I certainly practise in the hope that I might one day play really well, consistently well, while knowing deep down in my heart I will not be a professional golfer. Age and ability makes it a bit of a pipe dream, a hope with little real substance. What is real is my attempts to master the simple shots, the fun and enjoyment it brings and the relationship I have with golfing buddies. And the joy of these rare moments of brilliance.
So there is hope, based in the here and now, concrete and earthy, like my golf playing, and there is pie in the sky hope.
This difference is the subject of today’s reading.
We come this week to the season of advent, traditionally seen as the time of waiting for Jesus. A time to prepare, a time to stay alert to the moving of the spirit.
Yet the early church did not understand it that way. They didn’t have any birth stories of Jesus to create any advent for. Christmas wasn’t celebrated until the 4th century. What the early church was preparing for was not Jesus’ birth but his return. They were hoping that Jesus would soon tear open the skies and come back down to earth on clouds of glory to gather up the elect, turn the tables on the existing social and political order and usher in a new age of God’s reign.
We heard this in the reading from today. It’s filled with language and imagery that jars with the modern reader.
The passage from Luke is based on similar passages in Matthew and Mark’s gospel, all written around or after the year 70. In that year, Jerusalem was recaptured by the Romans after a four-year Jewish revolt, and Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. For Jews, including those following Jesus – the loss of the temple and of Jerusalem felt like the end of everything.
The gospel writers’ in these passages have Jesus talk about false messiahs, wars and rumours of war, nation rising against nation, persecution, betrayal, and judgement, an even greater ending than the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, and finally what is now called ‘the second coming’ of Jesus when all will be made right.
This type of writing is termed apocalyptic and means an ‘unveiling’, or a ‘disclosure’. As I said a couple of weeks ago, it is a style of literature where one or more visions are said to disclose or unveil the future.
The problem is what to do with them in the 21st century. As Mary Oliver said in her poem, “Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Particularly people who use these texts to exclude and vilify others. Or to suggest our real life is somewhere else.
We need to read these texts with the understanding that has come from 2,000 of knowledge about the world and about who we are. They are time-specific. They reflect the writers’ expectation that Christ will return in their lifetime. They express encouragement to the fledgling Christian church in times of persecutions and fear, and maybe a bit of judgement for good measure, reflecting their Jewish heritage. And they are a call to remain faithful to the God whose purposes are love and who is revealed in Jesus. They are poetry but not history, displaying a deep yearning in the people of Israel for something better.
So let’s leave these stories where they belong, in the 1st century and move to our story, one that has expanded to include all creation and the cosmos.
Who is God for us, today? Who is Jesus? And where lies our hope?
Well, we said it at the beginning of the service, the list we read as we lit our first advent candle.
But here’s a quick recap. Who is God? God for us, is not found somewhere else, remote from us, but is with us at all times and in all ways, a divine presence at the heart of life. A presence that drives us to be better than we are, more loving, more compassionate and more forgiving, even if sometimes we can’t name it. This God is not hiding somewhere waiting for things to get so bad before appearing, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
And what about Jesus?
In the 21st century we wait not for a supernatural saviour to rescue us, but a saviour called Jesus of Nazareth whose life was spent among the people and who showed us the way. In him the God of the universe is revealed and in him the hope of the world is found.
Jesus represents a watershed moment in time, but the process goes on. He points the way. God is still here working within all of creation and in you and me and in all people everywhere. Sometimes a forgotten point. Jesus is not different from us in substance, just in degree.
And finally, where does our hope lie.
We believe our hope today is found in men and women who speak and act in love. Who work for justice and peace. Who are compassionate and forgiving and kind. Our hope lies in people touching and connecting to God’s spirit in ways that make a difference, both to themselves and to others. Who follow the human Jesus’s and his teachings.
Our hope lies in the transformation possible in the everyday moments of life by ordinary people. A myriad of micro culminations that creates a more beautiful world than what we would create on our own. A beautiful thought.
So while we share with our ancient biblical writers the constancy of God we believe the kingdom of God Jesus spoke about has to happen here and now and with us. Our hope is grounded in this time, not some other time. Our hope is about commitment not wishful thinking or false promises.
Unlike my golf game!
Maybe today what we really need to do is commit to the list we read together, our list for our church community, for we can do much in our little corner of the universe to make the world better.
I would say Amen to that.