Sermons
30 November 2008 - Advent 1
If you have ever travelled any long distance with children in the back of a car you will now that they are almost universally programmed to ask the question ‘Are we there yet?’. Dealing with this question is a matter of what PR people call the ‘management of expectation’. Too many repetitions of ‘nearly’ or ‘not far now’ are liable to engender despair and tantrums as the destination stays firmly in the distance, but a negative response such as ‘oh no it will be hours yet’, leads to a collapse of trust and co-operation, and despair and tantrums. If you have the money of course, the thing to do is buy some valuable distraction time for the children by putting in those little tv screens.
The Biblical equivalent of this is the literary form known as apocalyptic which provides dramatic imagery to keep people entertained on their journey towards the establishment of the kingdom of God. St. Mark has some of this put into Jesus’ mouth in today’s gospel; stars falling, the sun darkened, angels flying around gathering the elect, even the powers in the heavens being shaken up. This section of Mark’s gospel is sometimes called the little apocalypse, a sort of junior version of the heavyweight drama of the revelation to St John the Divine. And that is what apocalypse means – a revelation, particularly a revelation about end time events, a revelation of the mysteries of the coming of the heavenly kingdom, inaugurated in Jesus Christ but only to be fully completed as a divine, transcendent, and utterly future reality in the last days when the end of the world as we know it really will be nigh.
Apocalyptic is myth, it uses literary and poetic forms to describe the reality of something ineffable. In common with sacred texts in many religions much of the Bible is written in a variety of different mythical forms and that has been understood throughout the history of Biblical interpretation. There have from time to time though always been people keen to narrow the range and scope of the Biblical vista by analysing the texts as if they were some sort of literal history, or law book to be enforced to the letter, or a precise guide to the programme God has stored up for the end of the world. It is a great sadness that we have in some parts of the church entered another phase of literalism when it comes to appreciation of the Biblical texts, this is always a very thin and un-historical way of using the texts and apocalyptic has been particularly poorly served by it. It is comically ironic that those who have spent their hours trying to work out a timescale for the end from the apocalyptic imagery of the Bible have literally wasted their time. These future Biblical visions are not supposed to have us reaching for our calculators they are supposed to inspire us to consider how alive we are to the possibilities of God’s kingdom beginning to be visible here and now. It is appropriate of course to consider that there will indeed be an end and false warnings over the timing of that cataclysm do not negate its reality but as the little parable of the slaves left in charge makes clear we are urged in these texts into a state of readiness not of alarm, vigilance and not fearfulness. We are urged also to have total confidence in the guiding hand of God, to trust in the Christian concept of providence and to discard the superstition of fate. We are to live this brief life we each have in the light of the future promised reality, the full coming of God’s kingdom, and we are taught to pray for the hastening of that kingdom saying ‘thy kingdom come’. Unlike the children in the car distracted from the reality of a long wait, the dramatic imagery of apocalyptic does not recommend inaction, we are not to lose ourselves in contemplation of this very televisual material, rather we are to be roused from indolence by it. I think we can take from this vision an exhortation to active service, but not one based on the fear of being found out by God to have been idling a bit. The God revealed in the words and works of Jesus is not a vengeful deity looking for ways to catch us out, spying on our little sinful acts and waiting like some cosmic headteacher to call us in for a little talk at the end of time. The God revealed in the word and works of Jesus is indeed awe-inspiring and fully aware of exactly who each one of us is, fully aware of how frequently we fail to be active in his service, fail to repent of the sins that prevent us from carrying out his work, but fully aware also of our better impulses and always encouraging them, always offering new opportunities to work for the building up of the kingdom.
And we engage in that active service of God in community. Jesus says this generation will not pass away before these things happen. This is a much disputed remark but one light in which it can be read is that of continuity Christian community. The generation, the community, the fellowship of those who were and are called by Jesus to follow him has not passed away, as Christians we journey together with the whole church, triumphant in Heaven, expectant in the faithful departed and militant here in earth. We are part of the generation of the faithful through all the ages, we do not journey alone.
So if you are ever flicking through the Bible and you come across some colourful apocalyptic, there is no need to be alarmed. The apocalyptic message is not ‘watch your back’, it is ‘look to the future’.