Tag: Advent

Advent 2: Lives of the Prophets – Light in the Darkness

Emmanuel – 11:00 am P&P
8/12/24
Advent 2 – Year C

Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 3:1-6

This past week I have spent quite a lot of my parish time on funeral planning for three upcoming services. Yes – we are starting on a happy note. I went looking for a grave from 1872 in the St Nicholas churchyard with no luck. While there I ran into an aunt visiting the grave of her nephew on the anniversary of his death. I also went to East Surrey Hospital to give our dear Marion Dallison last rites before she died on Wednesday evening.

There has also been a spate of deaths in the Gatwick terminals that I have been made aware of. And I learned about the impending death of an old school friend in Canada after a horrendous cancer journey and she will be leaving a husband and two little boys.

My heart has been rather heavy! This is supposed to be a holly-jolly time of year…

Yet in the midst of this I met a family to discuss the baptism of their delightful first born daughter Anthea. What a joy that was. To bask in the smiles of a 5 month old baby to talk about her life in Christ at the start of the journey was balm to this soul. This was a reminder about light in the darkness, in the sorrows of life that there can be joy.

This theme is found in the heart of the messages and prophecies of the prophets.

The Second Sunday of Advent focuses on the prophets of the bible. The Wednesday Advent study group has been looking at them as well. There are four Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The prophets and prophetesses in the Old Testament were spokespersons for God. Their job was to announce God’s will or intentions for people, predicted the future, or did both. They represented God to a particular people at a particular time about specific events. They voice God’s opinion on what is going on – offering God’s perspective.

The messages of the prophets cannot always be applied to other events so careful reading is required. The original messages are rooted in historical events. Some spoke to the political & military crisis (Isaiah). Amos spoke about lament and social justice. The prophecies are always connected to the now and possible future consequences; prophets are not fortune-tellers or speaking directly to future events.

Many of the prophets found themselves literally and figuratively in the wilderness. That place of loneliness where nothing grows; all seems empty and lifeless. We too can find ourselves in those wilderness places, maybe when things do not work out the way they should, when that death comes sooner than we thought, health fails, that job gets lost, a relationship breaks down.

To make wilderness experiences all the more painful, we can often feel that God has somehow left us alone and has become distant or absent. We may not feel close to Him or Him to us.

Malachi is assumed to be the last prophet of the Old Testament as his book closes it out. There was roughly a 400-year gap when God was silent. (Jane Williams): In Malachi there is an argument going on between God and his people. At the end of chapter 2, Malachi says that the people have wearied God, and they ask indignantly what they have done.

Malachi replies that they have called into question God’s justice and so his very character. The people have said, ‘All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord. Where is the God of justice?’

God answers them – both in Malachi and Luke. God is a righteous God and he will make sure his righteousness prevails. He does this by sending his messenger and the people may well live to regret it. God’s messenger is of course Jesus. The Lord’s messenger will be sent to prepare the way and then the Lord will suddenly come to his temple. There is no time given for this. The people have to watch and wait for the signs.

And then the dawn breaks in the wilderness. After 400 years with not a word from the heavens, the forerunner to the messenger appears in the wilderness. ‘The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.’

This is no random appearance. If you look at the detail that Luke provides: ‘in the fifteenth year of reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, when Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.’

John’s timing was precise and divinely ordained for that exact moment and place in the wilderness. Our time on earth is just as precise and divinely ordained. When you pray with and for someone around the time of death there is always a space for prayers of confession, repentance and absolution. This is a very fruitful time for many people.

I understand not everyone gets this opportunity for repentance at the time of death as it is very dependent on various factors. Therefore, my friends, we need to take the opportunity in life to use our time and timings for this very fruitful activity!

Like John, we too have been given a way to prepare. The way of repentance. This is what the people who heard Malachi’s prophecy and later John’s and likely many of us today may not want to hear! John came at that exact moment to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. What if we too started this new church year with an honest, wilderness-style reckoning of our sin?

Debie Thomas. ‘What is sin? Growing up, I was taught that sin is “breaking God’s laws.” Or “missing the mark,” as an archer misses his target. Or “committing immoral acts.” These definitions aren’t wrong, but they assume that sin is a problem primarily because it angers God.
But God’s temper is not what’s at stake; he’s more than capable of managing his own emotions. Sin is a problem because it kills. It kills us.
Why? Because sin is a refusal to become fully human. It’s anything that interferes with the opening up of our whole hearts to God, to others, to creation, and to ourselves. Sin is estrangement, disconnection, sterility, disharmony. It’s the slow accumulation of dust, choking the soul. It’s the sludge that slows us down, that says, “Quit. Stop trying. Give up. Change is impossible.”
Sin is apathy. Care-less-ness. A frightened resistance to an engaged life. Sin is the opposite of creativity, the opposite of abundance, the opposite of flourishing. It is a walking death. And it is easier to spot, name, and confess a walking death in the wilderness than it is anywhere else.

Here’s the really great news, repentance and forgiveness are not far away from any of us. We do it in every service whether Matins or Communion. We started this morning with the Sentences of Scripture before we are invited to confess our manifold sins and wickedness.

Can I ask you to think back a few minutes, what did you do with that time this morning? What goes through your head when we say these things? Did you repent of anything? Ask for forgiveness?

You were then offered absolution; did you take it? I make an assumption every time I put my hand up to make the sign of the cross, that you have repented and that you take the comfort of the absolution offered. There is also further reference to repentance and forgiveness; in the Benedictus and the Apostles Creed, ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate’ – there’s that timing again – ‘was crucified, dead and buried.’

Lord’s Prayer – forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

This is not in any way to condemn, make us dwell in our failures and shortcomings but rather to free us from the bonds, to wake us up to the reality we may live in, become more aware of the dust and sludge has built up and we may not have even realised it. This is what stands in our way to the manger on this Advent journey.

Our human love, however well-meant and deep, remains imperfect in the light of God’s love. Love and repentance go together. There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.

At the start of this new year, we need a wilderness moment that will lead to fruitfulness and abundant living in this new season. The time is now and the time is always right to confess, repent and accept forgiveness that is on offer to us. If this is a wilderness season for you, start to look for signs of new life. That life may start with confession.

We don’t have to go far: it is in your hands at every service, it is in the words we say. Sometimes it simply needs to be brought to our attention. Grab hold of the promises of God, grab hold of the messenger who has come to prepare the way for us, grab hold of the deep and unchanging love of God. Listen for the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness.

Advent 1: Watch & Wait


1/12/24
Advent 1 – Year C

Jeremiah 33:14-16
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36


Happy New Year!

No – I mean it! Today is New Year’s Day on the church calendar. Forget about January 1st December 1st is where it is at.

In this season of Advent, we remember again the coming of Jesus in human form as we repeat stories of that first Christmas. We also look ahead to His coming the second time at a time known to God but not us. We wait in hope and preparation for God’s arrival to make sure we recognise Him when he comes. In preparation for that we can pray that this Advent is a season of hope, relief and watching.

Hope. Who doesn’t need a little bit of hope today? Hope is like a light shining in a dark place. The Bible has a lot to say about hope:

Psalm 42 – Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
Psalm 62 – For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from Him.
Psalm 71 – But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.
Romans 5 – Endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
1 Corinthians 13 – Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

We need hope because when we give up on hope, we give up on life.

The prophet Jeremiah had a difficult job; it is almost hard to believe that this reading came from him. Jeremiah was the prophet of doom and his book is one of the most depressing in the Bible. His calling set him apart from his friends and neighbours because they simply did not want to hear what God had to say through him. Jeremiah had hard messages to give the Israelites about the destruction of Jerusalem; this weighed heavily on Jeremiah. Yet in the midst, we have this beautiful piece full of hope and trust.

At this point in his life, Jeremiah has been put into jail by his own King for being right. The enemies of Jerusalem are attacking the city, as Jeremiah said they would. Jerusalem is still standing but it will soon fall into the hands of Babylon.
Sitting in prison, Jeremiah is suddenly filled with hope. Jeremiah knows that restoration will come after the exile – this is what he is talking about when he says, ‘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.’

If the people wait, watch, endure and try to see the hand of God at work, they will be preparing themselves and the people for the time when ‘Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety.’ This would have been a mystery to the people listening! This is hundreds of years before Jesus arrived. This is still a mystery to people today; people in our families and friend groups who are not interested or do not know about what it is to be saved.

Jeremiah gives us an incredible example of human faithfulness that will not renounce God, come what may. Jeremiah brings good news too: whatever happens, God is God and God is for us. Even Jeremiah, who was the darkest of the prophets, has moments when he can see beyond the immediate destruction of his people to a time when they will again know that God has not abandoned them. He (Jesus) will execute justice and righteousness.

Secondly – Relief.

Just think for a moment about the last time you felt relief from a situation. That overwhelming sense of ‘this is over!’ or ‘well that wasn’t so bad’ or ‘thank God that passed me by’. Advent brings relief – the weary world rejoices!

Paul has been worried about the Thessalonians to whom he is writing. Paul got so worked up about it that he sent Timothy to visit them and he has come back with good news. The letter to the Thessalonians is an expression of Paul’s relief and joy for these new Christians. ‘How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you?’ (verse 1 asks)

Paul’s prayer is that they will use their time to prepare for their final meeting with God. There is no time to waste, every minute is vital according to Paul. He wants the Thessalonians to grow and abound in love for each other, to have their hearts strengthened in holiness so to be blameless before God at the coming of Jesus.

This is a big part of the Advent journey; are we ready for the great return? If we are ready then we will know relief when he comes back. However we should not get too comfortable while people around us do not know the Good News.

There is a verse in this reading that really stuck out to me. Paul wants to see the Thessalonians face to face and ‘restore whatever is lacking in your faith.’ What is lacking in your faith at the start of this Advent season?

Thirdly and finally; Keep watch. We need to prepare for Jesus’ return. This means taking the promises of God seriously. Where are our priorities towards God right now? Is he 2nd place behind our distractions and self-interests?

Luke tells of the signs that are coming in the sun, moon, in the stars and on earth. There will be distress among the nations and confusion in the seas and the waves. This passage is different from the rest of Luke. Luke tells the wonderful stories of the shepherds and sheep, the stable and the manger; it is Luke who tells the story of Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah.

Luke now gives us this rather frightening story of the Son of Man coming in on a cloud with power and great glory. The seasons are going to change and we need to be ready to change with them. Not only that, we need to watch for the signs of the coming of Jesus. This is not an easy task! We need to pay attention to the world around us, pay attention to what God might be saying to us.

The fig tree is the key to all three of today’s readings. Just as we know how to watch for the signs that mark the changing of the seasons, we need to be trained to watch for the return of Jesus.

Jeremiah and Luke talk about seeing the signs in times of turmoil. Paul is speaking into a situation of growth and joy with a tone of urgency. We too need to wait with intelligence, noting the signs, paying attention in situations of joy and relief while in turmoil too.

During Advent we are reminded that God is at work and draws us into His coming action. God is the prime mover, the initiator who is always present on the scene before we arrive. We need not worry or work under our own steam. By spending time with God, he will reveal what He is doing in our lives and the wider world. It is then that we can begin to recognize him.

In Advent, we are waiting for God’s arrival and we need to recognize him when he comes. We wait in hope, we wait for relief as we watch for God – both now and in the not yet.

Happy New Year!


Advent 4: Gabriel & Mary

Advent 4 – Year B

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Psalm 89
Romans 16:25-end
Luke 1:26-38

Today is a busy day. It is a relief that the 4th Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve do not fall on the same day very often! It has gone by way too quickly.

The Gospel readings for Fourth Sunday always revolve around Mary as she completes the picture of our Advent journey. It seems that at this time of the year, we Protestants are okay to talk about Mary and even have a statue of her in church without great resistance!

I was looking back over the lectionary to see which stories of Mary are used on this particular Sunday. Year A is Matthew’s gospel account of the birth of Jesus in which Mary does not speak. Year C is Luke’s recording of the Magnificat. In full voice Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord who has looked with favour on her lowly self.

Year B (this year) has set Luke 1 which is the Annunciation; when Mary was visited by Gabriel who brings her the good news that she will bear a son. We hear Mary’s voice in this account as she and Gabriel discuss the situation.

One of the many things to appreciate this season is how the story of the first Christmas comes alive. We see it in the pictures on Christmas cards; we hear it in the words of Christmas carols; we see the drama played out in Christingle and Crib services.

Sometimes if or when we pick up the Bible to read it we can lose the sense of awe and wonder. Over the past 4 weeks, a small group of us have been meeting to look at the various characters in the Advent & Christmas stories – John the Baptist, Mary, a bit of Joseph and finally the angels, shepherds and wise men this past week. We have been taking a closer look at the many aspects of these people. Together we have looked at some of the assumptions and shared our own knowledge, thoughts and ideas.

In that spirit I would like to highlight a few parts of this amazing story this morning.

The angel Gabriel. Gabriel is a fascinating character; he is a Messenger of God. In any artistic depiction, Gabriel looks to be tall with huge white, feathery wings. He often has a trumpet or a lily in his hand. Angels are created beings of God as we are. There is no evidence to support angels being recycled souls of our dearly departed; however comforting this notion might be.

Gabriel appears in the Old Testament as he was sent to explain the visions that the prophet Daniel was having. Gabriel has been around for a few hundred years at least. Gabriel is now back on the scene. Six months before greeting Mary, God sent Gabriel to Jerusalem to foretell another unexpected birth to an elderly priest named Zechariah whose aged wife Elizabeth would bear John the Baptist. Prior to these visits approximately 400 years had passed since God had sent any message to earth. Then twice in 6 months Gabriel is called into service with life changing news for the most unsuspecting of people.

Now we move on a few verses and turn our attention to Mary. Mary the Virgin, maybe 13 or 14 years old, engaged to be married to Joseph. He was not a local though as his family came from Bethlehem, the house of David. Bethlehem is about 80 miles (a 2 hour drive or 5-6 day walk) from Nazareth.

How and why did Joseph’s family end up in Nazareth? It was not a particularly desirable place to live. People then did not tend to move around very much; you stayed where you were from. However the Bethlehem connection is rather central to the story.

Gabriel’s opening to Mary of ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you!’ I wonder what Mary was doing at that moment. Was she alone? Was she in her bedroom or our carrying water?

Mary is perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. There is a lot of meaning here: Mary is deeply agitated, she is taken aback, disturbed, anxious. One explanation that I particularly liked was ‘stirred up throughout’ by the appearance of Gabriel.

Some of us here know what it is like to be ‘stirred up throughout’. I know a lot of people who have been stirred up throughout this year. That news that comes unexpectedly that moves adrenaline at lighting speed: good or bad that shakes us to the core.

It is not just by Gabriel’s appearance but his greeting, his words that have caused her reaction. Mary’s reaction could be that she knew that this greeting was coming with an overwhelming challenge.

Paula Gooder in her Advent book ‘The Meaning is in the Waiting’ writes, ‘Gabriel’s greeting is somewhat reminiscent of the ancient Chinese proverb ‘May you live in interesting times’, which can be seen as either a curse or a blessing. In the same way, Gabriel’s greeting can either be seen as good or bad: to be in receipt of God’s favour, especially beloved and granted his presence, can only mean that Mary’s life is about to be turned upside down. She is surely right and sensible to be disturbed by this greeting.’

Gabriel then declares ‘Do not be afraid!’ Yeah okay! The phrase ‘Do not be afraid’ appears 366 times in the Bible. One for each day of the year and an extra for Leap Years. Do not be afraid is then followed with the sweet words ‘you have found favour with God.’ How did she do that? A 13-year-old girl from a poor, backwater town. What was it about Mary?

We can do all the religiousy, churchy stuff in the world but this does not mean we have found God’s favour. It isn’t in what we do; it is in who we are. We were created by God out of God’s love for us. In spite of everything that is unlovely in us. We can still find God’s favour. What we do should be an offering back to God out of our love as thanksgiving for his love.

Mary then gets the news that she is going to conceive and bear a son whom she will name Jesus.

Jesus. This was the first proclamation of our Saviour’s personal name since the beginning of time. Jesus. The very name at which one day every knee will bow. The very name at which every tongue will confess. A name with no parallel in any vocabulary. A name with power like no other name. Jesus.

Gabriel tells Mary, ‘He will be great’. Oh yes he is.

Gabriel then carries on with some details of what is to happen. Mary’s concern is for the practicalities: she obviously knew where babies came from. We see something of her innocence too. Gabriel has the answer for Mary, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you’. Come upon here means ‘to arrive, invade, resting upon and operating in a person.’

For nothing will be impossible with God, says Gabriel. If it is of God then nothing is impossible. Sometimes it is us who need a little more courage or imagination.

It is after she heard ‘that nothing is impossible’ – that Mary says ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ I sometimes wonder what our lives, our families, our community and our world would look like if this was our response to God. ‘Here am I’. And not just when the news is good or happy or the request is something that we really want to do. What about when the news is uncertain or just plain hard, comes with a price tag we do not want to pay. Or the inconvenience doesn’t seem worth it. ‘Here am I.’

As we finish out this Advent season and rush (in a matter of hours) into Christmas:

I hope that you will know the Lord’s favour upon you.

I hope the name of Jesus falls sweetly on your ears and off your tongue.

The Lord is with you. Nothing will be impossible with God.

Do not be afraid – The Lord is with you.

Advent 2: Make Straight the Paths

Advent 2 – Year B
10/12/23

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-end
Isaiah 40:1-11
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8

Lord Jesus, light of the world,
the prophets said you would bring peace
and save your people in trouble.
Give peace in our hearts at Christmas
and show all the world God’s love.
Amen.

I love the season of Advent. I grew up in an evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and we were always big on Advent, big wreaths and candles in the church, special prayers and calendars at home all made for a growing sense of anticipation for Christmas.

Marking Advent goes some way in keeping my cynicism towards the commercialisation of Christmas low. It is very easy to complain about the stuff in the shops too early or how the Christian message gets lost today.

If we do not prepare ourselves and examine again what it all means, then how will we possibly be the Prophets of today who can share the Good News of this season with others? The second Sunday of Advent, over time, has been set aside to remember and reflect on The Prophets of the Old Testament. This focus gives us the opportunity to reflect on the way Jesus’ birth was foretold in the centuries before it actually happened.

The people of Israel that Isaiah is speaking to have been through the mill. The first 39 chapters of the book speak mainly of punishment and the exile of the people of Jerusalem to Babylon. Chapters 40-66 begin to speak of things turning around with messages of comfort and the end of punishment for Jerusalem.

Isaiah’s prophecy is telling the people of Israel to be on the lookout; there is a person coming who will prepare the way of the Lord (John the Baptist). They are to listen for the word of God and watch for the coming of the Lord (Jesus).

John the Baptist came out of the wilderness but not out of nowhere. There are many similarities between John the Baptist and Jesus: their births were both foretold in the prophecies in the Old Testament, their parents were notified by angels and both were surprises. The bible does not give any information about John after his birth until he bursts onto the scene in the opening verses/chapters of all four Gospels from the wilderness. John brings the message of hope for the coming of Jesus the Messiah.

The wilderness, biblically speaking, is often a place of transformation and preparation. Jesus is taken for 40 days into the wilderness at the start of his ministry, the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness before they reached the promised land. The wilderness is also a place of loneliness, isolation and vulnerability. Christians can often speak of having those times in the wilderness when God feels distant, it can be a time of great doubt and despair. All you can do is wait and watch for God as though your life depends on it. This does not sit comfortably in the season of Christmas parties and carol singing.

John’s message is also about spiritual preparations for the coming of Jesus; there are two things, according to John, that we need to do.

Firstly, we need to clear a path for the Lord and secondly that path is to be straight. The original Greek word for paths here means ‘a beaten pathway’; a well-worn path, a path that has seen some use, has been established, walked on.

In a personal way God wants us to prepare a path to him. If you were to picture what your path to God looks like, what do you see? Is it well worn? Lightly tread? Is our path to God straight? I know that mine sometimes is more of a meandering path. I have taken the long way around! I vividly remember a sermon where a rather charismatic preacher suggested we should ‘go to the throne before we go to the phone.’

Have we made a path for Him to come and do a major and powerful work in our lives? I trust that God wants us to make a beaten pathway to Him. We also need to clear that path of debris; this can be anything that stands in the way of God being able to work in our lives fully.

There are ways that we can make a beaten path. Firstly, meditate on the fact that we need a Saviour. We all need Jesus. Our families, your children and grandchildren, need Jesus. Our friends and neighbours need Jesus.

Secondly, engage in sober self-examination. John’s first words when he appeared from the wilderness ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ It is also no coincidence that in Matthew’s Gospel, the first line of Jesus’ first sermon is ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ (4:17).

This does not mean checking how many moles are on your back or how many wrinkles have appeared around your eyes (though there is a time and place for this type of self-examination). Rather, this is a deep internal examination of how we are doing spiritually. The Christian writer John Piper says, ‘Advent is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter’. There should be time for honest self-reflection, where we invite the Holy Spirit in to show us where we need His help and healing the most.’

John’s call to baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is a way of getting our paths clear and straight. I think that many of us would assign this kind of reflection to Lent and not Advent. Yet it is through John we have a gateway to the swaddled baby, fleecy lambs, singing angels and wisemen that we hold so dear at this time of year.

Confession and repentance bring a cleansing and a change of mind and heart can help us turn back to God. It can clear and straighten the path like nothing else can. It is not easy and may not seem to fit in the season of mulled wine and mince pies. They don’t taste as good as a clean heart and mind feel though.

Repentance needs to be taken seriously. It means stopping and turning around. Is there anything you need to stop doing? We can of course ask for forgiveness for the things we do wrong. Yet if we don’t get serious about stopping sin we cheapen forgiveness. It becomes worthless and meaningless. This is what John means in his demand that the Pharisees and Sadducees to ‘bear fruit worthy of repentance.’

It is hard but not impossible. We have the God for whom nothing is impossible. He will help and provide.

In this Advent season my prayer is that you will know the hope of Jesus the Messiah as we celebrate his birth and await his return. I also pray that amidst the turkey and tinsel you find time to deepen your need for the Saviour who loves and cares for you. May you also know his love and forgiveness this season too. As uncomfortable as it might be, some serious self-examination might be in order to. Bear fruit worthy of repentance.

May the God of steadfastness and encouragement be with you. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sunday Before Advent: Christ the King

26/11/23
Christ the King

Ezekiel 34:11-16,20-24
Matthew 25:31-46

God the Father,
help us to hear the call of Christ the King
and to follow in his service,
whose kingdom has no end;
for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, one glory.
Amen.

Today is the final Sunday of the church year; this is New Year’s Eve! Happy New Year!

This Sunday is a hinge that helps us to look in both directions: firstly pointing to the end of time when the kingdom of Jesus will be established in all its fullness to the ends of the earth. Secondly, it points us to the immediate season of Advent, the beautiful time of expectation and preparation as we look ahead to celebrating the birth of Jesus. In both directions we are reminded that Jesus is King.

Christ the King is a recent addition (1925 so very new) to the church calendar and a Roman Catholic one at that! Pope Pius XI instituted this Sunday in response to issues he was facing in the Catholic church and in the civic life of Rome as secularism was growing in wider society after World War 1.

There was an enormous crisis of faith and many people left the Church (both Catholic & Protestant) in Europe in the wake of the First World War. The men had left for war and they did not come back; and the women left the church and God. This context led the Pope to establish Christ the King Sunday as a reminder of Jesus’ power and authority above all else.

The Bible is full of reference to kingship. In the Old Testament, God warned the Israelites about the dangers of a human king but they insisted. God yielded and Saul was anointed as the first king of Israel. In the New Testament, the earliest followers of Jesus were looking for him to be a king who would smite their enemies and bring Israel back to prosperity. Again a need for a very human king.

However, both the Old & New Testaments offer a vision of a king like a shepherd. The sheep are a metaphor to represent the people of Israel. They are God’s flock and they are a mix of strong and weak sheep.

Sheep are not the brightest animals in creation, they are not able to take care of themselves the way other animals can, you cannot teach them tricks, they need a lot of care and attention and they need to be guided. Hence the need for shepherds.

God acts as the shepherd for his people; he will search and seek out the lost, the lonely and the oppressed. He brings back the strays, strengthens the weak, binds up the injured. He feeds them, he will make them lie down – 23rd Psalm anyone? This is a picture of a King who gets deeply involved with his mixed flock of strong and weak out of deep love and concern.

Both readings present a King who judges as there is inequality in the flock. There are both strong and weak sheep living together. The strong are not looking after the weak the way that they should. The fat sheep are the ones who butted the weaker animals, took their food, and tread down the pastures for their own gain. The fat took advantage of the lean by mistreating them and will be punished for this.

Regarding judgement, we need to hold on to some important truths: God does not judge the same way we do. I am very glad of that. God judges out of love; not hate or pride or envy. For this King love and judgement go together. We need to remember that we will be judged by the same standards that we judge others.
We all make judgements every day. I also know that the standards that I hold myself to are far less than the standards I hold other people to.

We do need a God of judgement; otherwise He quickly becomes ineffectual and untrustworthy. If God did not judge between the two what is He saying?

To the fat sheep: you can do whatever you like to serve yourself without consequence. I do not love you so I will ignore what you do.

To the lean sheep: you are not worthy of help. I do not love you enough to want to help you. You are on your own.

This is similar to the picture of judgement in Matthew’s Gospel. The separation of sheep and goats seems to emphasise that ultimately every person on earth will be called to account for the use of the opportunities to serve others. It also suggests that there will be some surprises. People who did kind things for ‘insignificant people’ will find that what they did was done to God himself. Other people will be punished for failing to make use of opportunities to serve the lowly and thereby failing to serve God.

The world does not operate as it should. It does not take much imagination to work this out. We do not treat people as we should; whether that is the people next door or the people on the other side of the world. The injustice in the world is rampant: socially, politically, and economically. We have active global examples at present.

It is not all bad news though.

It might be helpful to hold that this is not the full picture of judgement. This passage only deals with works not grace, faith or the atoning work of Christ.
Works are the evidence on which people will be judged here, not the cause of salvation or damnation. It is common to all of scripture that we are saved by grace and judged by works. The works we do are the evidence of either the grace of God at work in us or of our rejection of that grace.

Out of love God wants the fat sheep to care for the lean sheep; to share food, protect them as he does. Love your neighbour as yourself! We will be judged on this. We have a King of love and of judgement. Whatever season of life we are in, we have a King who loves us and will defend us. This will come to pass at the end of time.

As we look ahead to the imminent Advent season, we celebrate the first coming of Jesus, the Son of God. Who was born into the world as both God and man, died so that our sins may be forgiven and rose again so that we may live with him forever. We also look forward to his glorious return at the end of time. Advent helps us to remember that God is present in the world today.

The Advent season falls at the darkest time of the year, and the natural symbols of darkness and light are powerfully at work throughout Advent and Christmas. We may live in dark times but the light of Christ will show us the way.

But we do have to wait. Wait with expectation and anticipation. We wait in the light of new hope. The King is Coming.