St Peter’s – 2nd Sunday before Advent
17/11/24
Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm 16
Hebrews 10:11-25
Mark 12:41-13:1-13
Hello to the friends watching online!
I grew up in Cochrane and come from one of the founding families of St Peter’s. I graduated from Cochrane High way too long ago. In 2007 I moved to London, England for some travel, education and different nursing experiences. I began to attend a church (Holy Trinity Brompton) where the Alpha Course started as a way to meet people. While there I got very involved in many church groups including volunteering as a hospital chaplain. This led me, over a couple of years and much surprise, to pursue becoming a Priest in the Church of England.
10 years ago I put aside my nursing career (I trained at the U of A and worked at the Foothills & Tom Baker and then in Scotland & London) after being selected for training. I went to Oxford University to study for 2 years (most fun I have had as an adult) and was ordained as a deacon in 2016 and then as a Priest in 2017. In the CofE you serve a curacy which is basically on-the-job training/apprenticeship for 3-4 years; mine finished at the end of 2020. During my curacy I became a volunteer police chaplain with Thames Valley Police.
I then moved to my first parish where I was in charge of 6 small village churches to the west of London for a 3-year fixed-term. Last year I began to look for another job thinking that I would like another short-term role within reach of my beloved police. Not long into the search I found an ad in the CofE weekly newspaper for the Lead Chaplain of Gatwick Airport (the 2nd largest airport in the UK). I thought this was a job for a crazy person but was equally intrigued! So I applied, was successful and have just completed my first year.
Airport Chaplaincy is fairly niche but like all chaplaincies it is a ministry of presence. You have to be seen to be believed and you never know what is going to happen next! I spend my days looking after the two airport chapels and my volunteer team of Buddhists, Christians & Muslims, walking the terminals looking for passengers and staff who look like they might need some help. I get involved in emergency response situations and work alongside airport security, the police, the Airport Fire Service, passenger operations team & airline staff both as a colleague but also chaplain for personal or team matters. I have a high level of security clearance and can stick my nose in pretty much anywhere. This is an ideal role for me! I also look after two small churches on the edge of the airport.
I am so delighted/slightly lamenting to have flown all the way from London having volunteered to preach today before I checked the readings! We have some heavy going this morning. I tried to avoid doing this to my own two parishes by taking holidays now. Yet here we all are about to wrestle with some of the more challenging/mysterious/confusing parts of the Bible.
To ease us in, I am going to start with a fictitious yet amusing story from a favourite novel of mine.
A typesetter in a Rotterdam suburb had been through a personal crisis. Several years earlier he had been recruited by Jehovah’s Witnesses; but they had thrown him out when he discovered, and questioned rather too loudly, the fact that the congregation had predicted the return of Jesus on no less than fourteen occasions between 1799 and 1980 – and sensationally managed to get it wrong all fourteen times.
Upon which, the typesetter had joined the Pentecostal Church. He liked their teaching about the Last Judgement; he could embrace the idea of God’s final victory over evil, the return of Jesus (without actually naming a date) and how most of the people from the typesetter’s childhood, including his own father, would burn in hell. But this new congregation had sent him packing too after a whole month’s collection had gone astray while in the care of the typesetter.
The now bitter typesetter started the layout for that day’s job, which ironically happened to consist of printing two thousand bibles for an order from Sweden. This troubled the typesetter because as far as he knew, his father still lived there after having abandoned his family when the typesetter was six years old.
With tears in his eyes, the typesetter set the text of chapter upon chapter. When he came to the very last chapter – the Book of Revelation – he just lost it. How could Jesus ever want to come back to Earth? Here where Evil had once and for all conquered Good, so what was the point of anything? And the Bible…It was just a joke!
So it came about that the typesetter with shattered nerves made a little addition to the very last verse in the very last chapter in the Swedish bible. The typesetter didn’t remember much of his father’s tongue, but he could at least recall a nursery rhyme that was well suited in the context. Thus the bible’s last two verses plus the typesetter’s extra verse were printed as:
20. He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am
coming quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen.
22. And they all lived happily ever after.
What do you make of happily ever after? It is how many fairy tales, movies, books, etc conclude. Everything comes good in the end; the baddies are punished, the goodies are rewarded, the couple reunites and everything is put right. Hallmark Christmas movie season is upon us! This formula is simple, predictable, convenient, comforting and shallow. This is why we like them – comfort, easy with little thinking required.
Upon return to the rest of life we are confronted with the endings that are much more complicated, messy, misunderstood and difficult. No wonder we long for the happily ever after.
The set readings before Advent (a mere 2 weeks away) focus on the return of Jesus. We are about to celebrate the first coming which is central and important to the Christian faith. Advent should remind us there is more to the parties and presents and only seeing Jesus as the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger. The reminder is that Jesus has come, has gone after the resurrection and He will be coming again. His next and final return will be both an ending and a new beginning.
The passage in Mark’s Gospel occurs in the middle of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus and the disciples have entered Jerusalem, think donkeys and palm branches. Jesus has been preaching in the Temple; the preceding two chapters of Mark provide this teaching. Jesus is now focusing on the end of the age and is alerting the disciples to the troubles ahead.
As they are leaving the Temple, Jesus sits down and watches people. Both rich and poor put their offerings in the collection plate. We could assume that the disciples’ attention was on the people with large amounts of money going in the treasury. However, Jesus’ attention is on the poor widow who throws in her two very small copper coins.
Jesus calls the disciples to attention and points out the sacrifice she has made; her two pennies were worth more than what everyone else gave. Some bible commentaries have questioned whether this woman’s trip to the Temple was her last act before she died. This may be what Jesus sees in her; impending death. She is preparing to die by giving away all she has. The poor widow gave her very last to the Temple, to God. What an ending.
The disciples’ response? What massive stones and magnificent buildings! How about those Flames? Their diversion tactics are not brilliant and neither are ours. What struck me is that I began to ask myself about my massive stones and magnificent buildings.
What are your massive stones? Your house? Bank accounts? Career? Job? Family? Connections? Opinions? Politics? Pension? Leaving something for the kids? We all have them. These are things that can get in the way of our relationships with God.
Maybe it was easier for the disciples to look at the stones and magnificent buildings than consider the poor widow and her two cents or Jesus’ tough teachings they had heard.
Jesus is coming to throw down the big stones. However wonderful, lovely and whatever security (real & imagined) our stones provide – will come down. What are we storing up that will last? What will we have to show Jesus when he returns?
Jesus then leads the disciples for a walk up the Mount of Olives across from the Temple. If you have had the privilege of visiting Jerusalem you will know the view that I am talking about. I imagine them sitting up high enough to overlook the Temple and all of Jerusalem. He changes their perspective to see beyond the rocks and buildings to the whole city. How is your view this morning?
The disciples have serious questions and rightly so. When? What are the signs? They do not seem to fully grasp the whole view but they don’t want to miss it either. No time frame makes this difficult and Jesus was still sitting next to them. I choose to believe that Jesus does not want them to get overly fixated on either the time [whether it is long or short] or the events themselves. There is a kindness in this. How do we measure time or response to a situation when there is nothing to measure? At least not yet.
Working at Gatwick Airport over this past year I have learned a huge amount about airport security, the aggravation of unattended bags, emergency situations, counter terrorism measures and what to look out for. None of us staff know when something is going to happen until it happens. But when things do happen we have to be ready and jump into action. There are plans and practices, policy and procedure.
Jesus will return. It will happen. No one knows when. Rumours of wars, earthquakes, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. A quick look at the news and a flip through some history books and we can identify almost all of these events at any time in the last many hundreds of years. Immediately after the crucifixion and resurrection everyone thought that Jesus was coming back again very soon, like any day.
There are people now who spend a lot of time and energy trying to work out the date when Jesus will come again. I would suggest that this is not what we should be spending time and energy on. It will happen. We should be ready for when Jesus does return. Back to massive stones…
It is not something we would want to rush into coming; the return of Jesus for some will not mean a happy ending. There are a few ways to have a happier ever after when the stones come down. The Hebrews’ passage urges appreciation for what has been done for us and the great hope to which it leads. What was done for us: There is another priest (Jesus) who offered for all time the one sacrifice for sin. He sat down at the right hand of God and made his enemies a footstool.
There is a new way and a new hope that comes through the curtain; the body and blood of Christ. This new way comes with hardships and is more daunting than we might want yet we have been warned and are to be watchful. Both the Old and New Testament are full of wisdom on what to focus on:
Daniel: The wise and those who lead people to righteousness will shine like stars in the heavens. Gain wisdom; not worldly, social media meme wisdom but the wisdom of God. Read, pray, watch and listen: these are the disciplines of Advent.
Be aware of righteousness that is self-righteousness dressed as arrogance and used as a weapon to abuse and manipulate.
Hebrews: We have been forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus and we can have confidence in this. We can draw near to God in full assurance of faith. This is where real life and true love are found. We need to spur one another on toward love and good deeds. The world needs more doers of good deeds!
Mark: Be aware of being deceived by false prophets, false Jesus’ claiming to be Him. Be on your guard. Be wise and prepare to be challenged. Jesus came to show us a new way of loving, redemption and salvation.
The Gospel must be preached to all nations. Wait – what?! Before we get all hot and bothered about the wars and earthquakes; how are we doing with the Gospel? Any evidence of it to the people, the community and the world around us? This will be the happily-ever-after ending. The only one. The Gospel of Jesus, of love and justice, joy and wisdom, grace and righteousness preached to all nations.
And finally from Psalm 16: whatever is coming and whenever it does God is our help, our refuge; apart from him you have no good thing, I have no good thing. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. And they all lived happily ever after.
