Sermon for Sunday 15th November 2009

Last year a financial equivalent of the temple in Jerusalem was thrown down when Lehman Brothers, a huge corporate icon of wealth and power, went bust. The global banking system was on the verge of collapse with deep questions being asked about the whole future of capitalism.

This week we’ve been told that if we don’t get on and build 10 new nuclear power stations, the lights will go out within 10 years with devastating consequences to our economy and our way of life. To say nothing of the need to save our planet. To make this happen the government announced the end of the planning enquiry system that in the past has allowed campaigners to protect the landscape. The average time taken for planning approval is to be cut from seven years to one year.

The Church of England has also been reported as being in crisis as the Catholic Church has invited priests who object to policies such as the consecration of women as bishops to join a new ‘Anglican Catholic’ order. The Times suggested parishes, or even whole Dioceses, might go over to Rome. Although one letter writer to the Church Times pointed out the hyperbole; saying if Juventus bought Wayne Rooney, it would not take Old Trafford as well.

Our readings this morning can be seen as an apt description of our doom laden world. From Daniel ‘There shall be a time of anguish, such as never occurred since nations came into existence’. And in Mark, Jesus declares that the temple of Jerusalem will be thrown down. These are writings about end times – the approaching day of God’s final judgement.

If we look back down the ages, nearly every single generation has interpreted these texts as referring to their own time. And we get a strong hint in Mark that the neat and tidy wrapping up of the world’s woes sought by the disciples is a very long way off. The disciples saw Jesus’ image of the Temple being thrown down as the long foretold time of deliverance, something they might even see in their own time. A vision of perfection foretold by Daniel as the time when the wise and the righteous would shine more brightly than others. They would be condemned to everlasting contempt.

But two thousand years on and we seem no nearer. Surely wisdom and righteousness cannot be that hard to find. And yet Daniel’s description of the world as being in ‘anguish’ is an apt word for those millions around the world who endure poverty, war and injustice.

Our world is so divided and complex that we might wonder whether we are moving towards or even away from Daniel’s and Jesus’ vision. Are we still only at the beginning of the birth pangs? Jesus own prediction of the destruction of the Temple was fulfilled when the Romans sacked and levelled Jerusalem in AD70. But it did not usher in the end times. It was just another phase in an endless round of wars and rumours of wars that we still endure today.

But the disciples believed that they were going to see a whole new order. ‘Tell us’, the disciples urge Jesus, ‘just tell us when this will happen and how we’ll recognise it’. Rather like the Government’s instant power station recipe, one knows that somehow things are rather more complicated than this. Jesus’ response to the disciples is a biblical version of ‘get real guys’. He warns them that life will be very difficult for a long time – this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

The metaphor of birth pangs is one from the Old Testament , used to describe God’s intervention in the world to bring in a new order. We still long for that new order today. But Jesus message is this is the world we have to live in.

As Christians we are often little different to anyone else when it comes to being able to see whether right is on our side. For all its yearning for this new Jerusalem, the church constantly struggles as well. We know we have a shared hope in Christ. And yet Christians are forever at odds with each other as to how they should proclaim Christ in the world. The Church at times becomes so immersed in its own arguments that the world looks on with wonder. How dare they tell us how to live our lives when they behave like this.

Our world is not going to change beyond our imagining and we need to respond to Jesus’ teaching accordingly. And we need to remember that the judgement is not ours, it is God’s. In Jesus Christ God has already ushered in the wisdom and righteousness proclaimed by Daniel. We will not get things right all the time. And we know that the difference we make is tiny in the scale of our world. But we can do our very best to respond to God’s new world found in Christ.

The clue is given to us in today’s readings in the passage from Hebrews. We need to be far less dependent upon our own wisdom and preferences and simply focus on Jesus Christ. The problems of our world are caused mostly by the inability of human beings to get on with one another. We have this overriding tendency to think that right is on our side. But in Mark Jesus warns that this is what people claiming to be ‘in my name’ will do and they will lead people astray.

Hold fast to Jesus Christ is the message of Hebrews. We have to constantly remember to enter Jesus’ world where we become totally dependent upon God. This means that like Jesus we will have to endure the suffering of this world. In personal terms this means learning to live with all the frustrations and dissatisfaction we constantly feel about the way things are. We cannot run away from pain and suffering. But when we place our complete trust in Jesus we learn to accept the promise of peace, and we learn to live with other people.

The message of Hebrews is so simple, but so important. Hold fast to the confession of hope. In other words, keep our hearts and minds unwaveringly on Jesus Christ. Stay close to him and we stay close to God. And then learn to live with each other, with all our differences, quirks and failings. This is positive living. Provoke one another to love and good deeds. As followers of Jesus, spend time together. And encourage each other in our efforts to live as Jesus wants us to.

As, together, we come to meet Jesus Christ in the bread and wine of this communion our focus on Jesus is renewed. All differences are for a moment overcome as we unite in this single act of love. We may feel we are suffering catastrophe. But the likelihood is we have got our personal and our communal problems out of proportion just like generations before us. If we look at our problems with the eyes of Christ, we will see that we can overcome them. And do so with love.

The constant challenge is to hold this focus on Jesus, and each other, as we get on with our lives.

© Revd Robert Jenkins November 2009