Sermon for 29 November 2009

I wonder how many of us are unsurprised by the financial crisis in Dubai. To me it always had an air of unreality. A fantasy city built for the rich and beautiful where the complexities of our world are left behind. No poverty, no conflict and no mention of global warming. Emerging now is a realisation that Dubai’s economy was built on speculation and 80 billion dollars of debt. The underlying economic activity needed sustain this economic paradise does not exist. The speculators have bailed out leaving banks – or neighbouring states, to pick up the pieces. Unlike its wealthy neighbour, Abu Dhabi, Dubai has few oil reserves. It needs people to occupy the thousands of homes and hotel rooms it has built. And businesses in the acres of office space to pay its way. And they are not there. One newspaper described Dubai as comparable to Euro Disney – more a fantasy world than a fully functioning economy and society.

It is significant that there is also a darker aspect to Dubai. It seems in some degree to have lost its moral compass, going all out to attract the investors and tourists upon which it depends.

Our readings this morning talk of a return to faith. The passage from Luke, written in the shadow of the destruction of Jerusalem, the tearing down of a holy city, warns of the perils of a Godless world. But the promise Luke and our other readings give us is that God will never abandon his people. The perils arrive when the people abandon God.

Our world can be a hostile place at times. Some disasters we can do little to avert, such as the devastating floods in Cumbria. But many of our woes are the result of our own neglect. Our economic crises, whether the world’s of the past year or Dubai’s of today, are the result of excessive optimism. Self-imposed blindness to the risks being taken. And we live with real dangers to our world as nations resist decisive action to limit global warming. Luke’s words have an ominous ring to them – on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.

We know we are relatively powerless to affect these vast issues. We can only do our bit. Being careful with our environment and cautious with whatever savings we might have. At the beginning of Advent we are being reminded that there is a much deeper issue that underpins the hope for a better and safer world. It is the promise given to us by God in Jesus Christ. Our local community and our world needs to hold onto, to renew and strengthen its faith and trust in God.

It would be simplistic and unfair to suggest that Dubai’s woes are an example of a world that abandons God. But it is an illustration of how excess can overwhelm. The only excessive aspect of God and faith is overwhelming love. Love for God and love for neighbour – and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you, writes Paul.

The message of Advent, the proclamation we make every Christmas as we begin to welcome hundreds of people to St Andrew’s, is return to God. We need to share that hope with each other. And we need to share it with everyone who comes to church and all we spend time with this Advent and Christmas. Because at Christmas God is inviting us into his redeemed world – a world saved from its self-interested and self-destructive nature. Saving us personally from self-destruction by offering us overwhelming love.

We have to show people that message of returning to God’s love. It has to be seen as well as said. It is no coincidence that Christmas is described as the season of goodwill. A time when charities such as Crisis at Christmas, who we are supporting with our alternative Christmas Card, raises lots of money and reaches out to the homeless. The birth of Jesus Christ is the original inspiration. A return to God the outcome of celebrating that birth. A time when hearts open enough to accept that offer of love.

There are many different ways in which each one of us makes a special effort to bring that love into our lives at Christmas. Today we are reminded that there is a deeper purpose to our acts of love and generosity. It is to show that we respond to others with love because we are first loved by God. However inadequate we may feel. And that the greatest hope there is for our world and its people lies in holding faith in the revelation of God. In the birth of Jesus Christ.

Our world desperately needs to return to God. There is a warning in our readings – be on guard. The world needs to guard against the tide of secularism. And we all have our part to play. We may not be able to do much about the crisis in Dubai. But we can do a lot that is quite clear that shows we believe that we need personal faith in our lives. And that our society has to have a foundation of love, which for us is born out of Jesus Christ. In any loving acts of concern we quietly do this Christmas we make God known. We help to turn the tide against self-destruction.

Advent, just like Lent, is a period for reflection and a period of waiting. We should try to make time to reflect on our journeys of faith. Spend time looking at those moments when we have glimpsed God, and been changed. Returning to God is not a once only event. We need to return to God every single day of our lives. During Advent our consciousness of God’s timeless intervention in our world is illuminated like a bright star. As we wait we can come closer to him and, as Paul promises, God strengthens our hearts in holiness.

© Robert Jenkins November 2009