It's good for Anne and I to be back in the Caribbean where we were married - in Guyana actually - and to be at the altar with Canon Burke with whom I have a friendship tracing back 35 years to my first involvement in the Diocese of Guyana. I was Principal of the Alan Knight Training Centre for Amerindian clergy liaising with Codrington College when I first met your parish priest, identifying with his bright mind, warm heart and administration acumen which has enriched the church in this island for so many years.
I drew the short straw with today’s liturgy didn’t I? You need something of a theologian to make sense of the Gospel and steer you away from both literalism and scepticism, the two bugbears of the Church in our day. Our three year Provincial Sunday lectionary is an amended version of the Roman Catholic form. This Sunday of Proper 28 there’s a cheerful bit of Isaiah switched for the doom laden Old Testament reading from Malachi set down for the Catholics! I guess that was done for pastoral reasons so we don’t over depress our congregations and make them shrink further. I’ve just come from England and we’re mightily depressed, outside of Church, with three Prime Ministers in a year one of whom caused a mighty dent in national and personal finances - and that’s before you consider Ukraine and Russia. How blessed Anne and I are to escape to Barbados - but we know you well enough not to be blind to the challenge there is here so far as the cost of living. At least you don’t have our heating bills though air conditioning doesn’t come for free!
So, with that prelude, let’s look at Luke 21 verses 5 to 19. It weaves around the words of Our Lord later prophetic thinking about the significance of the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, almost 40 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, which is when we date Luke’s Gospel. It’s so-called ‘apocalyptic literature’, taking the lid off history to unveil its deeper meaning. The Greek verb linked to apocalypse means taking the lid off a jar. When I googled definitions of the word I got ‘prophetic revelation, especially concerning a cataclysm, in which the forces of good permanently triumph over the forces of evil. Any revelation or prophecy, any universal or widespread destruction or disaster, such as the apocalypse of nuclear war’ - that last part of the definition has chilling relevance! In the Lucan passage we can’t be sure where genuine sayings of Jesus end and apocalyptic writing from a generation later begins, but the passage like Luke’s Gospel as a whole has authority across the Church as part of the Canon of Scripture so debate about the origin of texts is secondary to that perspective. Holy Scripture, our Collect reminded us, is ‘written for our learning… to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest… that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of eternal life’.
There’s no doubt Our Lord repeatedly predicted the destruction of the Temple by the Roman authorities, just as he is quoted as saying in the first paragraph of today’s Gospel:
‘When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’ At his trial this prediction was one of the charges brought against Our Lord, though the accusation couldn’t be made to stick. The later paragraphs of our passage seem to be an expansion from that prediction linked to the event actually taking place in 60AD, and its sequence, so devastating for the Jewish people of those days.
Bible scholar Reginald Fuller writes: ‘we may reasonably conclude that the predictions of historical disasters - war, earthquake, pestilence and famine - reflect the events of the 60s AD although some of it is described in conventional apocalyptic language. The predictions of persecutions are genuine warnings of Jesus addressed to the disciples… this Gospel reading confronts the preacher with two problems, one arising from its highly complex character, the other from the fact that it refers to a first century crisis which no longer obtains today. The best thing to do with such literature is to treat it as an inspired insight into the meaning of history which is a constant struggle between the forces of good and evil. The Christian has no right to expect that everything is going to get better and better… all he or she knows is that right will triumph in the end and that his or her task is to show patience and endurance: ‘by your endurance you will gain your lives’.
So, preacher, to application! What is there ‘to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest’ in this Gospel passage?
Last time I was in St David’s, a year ago, Fr Noel and many of you were involved in liturgies linked to the transition from Queen Elizabeth II to Dame Sandra Mason as Head of State coinciding with a visit from the then Prince of Wales. Since then we in Britain have seen a sadder transition, with the death of the Queen and accession of King Charles III. Anne and I were privileged to pay respects to our late Queen in Westminster Hall and were invited to the proclamation of the King on 11 September outside the town hall where we live in Haywards Heath south of London. On the 6th of May next year in Westminster Abbey Charles will sit before the high altar of Westminster Abbey to be anointed and crowned. Before him, and billions of viewers across the world, will be this text from Revelation 11 verse 15 that is written over the coronation altar: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ’. In Britain our head of state is still appointed in a Christian context, a king or queen, yes, but appointed within a context informed by today’s Gospel. That is, a belief that God is working his purpose out in history through thick and thin. As we shall be reminded in the liturgy of Christ the King next Sunday it is ‘an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace’.
Applying today’s Gospel is about owning that ultimate reality and seeing everything in the light of it including all we learn hour by hour through the media of the tumult in the world, be that social, economic, political or environmental. All our endeavours as Christians are to be conducted head held high, looking to the Lord, putting faith in his working all things for good for those who love him, cultivating the patience and endurance through which we gain fullness of life with all the saints. As we start Advent season in a fortnight’s time we will receive further spurring on to work for ‘the kingdom of this world.. to become the kingdom of our God and of Christ, his Son’.
The first Coming of Jesus was into the womb of a holy woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, demonstrating that we human beings are no mere compartment of the animal kingdom but are capable of union with God. His Second Coming will occur when human beings, drawn to Christ and his Church in the Spirit, have completed the divine plan 'to bring all things together in Christ'. (Ephesians 1.10)
As Christ waited for the holy woman to be his Mother he now awaits a holy people to be his Bride so that as heavenly Bridegroom he can one day embrace his church and ‘we may rise to the life immortal’. Christ awaits the purification of his church for this consummation just as he had to await a woman for his conception. In Advent season the Church encourages a deeper examination of conscience and greater availability of the sacrament of confession. Even this morning our priests are available after Mass for this ministry or the less formal ministry of prayers with individuals. Through these ministries and through our own individual prayer and bible study we can engage with the wonder of the love and judgement of God in Christ and his purpose for the church and the world.
It is a glorious truth that no one can take away or enhance who we are before God, such is the love he has for us and for all. As we welcome that love afresh this morning may we hold in our hearts those in our circle or our church’s circle who do not know the Lord Jesus, praying they too will open their hearts to him and experience his love. In this respect the anticipation of Christmas in carol services is a bonus. Church-going is less extraordinary on the Island in December. We have a chance to invite our friends to come along with us for a taster of the Church. In the UK some Churches run Christian enquiry courses in January that are promoted among attendees at Advent and Christmas services.
Through deeper prayer and intercession, self-examination and confession and mission planning may we engage afresh in the coming weeks with the possibilities of God and see them realised in our lives, our church and our community so as to accomplish the deepening and the spread of Christian Faith.
The kingdom of this world, counter to all appearances, is becoming the kingdom of our God and of Christ, his Son’. This is our faith and our hope - lift up your heads if they are drooping, look to the Lord
In Barbados and in the UK, may holiness reign, with justice and peace, and may our partnership in Christian mission across the Atlantic ocean continue ‘til the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!
Picture: Antonio Campi’s Mystery of the Passion of Christ mid 16th century (Louvre)
No comments:
Post a Comment