“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, 

and on the earth distress among nations 

confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 

People will faint from fear and foreboding 

of what is coming upon the world, 

for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 

Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ 

with power and great glory. 

Now when these things begin to take place, 

stand up and raise your heads, 

because your redemption is drawing near.”

Then he told them a parable: 

“Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 

as soon as they sprout leaves 

you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 

So also, when you see these things taking place, 

you know that the kingdom of God is near. 

Truly I tell you, 

this generation will not pass away 

until all things have taken place. 

Heaven and earth will pass away, 

but my words will not pass away.

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down 

with dissipation and drunkenness 

and the worries of this life, 

and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. 

For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 

Be alert at all times, 

praying that you may have the strength 

to escape all these things that will take place, 

and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Advent Sunday, the beginning of the one-year-in-three when many of our Gospel readings are from St Luke. But – by any standards – today’s reading is a difficult one. It’s not the end of the world, we might think, but it – ever so slightly – is!  Advent – can have themes covering the whole Christian vision, from creation to the end of the world, and the Four Last Things, heaven, hell, death, and judgement. 

Jesus had predicted wars, natural disasters and the persecution of his followers. He had predicted catastrophe for Jerusalem, because, he thought, the Jewish establishment had got things wrong. It was not that God was vengeful, but that actions have their consequences, sooner or later. In AD70 in fact, the Romans razed the Jerusalem Temple to the ground, and it’s not restored - yet. St Luke probably knew that that had already happened when he wrote todays reading. The Jews today still think that when the true Messiah comes, the Temple will be rebuilt. And because that hasn’t happened, Jews now think that Jesus cannot be the true Messiah. And, you will remember, the Muslims currently have a big mosque on the site. 

Our reading is coloured by various Old Testament sayings. When it talks of the sea being out of hand, it is envisaging, - not climate change, - but a brief return to the watery chaos from which, Genesis says, God first created. The Jews sometimes thought that celestial bodies were allowed by God to control the pagan nations. So, when the reading speaks of heavenly bodies being disrupted, it might be saying that time will, one day, be up for the heathen. God’s people would, in due course, learn of the unexpected and catastrophic destruction of Pompei in AD79, but that probably happened after Luke wrote. It may have given people thoughts about the end of the world at the time, but today’s reading probably doesn’t reflect that particular situation. 

We will be aware that ideas about the universe have changed, the earth no longer seen as flat, and our planet not the centre of the universe. We might now expect an end of the world, primarily, when the sun cools in the very, very, far future, or when our galaxy is crashed by the Andromeda Galaxy. We might once have wondered about an end to our world if nuclear war got out of hand. That threat seems to have receded, but it was around in the Cold War in 50s and 60s, when the Russian leader famously said, ‘we will bury you’. Some wonder whether us, and the world as we know it, will be ended by climate change eventually. In any case, we personally get older, and at some point, before our 120th birthday, we can expect our world, as we know it now, to end. 

For the first Christians, whose outlook was coloured by their Jewish background, the winding up of history, and judgement by God, was expected, sooner or later. Now that Jesus had come, and died and risen, - it all seemed to be happening – and very likely the end was nigh, and Jesus would return in glory as judge. St Paul, in the early days, seemed to say, that this could be soon – don’t bother to do long-term things like getting married. Luke, however, in the end, did go on to travel widely with St Paul on missionary trips founding churches. Luke then proceeded to write the Acts of the Apostles and came to the idea that the Gospel would spread around the world before we met any dramatic ending.

The message for us is, that whatever happens to us as individuals, to our society, our church, our world, we are not to panic. Corporal Jones, when he said, ‘Don’t panic! ‘, was, rather comically, actually panicking. We are not to!

We rather need to embrace the words of St Paul, about God’s providence, come what may.

‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …….  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Romans 8, 35-39)

The idea being, that although things might sometimes can get very bad indeed, and have in many times and places in our lifetimes, none of the destructive things of war, poverty, illness, natural disaster, - none has the power to finally cut us off from God, or prevent him from bringing us to good new life.

Paul also said: ‘For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’ (Philippians 1.21)

It saddens me somewhat that even church members feel unable to have positive New Testament readings at their funerals. Sometimes a person does leave a request that we should dress in bright colours at their service. Although well-meant, that can seem an uneasy thing to do. Although in monasteries there has sometimes been a tradition of having a party when someone dies.

Advent was originally not so much a time for preparing for Christ’s coming as a baby at Christmas, but a time to understand how he was to become known to the whole world at Epiphany. Adult candidates for baptism, in particular, would look at the whole Christian view of life and death during Advent, and be baptised in January at Epiphany, if they wanted to take the faith on board. In Advent then, they might be thinking more about Jesus’ second coming to be our judge, than about his first coming as a baby.

As we travel our road for one more church year, let us hope that we can gain from it under God, and meet a new cleric along the way. Maybe our chances of meeting God are rather better than of meeting the cleric.

If life sometimes seems to be something which is likely to be used up or ebb away, Advent will say the opposite. We have an end. Not in the sense of demise, but in the sense of a value and a purpose and an accountability, - with life and God actually coming towards us and seeking us.