Readings:
Sermon:
The polls in the recent US election showed that the number one issue for voters – even bigger than the economy – was democracy. Large numbers of both Republicans and Democrats sincerely believed that if the other party’s candidate was elected, it would spell the end of democracy. The passionate intensity of feeling expressed on both sides reflected that sense that this election could mean the end of the world as they had known it. It could be, as they say, apocalyptic.
In biblical terms that word has a rather different meaning. Even if apocalyptic books like Daniel or Revelation, or speeches like the one Jesus begins in today’s gospel, even if they often tell stories of the end of the world as we know it, that’s not their main point. The word apocalypse simply means revelation. The message of these books and speeches is twofold, first that God is still God, and amidst all the chaos and turbulence, God is, as one of our hymns puts it “working his purpose out, as year succeeds to year.” Second, the message is that, whatever is happening, we are still called to be God’s faithful people: witnesses of love and truth.
The disciples ask Jesus to clue them in, to give them an inside track, but by the end of the chapter we’ve just begun, all Jesus can do is tell them that no-one, not even he, knows the answer about when these things are happening. The stuff that everyone is pointing to is real, but not to be taken as the last word. After all, most of history consists of “wars and rumours of wars”, of false messiahs claiming to solve all our problems. They crop up with some regularity over the centuries, some even stand for election. The danger is that we catch the general hysteria, proclaiming our preferred leader the messiah, and everyone else’s is just a very naughty boy – if not worse.
We’ve only got the start of longer chapters in our readings. Daniel needs the reassurance that God is still in charge, and later in the chapter is encouraged to persevere. The disciples need to be reminded not to believe all the false claims others are making, and later in the speech Jesus tells them that however bad it gets they will always have the Holy Spirit to help them. God is still God.
The anonymous author who penned the letter to the Hebrews recalls his listeners to basics: because Jesus has died and is risen we know we are welcome in God’s presence, and that God stays faithful, just as he stayed faithful to Jesus through his passion. He too sets his advice against a backdrop of impending apocalypse. What should we do as we see the day approaching? “Let us consider how to provoke one another” No, not in the way political partisans provoke one another, to anger and opposition. “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another.”
However bad it gets, there are still things we can do to make a difference. They might not register on the political scale, they might not make the headlines, but whatever else “love and good deeds” do, they register on God’s cosmic scales. “Those who are wise,” says Daniel, “shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” He was writing at a time when his country was wracked with war and persecution, where nationalists and globalists were fighting over what sort of world and country it should be. His challenge to hold on and be faithful was wrought in a world going up in flames.
However bad it gets, say our three readings in harmony, God is still God. Provoke love and not hate. Do good deeds. Encourage one another. Whatever the front pages shout, God’s headlines are written in simple acts of human kindness, wise encouragement and faithful witness.
A Question
In my reflection I mentioned a hymn some of you may know, “God is working his purpose out” originally written at the end of the 19th century by Arthur Campbell Ainger. It’s been edited in various ways down the years but here are two verses from the version I know best. What might it mean to you to put these encouragements into practice?
How can we do the work of God,
how prosper and increase
harmony in the human race,
and the reign of perfect peace?
What can we do to urge the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea?
March we forth in the strength of God,
Christ’s banner is unfurled;
let the light of the gospel shine
in the darkness of the world:
strengthen the weary, heal the sick
and set every captive free,
that earth may be filled
with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.
If you don’t know that hymn, and want to listen to it, listen to this version on YouTube: