1st Sunday in Advent (part 2)

God brings light out of darkness and growth out of decay. God creates love where previously no skerrick of love seemed to exist.

This will only be true for us if we have a firm belief in the future as belonging to the God of Christ Jesus. From the very early days, Christians have held to the belief that Jesus Christ comes again. He comes again to every generation in judgment and mercy. He comes again at the end of time; a final return when he will bring to consummation all that he commenced at Bethlehem.

For us, Christ is the Lord of history. He is the destination of history. He is the one true end, the one true Lord. Not chaos, terrorism, war, greed, injustice, cruelty, neglect, survival of the fittest or democracy or final worldwide self-destruction. None of these negativities will rule! Christ alone is the end, the destiny of humanity.

To believe in the Christ who comes again is to live with an indomitable hope. Evil may be noisy, boastful, and blatantly busy everywhere, but it will not win the final day. The ultimate victory lies with Christ Jesus.

‘Watch’ does not mean passive waiting, not waiting wistfully like children peering out the window begging the rain to cease so that the family picnic can go ahead, not waiting like bored travellers for a train that never seems to arrive.

Watch means to be ready for him here and now as he confronts us in the rough and tumble of life, to co-operate with him in his saving ministry among our modern equivalent of the “tax gatherers and sinners.” ‘Watch’ means seeing him at the end of all things as the last word, the loving climax of history, yet to be loved and served right now.

This we are commanded to do, to hope! To hope is a command from our God. Hope is not a natural disposition that some sunny souls have in greater quantities than others. Hope is not some special feeling that we get and privately must cultivate, like a plant growing in Nero Wolfe’s hothouse. Hope is not related to one’s material prosperity, our outward success in life, or a remarkable propensity for good health.

Hope is a response to the word of Jesus. It is a matter of the will. It involves commitment. It is living pro-actively, creatively, lovingly, self-sacrificially in spite of all the barriers we encounter, or the darkest clouds that loom on the horizon. It is being committed to fundamental optimism in a world increasingly driven by distrust and fear.

“Watch!” says Jesus. Be ready for me. I am the final word. Watch and join me in my mission of hope.

On the morning on which I was preparing these sermon notes I happened to read, in the course of my spiritual reading for the day, these words from that French mystic and scientist Teilhard de Chardin:

Creative energy awaits us, ready to work in us a transformation beyond anything the human eye has seen or the ear heard. Who can say what God would fashion out of us if, trusting his words, we dared to follow his counsels to the very end and surrender ourselves to his providence. To be ready has never seemed to mean anything to me but this: to be straining forwards.

“Watch”, says Jesus. “Look ahead and see me coming to fulfil all things with love and joy.”