Unfortunately the recording for this sermon starts part-way through.

When I read this passage I thought,

‘I’m not preaching on that passage.’

So I looked at the passage from Isaiah and thought, ‘that isn’t much better.’

There was just the passage from 1 Corinthians which is the Epistle for today.

Not bad, I thought.

After some more thinking my brain was getting tired.

It doesn’t take much nowadays.

I said to myself,

“What the heck?

Go for the Mark passage after all.”

So here it is.

Do you remember those posters or sandwich boards which announced

‘The end of the world is nigh’

Often with some idiot yelling at the passing crowd with no-one taking any notice.

We even get people predicting the exact date of the end of the world.

There have been many people and dates.

The last one was September 23rd this year.

All the predictions have come to nothing and have had to be revised.

All the predictors claim to have discovered these truths from the Bible by careful calculation.

Unless a very select group, which we don’t know about, were whisked off to heaven, they were wrong.

They have all been wrong and we have made it to another Advent.

Not an advent accompanied by legions of angels, earthquakes and fires.

But by the story of Joseph as he tries to travel with his new pregnant wife and soon to be born son.

We wait with shepherds who will hear heavenly voices.

And with wise men who will follow a star to a soon-to-be newborn king.

“Keep awake” our gospel proclaims, “keep awake.”

As we sit some 2000 years later, waiting in anticipation both for Jesus’ coming in a manger and, possibly, Jesus’ second coming with shouts of trumpets and the raising of the dead, we are caught in a mixture of feelings.

I have always found it odd that we begin Advent, the start of the new church year, with words of the apocalypse.

Instead of sorting out what to give people for Christmas we are warned to watch what we are doing in anticipation of the one who is to come.

Keep awake.

All prognostications of the world’s end must eventually come to the conclusion, ‘no one knows when this will happen.’

Jesus told his disciples that not even he knew; not the Son, but only the Father.

History is littered with such would-be prophets who would later be labelled as false.

Those who meticulously calculated future dates based on Biblical books like Daniel and Revelation.

In the 17th century James Usher dated all the events in the Bible. Working out that creation occurred in 4004 BC

Not just the year but October 21st that year.

We, even now, get people who claim we are in the end times.

There are so many unanswered questions

What do we do with the predictive words of Jesus’ return?

Why hasn’t Jesus returned before now?

Why do people keep getting this wrong?

These aren’t just million dollar questions;

These are questions that cause some to doubt it all.

That cause some to redouble their efforts to be good.

Yet others to wonder if this applies at all to their lives.

Honestly, what drives me absolutely crazy by the mad predictors is that in their efforts to reach out to those who do not know Jesus, they drive away far more people.

The Bible is not a tool to be manipulated like some chronological hammer.

Such fire and brimstone speeches manage only to scorch those who look desperately for some direction.

They drive away those who have no real grasp of Christianity in the first place.

Those people and, by association we are often labelled as a sandwich short of a picnic.

Worse, such an attitude can lead not to an anticipation of the future, but rather to antipathy towards any future action.

If Jesus is coming soon, why care about the environment?

If Jesus is coming soon, why worry about the future of our children, grandchildren, or beyond?

If Jesus is coming soon, why care about anyone else who does not subscribe to our precise definition of Christianity let alone show any compassion to people of other faiths?

Isn’t Jesus teaching me to be concerned only with the salvation of someone’s soul, and not really their need to be fed, cared for and even loved?

Do we really have to authentically care about anyone else?

Look after number one.

On the other hand, as much as this holier-than-thou attitude annoys me, I can’t help but think, like many Christians throughout the centuries, that there is something beneficial in considering the future at Advent.

That to live in expectation means that what we do today really matters.

We are not just making payments on some life-assurance policy after we die, but are in compassion caring for a hurting world now.

We are to live fully now.

Not holding back, not waiting, but living and loving to our capacity.

That this is what it truly means to live in Jesus.

Why doesn’t Jesus come?

Why doesn’t Jesus just pick up those few thousands of people who have been predestined?

Maybe Jesus is not interested in saving just a few people.

Maybe God is after the kingdom that Jesus died for in the first place.

A kingdom where all are welcome.

Maybe there is still time.

Meanwhile, this Advent can I encourage you to think of four words.

Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace.

That way our thoughts will be directed to what Jesus demonstrated while he was on earth and expects us to put into practice while we are on earth.

It will lead us to the true meaning of Christmas

Just as a matter of interest did you notice the words in German on the mark 13 slide.

Do you know what they mean?

He’s coming, He’s seeing you everywhere

Quite good for Advent, I Thought.