This week’s Readings and Sermon for the 2nd Sunday before Advent
The Collect for This Week
Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life: grant that we, having this hope, may purify ourselves even as he is pure; that when he shall appear in power and great glory we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this week
Gracious Lord, in this holy sacrament you give substance to our hope: bring us at the last to that fullness of life for which we long; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen
Psalm 98
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things. 2 His own right hand and his holy arm have won for him the victory. 3 The Lord has made known his salvation; his deliverance has he openly shown in the sight of the nations. 4 He has remembered his mercy and faithfulness towards the house of Israel, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 5 Sound praises to the Lord, all the earth; break into singing and make music. 6 Make music to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the voice of melody. 7 With trumpets and the sound of the horn sound praises before the Lord, the King. 8 Let the sea thunder and all that fills it, the world and all that dwell upon it. 9 Let the rivers clap their hands and let the hills ring out together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. 10 In righteousness shall he judge the world and the peoples with equity.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The Old Testament Reading for this Sunday is taken from the Book of the Prophet Malachi, Chapter 4, verses 1 to 2
1 See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The New Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the Second Letter St Paul to the Thessalonians, Chapter 3 verses 6 to 13
6 Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, 8and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. 9This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. 10For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. 11For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 13Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel of St Luke, Chapter 21, verses 5 to 19
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to Luke Glory to You, o Lord !
5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6‘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.’ 7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ 8 And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them. 9 ‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ 10 Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12 ‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, o Christ !
Note :All readings are shared from the Church of England Lectionary App and are subject to copyright . © The Archbishop’s Council
The sermon this week is delivered by Rev. Chich Hewitt
Today is the second Sunday before Advent. Advent has traditionally been the season with 2 purposes. The first is to prepare for Jesus’ first coming - as a child to be born in Bethlehem. So it is a time to prepare for Christmas. But it is also a season to prepare for Jesus’ second coming, when he is to come in glory at some future time. The lessons chosen by the church in that month- long period used to combine these 2 themes.
Recently the church has taken a different path with its choice of lessons. The preparation for Christmas is the focus of Advent readings, falling mostly in December, while the current November readings focus on Christ’s second coming. At present, lessons set for Evening Prayer during the week focus on the Book of Daniel from the Old Testament, and the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. The writer of the Revelation, John, clearly knew the book of Daniel and there is much in common between them. And John is looking at what is to come.
Two of today’s lessons have a future focus. The first lesson is from the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, probably in a later period of the that era, where there was a growing expectation of something lying ahead - often of something scary. In this short passage today, the prophet has ominous things to say about those who do not follow the way of God, but with a message of hope for those who do. On this terrible day to come, the evil will burn like stubble, but those who revere God’s name will see the righteousness shine with healing in his wings. Notice that ‘sun’ is spelt SUN so there is no reference to God’s son - SON. Here in all the confusion of life, the sun is a permanent presence, and in the heat and light of the sun is healing as it wings across the sky. Those who experience this will go out like calves leaping from their stall. The prophet clearly has an understanding of some sort of judgement day where the evil will perish but the good will flourish.
The Gospel passage also looks forward. When Jesus’ disciples ask him to admire the beauty of the temple, he says ‘one stone will not rest upon another’, suggesting its destruction. That destruction came about when Rome attacked Jerusalem in 70 AD, about 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and there was a further attack in 120 AD, resulting in in the dispersion of the Jewish people.
Three of the Gospels share this incident, and when we look at Matthew and Mark there is a double reference. Jesus predicts the fall of Jerusalem but is also looking forward to a future event when he will come in glory. For instance, there is reference to what is clearly the forthcoming attack on Jerusalem, but then comes the phrase, ‘but in that terrible day’, followed by a different description of events. Matthew will say that, of the timing of that ultimate day, nobody knows, not even the Son, but only the Father.
The Luke passage of today, with very similar references to the other Gospels, has its focus on the end times. The disciples say the temple is beautiful. Jesus prophesies that it will be destroyed. The disciples ask when this will take place. But Jesus does not answer this question, but instead looks towards a final future event. In response to the disciples’ question, he does say that they must not be lead astray by conflicting voices. Violent things will follow first, but ‘the end will not follow immediately’. Jesus then goes on to speak of wars, with nation fighting against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; that there will be earthquakes, famines and plagues, and portents from heaven.
Is this now the end time? There are certainly wars, earthquakes, famines and plagues - but then there have been such things down the ages. Is this really the end time? Let’s look at this issue. First of all, there was an expectation in the New Testament church that the end was imminent. Paul seemed to believe this and he was not alone. There are many references one can point to. We are told that one of the biggest challenges that followed the church of the second century, was that Jesus had not returned as was expected, and how was the church to model itself in the light of this fact? It found a way to do so, as it grew and formed, but there was always that expectation of Jesus’ return.
At the turn of the first millennium, about the year 1,000, there was such conjecture. and predictions have followed ever since. A group of believers in the mid 1840s predicted an exact date when Christ was to return - 1844. When this did not happen there was a recalculation to suggest it as the following year. When this did not happen it was argued that it had in fact happened in a heavenly incident that most people had missed. Out of this belief arose the Seventh Day Adventist movement.
There were many predictions in the 20th century, none of which materialised. There is still an expectation that it is to happen soon. There is a belief system with which I do not agree, with a particular reading of the Book of Revelation. It is argued that when the Jews return to the promised land, which happened with force in 1948, this would be a sign of the end times, especially if the temple were to be rebuilt. There are large numbers of conservative evangelicals, known as Christian Zionists, especially in the United States, who are supportive of the State of Israel for this reason. It is pointed out that although it is a pro-Israel stance, it is also anti-semitic. That is because, according to this set of beliefs, when Jesus returns only the elect will go to heaven, and that will NOT include Jews. Along with all of this is the fascination with the number 666 in Revelation, which has been assigned to Hitler, Henry Kissinger and others. Have you heard it applied to barcodes? In any barcode, there are three longer lines, beginning, middle and end, and is each the number 6! This is apparently a sign of the end times. There is strong evidence, which I prefer, that 666 actually referred to the Emperor Nero at the time the Book of Revelation was written, in code at a time when it was dangerous to malign the Roman Emperor.
Having said that, we do live in perilous times. Wars are particularly savage, and many sober commentators say we are closer to nuclear conflict than we have ever been. And if we go on destroying the planet with fossil fuels, our civilisation is at risk. I would not want to say with conviction that the world is not going to end soon. Nobody knows, not even Jesus, when on earth, knew. So there are two things we ought not to do. We should not predict and we should not be complacent.
Former predictions have never come about, and have often resulted in a theology of not worrying about the present, because God is coming soon and will put everything right. And there are enough warnings about complacency in Jesus’ parables about the consequences of being complacent.
We are to live with a sense of urgency and use the time allotted to us the full, as if Jesus were coming soon. Remember his parable of the wise and foolish virgins, some of whom had trimmed their lamps and some of whom had not replenished them with oil. The latter were not welcome at Christ’s banquet.
Let us end with a positive proclamation of the Good News. As Paul says in the letter to the Romans, used in the collect for Advent Sunday, our salvation is nearer than the day when we first believed, so let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. God has reconciled us to God’s self in the death of Jesus. Paul implores us to be reconciled to Christ and to exercise a ministry of reconciliation. There are 3 key words, Watch, Pray and Act. Let us keep alert, and pray as individuals and as a community. Let us act in the power of the Holy Spirit, individually and corporately. Above all, let us strive to show the love of Christ in our lives and to others. That is what we are called to do.
Amen.