The Sunday Eucharist - November 28,2021

It' was great to celebrate last Sunday's Eucharist with two good friends sharing the online space with me. David Baldwin is an old friend and has been a regular contributor to our online service. It was the first appearance though of Doug Pyeatt, who is a Special Agent with the US Federal Police, which means that he and James Bond are on first name (or number) terms.

Doug brought us the first reading - Jeremiah 33:14-16 - where the prophet looks forward to a day when a new leader will emerge to lead God's people to better times. We are in the first Sunday in Advent, and no doubt we are doing this reading because it' is a hope for leadership that we, the church, see fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. Even so, the prophet wasn't thinking about something that would happen in five hundred years time. He was looking for God to solve the problem they were experiencing in the 6th century B.C.

God's promise to Jeremiah is that they will be provided with good leadership - something that was poorly lacking in their own day. History teaches us that in desperate times people look for saviour figures and often make terrible choices (Adolf Hitler being a good example). God's promise is for a leader who will be as just as he is powerful.

David Baldwin brought us the second reading -1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 - which Dave pointed out was also a forward-looking passage (like both of the other two). The Apostle Paul seems to expect Jesus to return quite soon, and this expectation should give us hope and help us focus our lives on things that are worthwhile.

Our Gospel reading was from Luke 21:25-36 - a reading full of apocalyptic imagery of wars and calamity and the world shaking, accompanied by exhortations to stay sober and focused.

It all seems very contemporary, and indeed I have had numerous people of late ask me whether I see these 'signs' as indications that the end is near. My response to them has bene the one my dad made to me when I asked him similar questions. He suggested that these 'signs' are like waves on a beach. Each wave hits us hard, and each one can seem like the final wave. One day that final wave will come and submerge us all, but it's very difficult to be sure which wave is the final one.

Whether or not the calamities we experience indicate the apocalypse or just another wave, they function as signs that help us get focus in our lives and set our priorities straight. Jesus warns us not to be '"weighed down with carousing and drunkenness" (vs.34) as this is a natural way to respond to stress. We check out. The alternative is to face the challenge head-on, recognising that these are signs, not of our annihilation, but of imminent victory!

http://www.fatherdave.org
http://www.fighting-fathers.com