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here are people who walk around in town
centres wearing sandwich boards with the following message on them, ‘the end is
nigh: repent and believe the gospel’. Now to many people, they appear as figures
of fun, strange religious extremists, but this morning, as we begin the season
of Advent, the season of preparation for our yearly Memorial of the Incarnation,
I would like to begin by considering such people and their message. Their purpose
is genuine, and their message is true, and we as Christians would do well to consider
what they say, and how it might affect our lives.
We, here, this morning, as Christians are living between
Christ's Resurrection and the end of the world, we are to be ready, and to
spend our time considering the four last things: death, judgement, heaven, and
hell. In this morning's gospel, our Lord tells us to stay awake, to be on our
guard, to be prepared, because we do not know the time when our Lord will return
in glory to judge both the living and the dead.
Jesus tells us not to be found asleep, in the sleep of sin,
asleep which says ‘I’m alright’, ‘I don’t need God’. It is this sleep which
affects many people, those who come to church, and the vast majority who do
not. That's not to say they don't try and live good Christian lives. We all do,
instinctively. And yet any mention of the last things tends to conjure up
images of fire and damnation, hell and brimstone preachers, thumping pulpits and
putting the fear of God into people. It's the characterisation of the religious
as extremists, which affects our friend with the sandwich boards, whom I
mentioned earlier. And yet, they all have a point – their message is true – but
I suspect that they put it across in a way which strikes people as unpalatable,
and so they switch off and go to sleep.
And yet, what they say matters, it is true that we could all do with being reminded of
it. How we live our lives matters, it affects who and what we are, and the
world around us. We have but one life to live on Earth, and we must try, with
God's grace, to do the best we can. We live in a world which does not care
about such questions, apparently people’s lives are their own business, and we
have no business calling people’s actions into question, but this will not do.
Our actions affect us, our character, our lives, and the lives of people around
us – our actions have consequences, which is why our lives and how we live them
matter. What we do and say matters and the Church
exists to call people to repentance – to change the whole of their lives and follow
Christ in their thoughts, their words, and their deeds – for the Kingdom of God
is close at hand.
Lest we get too afraid, we can turn in confidence
to the words of Isaiah in our first reading this morning. The profit is looking
forward to the redemption of Israel, the coming of the Messiah, a new future after
exile. Against a picture of human sin, and rebellion against God, there is the
implicit possibility of something better. In those times when God can seem absent,
there is the possibility that God has a loving parent is giving us space to
reflect and repent. Isaiah is convinced both of the power and the love of God,
to remake us, and restore us, to enrich us with his grace, as Paul wrote to the
church in Corinth, and give us the gifts of his spirit.
We’re not being left alone in all this.
God both tells us the nature and source of the problem, and provides us with a
solution. He even helps us along our way: he strengthens and encourages us, to
turn our lives around, and follow him. That we be vigilant – and take care of
the state of our lives and our souls, and those around us, that we are awake,
rather than indulging in the self-satisfied sleep of sin.
For
God asks of us – that we, this Advent, turn our own lives around, and prepare
ourselves to meet our Lord, at Mass, when he meets us at his altar in his body
and blood, and in his words proclaimed in Scripture, we also need to look
forward to meeting our Lord in the yearly remembrance of His Nativity, and in
his coming in glory as our Saviour and our Judge. If we can look beyond the
commercialism of a sad, cynical world, we can see that God was prepared to go
to any length to meet us, to be with us and heal us. Can we not prepare
ourselves, our souls and our lives to meet Him?
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