Second Sunday Before Advent

'Tell us when will this be' asked the disciples of Jesus, 'and what will be the sign that all these things.

It is very disconcerting to realise that t is almost nine years since we celebrated the Millennium. A Jewish friend of mine living in Jerusalem said that she was going to spend Millennium Eve on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Kidron Valley and the city of Jerusalem. She reckoned that if anything of a Millenarian nature was going to happen that is where it would begin. And she was right or course. Orthodox Jews believe that the judgment of the world will take place in the Kidron Valley – if God is to come that is where he will be.

The arrival of the Millennium in the year 2000 and the run up to it was a rich source of speculation for the various religious cults and sects who thrive on such things. In the Philippines a man called Serferino Quinte had read a magazine article which led him to believe that an all consuming rain of fire would come upon the earth on 1^st January 2000. He drummed up a sizeable group of followers who  were attracted to such good news. Many of whom gave up their jobs to spend their time building what they called tunnels of salvation in the hillsides outside Manilla. In the end they constructed 51 caves that could accommodate seven hundred people and preserve them from the fiery ordeal to come upon the earth. They stocked up with enough food, water, fuel. Clothing and medicine to last them for a year and put the magazine alongside the bible in pride of place on an altar in one of caves and set about waiting for the fire to descend. On the evening of 31^st December 1999, they entered their caves and began to wait. When midnight struck, and then 1, 2, 3 a.m. and not a single drop of fire from heaven had appeared, the subdued sect ate a quiet supper together before returning home disappointed.

In the gospel reading for today we come across one of the most misunderstood passages in the Gospels. On the slopes of the Mount of Olives the very place if you remember my friend reckoned the end would begin Jesus teaches his disciples about the last things – the end of the age. He says the first thing to happen will be the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. And just like us I guess the first thing that his disciples want to know is: When?  When will it happen? And how shall we know that it’s going to happen?

The Temple though as yet incomplete was colossal and its destruction will have been thought to have been as unlikely to the people of Jesus time as the sinking of the Titanic was to the people that time. The Temple was destroyed.  What Jesus said came to pass but not by a direct act of God rather an uprising against to Romans caused a bitter war in which the Temple was destroyed by the Romans. Jesus widens the picture from the Temple to speak of the end of the age. (Not the end of the world Jesus never speaks of that). But rather the end of this present age of time and the coming of the reign of God preceded by the judgement of the world. There is a warning. But it’s not as you would expect, to be on guard against the events themselves. But rather a warning against trying to predict when it will all be and so on. They are neither to lead others astray with such speculation not be led astray themselves.

I think that Jesus is saying to his disciple in this Gospel passage for today and he’s saying to us. Don’t spend all of you time speculating about what will happen in the future still less worrying about it. The future is in God’s hands. He is the Lord of time and space. It is all in his care. There is something much more important for us to do. And that is to get on with the task of living out the values of God’s coming Kingdom in the here and now. There’s a job to be done.  Get on with it.

It is a safe bet that each one of us has at some time or another wasted our energy anticipating some future event or other. Perhaps it was something good that we were looking forward to - Christmas, a new job or the birth of a child. Or perhaps it was some dreaded event – an exam, a business meeting, the death of a loved one. This apprehension is a human failing really because it takes our minds and our energy off the present moment. That is where we should try to do our living. That is where we shall meet the Lord – in the present moment in all the circumstances and people of our lives. It is in the present moment that we shall face the judgement of God as we react to every circumstance of our lives.

We are called to serve the Lord now. We are called to live out the Gospel now. We are called to proclaim the coming of God’s Kingdom to the people of our generation now. We always live in the shadow of eternity. We are like workers who do not know when the master will return. We are called to live in such a way that it doesn’t matter when he returns.

Day by day our work must be completed. We are called to live each day in such a way as will be pleasing to the Lord. We must be ready at any moment to meet him face to face – not just in glory or the end, nor even at our death whenever that is – but also in the circumstances and people of our lives for the Lord is in them. He is the Lord of the past. The Lord of the future. And the Lord of the present. The whole of our life is a preparation to meet him. So seize the moment!