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Sermon
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THE EVER-COMING GOD But what about those parts of the Bible that we find hard to make sense of or that we simply don't understand? Well we can't entirely ignore them - especially when they come up in the Lectionary readings. Speaking for myself, that's the situation with the Lectionary readings for today - at least, the two readings from the New Testament. I find them difficult passages - difficult because there are concepts there that I find not very meaningful to me as a Christian living in the 21st century. Perhaps you feel the same. Both passages refer to the Second Coming of Christ - a doctrine that seems to have developed in the early Christian movement after the death and resurrection of Jesus. I think there are good reasons for believing that this doctrine, which has become embedded in the creeds of the church, did not originate with Jesus himself, but with his early followers. And they understood by it something which may have made sense in their day, but which is much more difficult for us to understand in our day. And the imagery in which this belief is clothed, especially in some of Paul's letters, such as First Thessalonians, is fairly bizarre. And so I have difficulty with this concept of a future Second Coming of Christ. I cannot envisage such a thing. If, however, the belief is pointing to a future "Day of the Lord", such as the Hebrew prophets envisioned, a time when God's purposes for the world are fully realised, then I can relate to that. But let's look a little more closely at today's Gospel reading. Matthew clearly understands the parable he is relating to refer to a Second Coming of Christ. That is clear from the exhortation with which our reading ends: " Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." We must always remember that there are two settings for much of the material we have in the Gospels, including the parables. There is the original setting in the ministry of Jesus, and there is the later setting in the life of the church when the Gospels were being compiled. This morning's parable is a very good example of that. If the parable originated with Jesus - I say "if” because some scholars would argue that it is a creation of the early church - then it had a particular message for those who heard it from the lips of Jesus. It related to the situation in which they were living. By the time it was incorporated into Matthew's Gospel - roughly 50 years later - it had become a response to an expectation, as yet unfulfilled, which had arisen among the early followers of Jesus. viz. the expected Second Advent of Christ. It seems clear that the exhortation at the end of the parable - “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour" - does not belong to the parable in its original form, but has been added to it. The exhortation is to "keep awake", but in the parable the wise bridesmaids, as well as the unwise, were sleeping when it was announced that the bridegroom was approaching. Matthew has turned what was originally a story about a village wedding, making one point to its hearers, into an allegory of Christ the heavenly bridegroom, warning Christians to be ready for his return at any. time. The parable makes more sense, and speaks to us more clearly today, if we recognise that the final exhortation is an addition that changes the essential point of the original parable. The parable begins, like so many of our Lord's parables: "The kingdom of heaven" (Matthew's preferred terminology for "the kingdom of God") is or will be "like this." The kingdom about which Jesus spoke, about which he told illuminating little stories,, is not an 'other-worldly' kingdom: it is not a kingdom that exists and is experienced beyond this world and our life in this world. The kingdom Jesus proclaimed, and invited people to enter, is a kingdom very much related to this world. After all, we pray so frequently: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth...." Jesus not only proclaimed the kingdom of God; he demonstrated in his own life what the kingdom, or reign, of God is. It is life lived in conformity with God's purposes. So the kingdom of God is likened to a wedding party. What happens with the kingdom of God is like what happens to ten bridesmaids waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom. The party will begin when the bridegroom arrives - but no one knows exactly when that will be. (In weddings today we never know exactly when the bride will arrive; but it was different in that culture - people waited for the bridegroom to come and claim his bride.) Ten girls are waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom - but only five of them actually meet him and go with him into the wedding banquet. The other five miss out on the party because they weren't ready when he came. The theme of the parable is readiness - being ready, not for some disaster that is looming ahead of us (as is suggested by the street evangelist with his placard "Prepare to meet your God") but for something supremely good. It is about readiness to respond to the claim of Jesus that the kingdom of God was upon them in him - to respond by adjusting their lives to kingdom values, to living according to his teaching and example. The parable continues to speak today. It reminds us that God still meets us in the adventure of life: not once in a dramatic encounter in which we decide for or against Christ, not once or once again at the end of our lives; but many, many times. God is constantly coming to us, as God has constantly come to God's people in every age. God continues to come to us today - as a nation, as a community of faith, as individuals - in the adventure of life. God comes to us in the social and political upheavals of our day - offering us yet another chance to be part of the answer rather than part of the problem, challenging us to pursue justice and compassion at all levels of our national and international life, giving us the opportunity to embrace Christ's way of sacrifice and service as the path to a fuller experience of life for all. God comes to us in the day-to-day routine of church life and in the circumstances of our personal lives - in the words of Scripture read and preached, in the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, in our neighbour, and especially in the neighbour who is different from us. God comes to us in our times of great joy, in our experiences of deep human love, in our very private pain and sorrow, and as we contemplate the mystery of being. As God comes to us we are challenged again to take our Christian discipleship seriously: to engage in God's mission of care and compassion and freedom for all our sisters and brothers, of peace-making in the world, and of responsible stewardship of creation. We are reminded again of what God requires of us - which is, in the words of the prophet Micah, "to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God." Those who are best able to respond to God's coming are those in whom the oil of faith has not run dry - those whose faith is constantly being nourished and replenished by worship, prayer, Scripture and faithful service. ___________________________________________________ A sermon presented by the Revd Graham McAnalley at St Aidan's
Uniting Church North Balwyn, on 6th November, 2005. IT MAY BE
REPRODUCED WITH ACKNOWLEDGMENT. |
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Page updated 09/11/05
