Matthew 24:36-44 Sermon by the Revd Karl Przywala - Part 1 After last Sunday’s musical extravaganza, I feel the need to start with some music! If I can make the technology work, here’s a song for you. Shout out if you know the group that’s singing; and if you know what the song is. Happy New Year by Abba; these are the lyrics: “Happy new year. May we all have a vision now and then May we all have our hopes, our will to try If we dont we might as well lay down and die You and I” Well, thanks for that Abba. I suppose they are Swedish and so have a somewhat maudlin side to them – must be the effect of those long winter nights! I’m sorry that I’m not wearing a kilt and don’t have a party whistle to blow, but nonetheless, Happy New Year! Perhaps you think It’s too early. Actually, I’m a week late. Confused? Does anyone know what I’m getting at? On Thursday there was a bit of difficulty locating the collect or special prayer for the week, to be used at the Holy Communion service. It appeared that we’d fallen off the edge – we’d run out of collects. There’s the one for the Sunday next before Advent, then what? The answer is, we start back at the beginning. Advent marks the start of the church’s liturgical year. So, Happy New Church Year! In spite of having made a bit of a song, if not a Scottish dance, about it – British TV used to be full of Scottish dancing on New Year’s Eve – I’m not that keen on the church’s liturgical calendar. It caused me confusion as a child – I was easily confused! Having celebrated Jesus’ birth at Christmas, within weeks Jesus became a grown up and then Good Friday came and he was crucified. All rather truncated. Advent itself is confusing. It’s anchored to Christmas. Inevitably, Christmas is on our mind. But we also know that Jesus was actually born 2,000 years ago. And we know that we celebrated Christmas a year ago. So we can’t anticipate the birth of Jesus. It’s really a birthday party. Do you know what the world’s most sung song is? Happy Birthday. Perhaps we ought to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas Day! Although Advent is about coming – that’s what the word means – it’s as much, if not more, about Jesus’ Second Coming as his first, his birth. Please turn with me to Matthew chapter 24. The heading the NIV gives at the beginning of the chapter is ‘Signs of the End of the Age’. These headings are inserted by the NIV’s editors. They’re not part of the biblical text and so shouldn’t be taken as gospel. But they can be helpful. The End of the Age is when Jesus returns – something the Bible also refers to as The Day of the Lord. I wonder how seriously you take the Bible. Could it sometimes be that it’s read and it washes over you? I prepared this sermon using my NIV Study Bible – I really do like it! One of its features is that the words of Jesus are printed in red. In some ways, this could be deceptive. All the Bible is God’s word, not just the words spoken by Jesus. It’s all important – conveying God’s message to us. But, nonetheless, it’s instructive that chapters 23 to 25 are a wash of red. In chapters 24 and 25, Jesus is speaking to his disciples on the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem. It’s shortly before his betrayal, arrest and crucifixion. And he has important things to say to his disciples and, through Matthew, to us. The passage beginning at verse 36 is headed by the NIV, ‘The Day and Hour Unknown’. We don’t know when Jesus will return. Let me emphasise that – we don’t know. If someone says he knows, if someone predicts the Second Coming – it’s bunkum! These are Jesus’ words, and he says even he doesn’t know. But we are to keep watch and be ready. What does this mean and not mean? It doesn’t mean sitting down, looking out to sea, waiting for Jesus to come across the waves. Amazingly, this is what some people actually did back in the 1920s. Someone persuaded a group of people that Jesus was to return at Sydney Harbour. An amphitheatre was constructed and people sat and waited, and waited. I presume that eventually someone may have got out a Bible and looked up Matthew 24, verse 36: “No one knows about that day or hour, not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 00:30:04 +0000