| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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| THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 27 November, 2005 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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That’s from this morning’s Gospel reading.
But,
That’s a wonderful, wonderful hymn that’s too seldom sung - #10 in our Hymnal. It was
written by an English priest named John Keble – one of the most influential Anglicans
that nobody ever heard of! He lived through the first two-thirds of the Nineteenth
Century and was one of the leaders of what was called “The Oxford Movement,”
without which both our worship and our very faith, itself, would be very different from
what we know, today. As a least example: without that movement – and without John
Keble – we would almost certainly be doing Morning Prayer, today, and almost every
Sunday morning, rather than celebrating the Eucharist!
One of these years I will remember to ask our esteemed organist to use Fr. Keble’s
beautiful hymn on this day! For the moment, though, just hold that thought – “new
every morning”! I’ll get back to it in a little bit!
So, now: here we are at the first Sunday in Advent, and the beginning of the Church’s
calendar – the “ecclesiastical new year!” This year, our Gospel lessons will
concentrate on the shortest of the Gospels, and the first to be written: the Gospel
according to St. Mark.
Some interesting things going on, these days, in biblical studies – particularly as
regards Mark! Not too many years ago, Mark didn’t get a whole lot of respect in the
world of New Testament studies. His was the first Gospel written, as I said, and it was
judged to be the simplest, as well – in all ways! Mark wasn’t much of a writer, and he
wasn’t much of a thinker, as well. He wrote the basics, in not very good Greek, just as
they’d been told him. Theologically unsophisticated, his was a kind of simple, bare-
bones Gospel that needed Matthew and Luke to flesh it out and to bring to it
sophistication and theological depth!
That was then!
But that’s all changed, now – or, at least, changing! Now, what was seen as simplicity
is being called subtlety; what was coarseness is now style; and Mark’s naiveté has
given way to hidden and purposeful depths!
We shall endeavor to see how this all works out over the course of the coming year!
But for this morning, we begin with what has been called “the Little Apocalypse!”
Apocalypse is a word that really only means “revelation!” But by association with
some Old Testament books that deal with expected events at the end of the age, and
with the last book of the Bible – the Revelation of St. John – the word has become
associated with those contents – the end time, the end of the age, the end of the
world – the study of all of which is called “eschatology!”
I don’t much like those books – or, indeed any of the other places where the
Scriptures – especially the Gospels – deal with the “end time” topic! I’ve always
believed they’re too easily misunderstood, and can cause too many problems when
they are!
I was fortunate, in Seminary, to have been able to take a couple of courses from a
visiting professor of Theology, a man named John Macquarrie! Macquarrie is
probably the most important Anglican theologian of the 20th Century, and high on the
list of ALL modern theologians – another of those important Anglicans nobody has
ever heard of!
One of his minor distinctions, I must tell you, was that he was also the very worst
lecturer I have ever had the misfortune of suffering through! By the time I met him,
he seemed much older than he was. In fact, I looked him up, yesterday, and was
shocked to find out that when I took my first class from him he was only 50 years old!
But he seemed much older. More importantly, though, by that time he’d been writing
and teaching for a lot of years, so I doubt he ever had to prepare a lecture – just
bring out his old notes. In class, he would stand at the lectern, head down and
unmoving, and he would simply read what he’d written in a barely audible, absolute
monotone and with the thickest Scottish Brogue you’ve ever heard!
Nevertheless – he was brilliant!
Macquarrie said that, historically, there have been three approaches to Apocalyptic!
Modern physicists will tell you that the greatest question in all of science is nothing
like the nonsense about evolution or “intelligent Design, or Creationism, or anything
like that. Rather the most basic one – the real question – is “why is there something,
rather than nothing?”
In science, in the natural world, there would seem to be no answer to the question,
and no answer possible. But Dr. Macquarrie would tell you! He would say there is
something rather than nothing because of the dynamic nature of God’s loving power
working in the world – the same world God created! He would tell you that there is
something, rather than nothing, because though the world comes to an end every
day, it is born anew – every day!
But to bring it down to a more personal level – the level on which we live our lives –
the question of the season is not, “why is there anything, rather than nothing?” but,
“When is Jesus the Christ coming again?”
And in the same terms Dr. Macquarrie used, the answer is – Every day!
Some day, the end of the world WILL come, in the scientific sense – whether by the
whole universe collapsing back into itself or by running out of energy and coming to
a complete standstill, we can’t know, now. And, as well, some day, in the figurative
language of Scripture, the Lord will return on clouds of glory, accompanied by the
angelic hosts.
But we, as Christians, don’t worry about “end times” in either sense! What matters is
that this cosmos, which has no more reason to exist than not to exist, is created
anew every day – and not just every day, but every moment of every day – constantly
proceeding from the Father, constantly being called forth by the Word, constantly
being inspired by the Spirit: constantly being re-created by the living God!
And we don’t worry about the so-called “second coming!” Because the baby whose
birth celebration we begin, today, to prepare for in our liturgical round, that same
Lord Jesus, comes also, anew, in the hearts and in the lives of those who know him,
every day – and every moment of every day!
And I can’t imagine a better way to begin the season when we prepare, not only to
celebrate the birth of the living God in our flesh, but to welcome the constant
renewal of creation, and the constant coming of the Christ into our the world and into
our lives, than in that hymn – in those words by Keble :
In the Name of that same Jesus Christ. Amen.
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| Previous Sermon |
Jesus said "In those days, after that suffering, the
sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give
its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”
sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give
its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”
New every morning is the love
our wakening and uprising prove;
through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought.
our wakening and uprising prove;
through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought.
New every morning is the love
our wakening and uprising prove;
through sleep and darkness safely brought,
restored to life and power and thought.
New mercies, each returning day,
hover around us while we pray;
new perils past, new sins forgiven,
new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
If on our daily course our mind
be set to hallow all we find,
new treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
Only, O Lord, in thy dear love,
fit us for perfect rest above;
and help us, this and every day,
to live more nearly as we pray.
1. There is the literalist approach! The belief that the “end time”
things spoken of by Jesus and others and reported by the evangelists
were literally going to happen: the second coming; the end of the age;
the salvation of the righteous; the damnation of the fallen! The trouble
with this approach, he said, is that it virtually destroys ethics. Why worry
about tomorrow when tomorrow isn’t going to come? Why bother about
the environment, for instance, when we won’t be here long enough to
suffer the consequences of what we do to it? We need coal? Okay – take
that mountain, over there. Need oil? Drill wherever you’d like. It doesn’t
matter, because Jesus is coming and the world is about to end! Anything
goes, because there is no tomorrow! This approach is, in fact, why I
dislike apocalyptic, and it is, by far, the dominant one, today! Just tune
into the TV preachers any day, and you’ll hear it!
things spoken of by Jesus and others and reported by the evangelists
were literally going to happen: the second coming; the end of the age;
the salvation of the righteous; the damnation of the fallen! The trouble
with this approach, he said, is that it virtually destroys ethics. Why worry
about tomorrow when tomorrow isn’t going to come? Why bother about
the environment, for instance, when we won’t be here long enough to
suffer the consequences of what we do to it? We need coal? Okay – take
that mountain, over there. Need oil? Drill wherever you’d like. It doesn’t
matter, because Jesus is coming and the world is about to end! Anything
goes, because there is no tomorrow! This approach is, in fact, why I
dislike apocalyptic, and it is, by far, the dominant one, today! Just tune
into the TV preachers any day, and you’ll hear it!
2. And there is the “realized eschatology,” approach: the notion that
it’s not that the end is coming, but that it is already here! That the “end
time,” came with the coming of Christ, and we’ve been living in the End
Time ever since! But, if this is the “end time” the whole idea becomes
anticlimactic, as the “end of the age” drags on for millennium after
millenniumit all gets to be just a big bore – and it becomes, as I just
heard last week, what Dr. Macquarrie called, in his inimitable way, “a
damp squid!” (Think about it! Imagine it. Picture it!)
it’s not that the end is coming, but that it is already here! That the “end
time,” came with the coming of Christ, and we’ve been living in the End
Time ever since! But, if this is the “end time” the whole idea becomes
anticlimactic, as the “end of the age” drags on for millennium after
millenniumit all gets to be just a big bore – and it becomes, as I just
heard last week, what Dr. Macquarrie called, in his inimitable way, “a
damp squid!” (Think about it! Imagine it. Picture it!)
3. And third is what he called, “Existential Eschatology,” by which
he meant the “end Time” comes EVERY DAY! The world ends “EVERY
DAY!” And the world is created anew… EVERY DAY!
he meant the “end Time” comes EVERY DAY! The world ends “EVERY
DAY!” And the world is created anew… EVERY DAY!
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