Sermon Preached on Sunday 10th November at the Church of the Ascension, Munich
Job 19:23-27a, Psalm 17:1-9, 2
Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17, and Luke 20:27-38
We celebrate his death and resurrection,
as we await the day of his coming[1]
Don’t worry – you
haven’t fallen asleep and missed half the service, even if that was one of the
responses, the mystery of faith, from the middle of the Eucharistic Prayer. We
say these, or similar words, every Sunday just as we say the Nicene Creed
together every Sunday. But do we really mean what we say? I know you all
do, of course – but all Christians?
We
celebrate his death: well despite the attempts of some of the
new atheists, the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” as I have heard Messrs.
Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and Dennet described[2], to
take away not just the climax, but also the very beginning of our story, I
think all Christians will agree that Jesus was a real person who both lived and
died.
We
celebrate his resurrection: This is probably trickier for
some, but if we include risen in the spiritual sense or concepts such as Jesus rose again in their hearts
or minds or as a vision then I think almost all Christians will sign up to this
statement.
We
await the day of his coming: I’m not really certain everyone
believes this or even wants it to happen, at least in their own lifetime. The
end of the world as we know it, the world a lot of us are actually quite
comfortable with? There’s a wonderful T-shirt you can buy that sums up our
concerns nicely, it says: “Jesus is coming. Quick, look busy.” And anyway isn’t
the second coming just some strange idea from the Christian fringe, something
the books of the “Left Behind” series are all about?
Well unfortunately no,
it’s an important part of our statements of faith and as, we heard this morning,
also right out of Scripture: In today’s Epistle Paul is instructing the
Thessalonians all about “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” or the “Day of
the Lord” and Jesus, answering a trick question from the Sadducees, gives his
audience and us a glimpse of what the age to come, and our lives in it, might
be like. And these are not the only occasions on which this topic is mentioned either:
“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and
glory,” (Mark 13:26) “When the Son of Man comes in his glory… all the nations
will be gathered before him,” (Matthew 25:31-31) or “the hour is coming when
all who are in their graves will hear his voice.” (John 5:28)
So let’s take a closer
look at what today’s readings have to say about resurrection and about the age
to come. In the passage from Luke’s gospel Jesus is answering a question from a
group of Sadducees. They were one of the Jewish sects of that time and a very
important one: they ran the temple, the chief priests were Sadducees. The only
Scripture they accepted as authoritative was the Torah – the 1st
five books of what is often called the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. So none of the prophets, not the wisdom
literature, nor the history books. They only believed in what was written in
those five books about God’s actions, the Covenant, about the Law, ritual, and
an orderly, structured society. And they certainly didn’t believe in an
afterlife or any kind of resurrection. That’s why they are trying to provoke
Jesus here with their rather ridiculous question about the wife with seven
husbands. It’s not a real question, it’s a test. Jesus’ answer is authoritative
because he answers as one who knows just what “that age” will be like. It will
not be the same as the present age, we will have a new bodily existence, the
resurrected will be like angels – that’s Jesus provoking the Sadducees again by
the way, they didn’t believe in angels either. Jesus finishes his answer by
quoting the Torah back at them: the book of Exodus itself teaches that death is
not final. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive to God, they are
alive in God’s presence as they await the final resurrection in that age, in
the age to come: this is an impressive promise, a message of great hope and
one that for us is proven by Jesus’ own resurrection in which God acted to overcome
death as a sign of the promise of resurrection for us all.
Unlike the Sadducees,
the Thessalonians Paul was writing to did believe both in the resurrection and
in the age to come. The problem here was that they thought the Day of the Lord was
already here, or at least just about to come, and that was preventing them from
living the full lives they were called to live, and especially from living the
lives as pioneers of the Gospel as bringers of the Good News, as people set
apart for and by God to bring salvation to the world. No, Paul writes, the day
of the Lord is not here yet. There will be many trials and tribulations before
that day arrives. We know, he reminds them, from our own Jewish history and
from Roman history that the powerful, the mighty of this world, have and will
set themselves to be worshipped as gods, that there will be much evil before
good triumphs. The good news of Christ’s resurrection, of the promise of God’s
love, of eternal comfort is meant to strengthen and sustain them during these
times in “your every good work and word,” (2 Thess. 2:17) not to release them.
God is powerful and will always support you, is the message Paul has for them
and us. Christ will come again and we will all be gathered together to
him, and we will share in Christ’s glory: so use the knowledge of that
promise, use that glimpse of the future now, share it with the world, and help
bring some of that future blessing into the here and now.
In the meantime, “stand
firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught” (2 Thess. 2:15) Paul
instructs the Thessalonians. What might such traditions be for us? One of the
traditions we have been taught are the Creeds. Now I know that they are not
universally popular. They have come in for a lot of flak. Some denominations
don’t use the traditional creeds at all, nor do some Episcopal churches. They
are criticised as a political document, as not being wholly scriptural, because
they don’t tell us how to live, because they were used to exclude people, and as
they were often a test of faith. All this is true: the Council of Nicaea was
called by the emperor and some of the phrases are the result of political
maneuvering. You won’t find the Nicene Creed written down in the Bible, but all
the concepts and ideas are there. Some individuals and large groups of Christians
such as the Coptic or Syriac Churches were excluded because they wouldn’t
accept individual phrases, words, or even letters of the Creed. Or as we know
today more because these phrases, words or letters were misunderstood. Having
one common language, Greek, across the Mediterranean world did not prevent
misunderstandings, just as having English as a common language today does not
prevent the occasional misunderstanding across the Atlantic or even within this
congregation! But none of that is a reason not to hold on to the creeds.
They stand for the
tradition Paul wants us to hold on to when life gets tough. We should not think
of the creeds as a straightjacket, but instead as a framework of trust to
enable us to live godly lives. When Paul writes that we are chosen through
belief in the truth, that’s not a condition for salvation. God’s grace doesn’t
depend on us passing a test of faith. Instead I see traditional expressions of
faith like the acclamation in the Eucharistic Prayers, or the creeds, more like
a safety rope when we have a dangerous climb ahead of us, like a safety net
when life requires us to balance as if on a tightrope, or like a lifejacket,
when we are underway on life’s stormy seas. Faith is something we can rely on
and trust in while we get on with “every good work and word” in this life. Faith
is meant to strengthen and sustain us during difficult times.
Faith, as expressed in
the creeds, is the comfort and promise that there is one God, the maker
of all. That we are so important to and so loved by this one God
that God sent God’s son to share our lives and to give himself for us. That this
Son, who knew and shared our existence, will come again. That God wants
and promises justice. That the same God is with us now as sustainer, as
comforter and as guide. That God has chosen us to bring this Good News
to the world. That God promises forgiveness for all our weaknesses and
failings. And that we can look forward to the resurrection and to a
world to come, an age in which we will be like angels and are children of God.
This summary of faith,
imperfect of course because it’s a human product, is still a wonderful summary
of what we can hold on to. Think of that please, when we say the words of the
Nicene Creed together in just a moment. Accept them as words that are meant to
give us “eternal comfort and good hope, to comfort your hearts and strengthen
us in every good work and word” – that is the good work of sharing the
knowledge and the practice of God’s love with the whole world.
Amen
