Collect
God of all time and the whole creation, in Christ you make all things new: grant us wisdom to interpret the signs of the times, courage to stand firm in the time of trail and faith to witness to your truth and love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Readings
First Reading: Isaiah 65:17-25 (NRSVA): The Glorious New Creation
17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord— and their descendants as well. 24 Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
For the Psalm - Isaiah 12:2-6 (NRSVA)
2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say on that day: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. 5 Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. 6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel’.
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 (NRSVA) Warning against Idleness
6 Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, 8 and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. 9 This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. 11 For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 13 Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
Gospel: Luke 21:5-19 (NRSVA): The Destruction of the Temple Foretold and Signs and Persecutions
5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’
7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ 8 And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.
9 When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ 10 Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
12 But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls’.
THEME TODAY IS THANKSGIVING – “FAITH IN DISTRESSING TIMES” IS OUR ADVENT THEME, HOW PROPHETIC!
- What do we have to be thankful for? What did you put in your letter?
- A beautiful world, made in and helping us experience LOVE, and God is love…
- Our lives, our loved ones, our many blessings, all good gifts from our LOVING God,
- Our religious freedom, our right to express ourselves, our right to learn, to make mistakes, to have our opinions, all gifts from a loving God
- The words of our collect put it beautifully for me “God of all time and the whole creation, in Christ you make all things new: grant us wisdom to interpret the (challenging) signs of the times, courage to stand firm in the time of trail and faith to witness to your truth and love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!”
- What is stopping us from feeling as thankful to God as we would like to be? In what ways do we see things in the old way, as if corruption and decay is our path, feeling defeated when we face challenging signs of the times, instead of Holy Spirit inspired courage to stand firm in the time of trail? Instead of accepting Holy Spirit inspired courage and faith to witness to God’s truth and love, showing we really believe in the victory of the resurrection that comes after the crucifixion, showing this belief in ways that show we KNOW we having a LOVING God, with a PERFECT plan, even if some people imagine God is mean and stern?
- God is seen by some as capricious – we are tempted to respond in fear to natural evil and greed in the world (be it environment – droughts and floods, politics – scandal & corruption, economy - recession, ill health / death of loved ones, but God invites us to TRUST and KNOW that God IS good, and that EVERYTHING WILL END UP as it should do, PERFECTLY!
- We often feel appropriate sadness at spiritual evil and / or persecution in the world – e.g. corruption in governments, fear mongering in politics (US election, EFF threats to whites, and exploitation of / cruelty to children, animals, the environment, the weak, the different (e.g. homosexuals, different religions, etc.).
- Our parish council and clergy similarly feel great sadness because our beloved St Paul’s is facing a financial crisis – all reserves will be used up by the end of the next financial year, if we do not either increase our giving, or drastically cut costs in ways that will seriously undermine our ministry…. Yet, I have a sure and certain hope God will inspire His people to give generously, so our LOVING little parish can continue as a light in our community….
- Something else that has really touched me recently is the story of an Anglican priest, the so called “Vicar of Baghdad”, Canon Andrew White, who recently visited South Africa and a friend who attended one of his talks told me he described how parents are being beheaded in front of their children for being Christians, rather than denouncing Christ…. It made me wonder - how far would I go for Christ?
- This brings me to my second point: how can we (like the Christians martyred by ISIS) live fearlessly, in our trying times, trusting the true God of LOVE, the way Isaiah did in his time, the way St Paul also did in his time, the way countless brave people of God have done through all time?
- Have you noticed, most psalms are LAMENTS, but that they end acknowledging God IS in control?
- We (like the saints, psalmists, martyrs and authors of scripture), need to have a LONG VEIW, and ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE on our LOVING God fulfilling His GOOD, PLEASING & PERFECT PLAN…
- We need to trust in our God who is our loving creator, inviting us to co-create…
- We need to trust that God works to the good in ALL THINGS, Cosmic Christ IS in all and in control of all, all the suffering we see are like child birth (and I should know, I’ve watched it 3 x J), good comes of it!
- Richard Rohr, in his daily meditation of 6 November 2016 on “The Christification of the Universe” writes “God is not just saving people; God is saving all creation…. Franciscan Sister and scientist Ilia Delio writes ‘Christ invests himself organically within all creation, immersing Himself in things, in the heart of the matter, and thus unifying the world…” From the way we treat the planet, other humans, and sometimes even ourselves, it seems we don’t understand or really believe this… The full Gospel takes away from you any power to decide where God is and where God isn’t.”
- This all brings us to a point – we ALL need to decide on our basic view of the universe: which is real, the God of love, or the mean god of fear? Friends, I assure you, it is SATAN who is the trickster, the ACCUSER, the false god invoking fear…. We worship a God of LOVE, a God who (for example) inspired +Steve to beautifully respond to the EFF’s Julius Molema’s hate speech with God inspired love speech.
- In his November ad clerum, +Steve wrote that “Vibrant Christian communities demonstrate… Life based on the peace that passes all understanding, on the love that doesn’t give up, on the staring evil in the face and seeing the truth of its destruction and the repentance from it. Such truth is hard won, but it is worth it”
AMEN!
Rev Gavin Smith
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