TSL Benefice service 29-10-2017
Story: JWs in TSL
Just last week, I was walking the road outside the church and I saw a car parked outside the church and so I went to say hello to the three men around it.
I had thought they were going to do some work in the churchyard, but it turns out that they were three JWs taking a coffee break for their work of evangelism. They told me that Tilney St Lawrence is not interested in religion as they had had little if no success door knocking.
And I thought to myself – neither am I! For Christianity is more than a religion it is a relationship with Jesus himself.
They claimed to be Christians, they are not as they see Jesus merely as a good man but not as God.
Clearly despite their claims they are not Christians as they do not acknowledge the divinity of Christ.
And as I wanted to go on, I offered to pray with them which knew they would decline – and went on my way.
Although the Lectionary reading for today was short, verses 30-35 one has to look at the context of the passage to understand what Jesus is saying.
And that means looking before and after a text, something the JWs don’t do. To get the true meaning.
You can make the Bible say anything out of context.
For example Psalm 14 says “ There is no God” but in context it says “The fool in his heart has said “There is no God”
The key to understand what Jesus is talking about must stem from the question his disciples asked him at the beginning of Matthew 24
It was a two fold question:
1. They asked him when the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed.
2. The second part of the question was “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
So let’ have a quick look at the first question when will the Temple in Jerusalem be destroyed.
I don’t want to dwell on that question because it is now history. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.
The question was triggered by Jesus’s words at the beginning of Chapter 24:
1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.
2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down.”
The verses up to our Gospel reading this morning relate to the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD – something that happened well after Jesus’ crucifixion in AD 29.
This was a real event for Matthew’s first as his Gospel was written before AD 70
And some Christians did indeed heed Jesus’ words and leave Jerusalem in time to avoid the siege of Jerusalem.
Reflecting on Jesus’ words As RT France said in his Commentary of Matthew (p.341)
“A refugees’ lot would be hard enough without extra impediments. In winter roads in Palestine were practicably impassable and on the Sabbath gates would be shut and provisions unobtainable.”
And if you didn’t believe in future predictive prophecy here is an example of it.
2. The second part of the question was “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
This has far more relevance to us today as so many people want to know the future.
Interestingly, the first thing Jesus says is this:
“Watch out that no one deceives you.
5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.
Story: When Maddy and I were lay chaplains in Wolds’s prison, we were astounded how many of the prisoners either used the pages of the Bibles they were given
i) as paper a smoke or
ii) they poured over the Book of Revelation trying to work out when the end of the world would come.
But few of them would go further and commit their lives to Christ.
Jesus wants us to focus on living the Christian life today, not dreaming of the future.
He wanted us to be secure in the knowledge that He will come again – but he does NOT want us to be ‘star gazing’.
And He wants us to be careful not to be led astray.
Story: Tonight I am going to fly to Hamburg in Germany to join in the celebrations of the quincenterary (500 years) of the Reformation that was started on 31st October 1517 by Martin Luther posting his famous 95 Theses on the door of the church (Schloßkirche) in Wittenberg.
As I am a member of the Ely Diocese-Nordkirche Committee I have been invited to take part in the service in the “Holy Ghost Church” (Heiligen Geist Kirche) in Wacken which is the church of Revd Judith Schneider who, some of you may recall, preached here recently and in café Church
Then in the evening I will be reading a lesson at the Cathedral of St Peter at Schleswig.
So it is interesting to reflect on what Martin Luther said about the Second Coming
He is reputed to have said that even if he knew Christ was going to return tomorrow, he would still plant an apple tree.
People in the world are still interested in speculation as to when the end of the world will come.
There were many doomsday prophets who thought the end of the world would come when the year 1000 AD rolled around and then a millenium later when the year 2000 AD rolled around
In 2011 an American pastor from California, Harold Camping made the news that he had recalculated the end of the earth to be October 21st 2011.
I think he was wrong!!!!
Britain is a deeply “spiritually inquisitive” nation.
How else can we account for the avid addiction to horoscopes in the national press and on television.
Story: In the late 19th Century in America, there was a wave of enthusiasm for prophecies predicting the actual date for Christ’s Second Coming.
One such prophet was an Adventist leader William Miller (1782-1849).
And it is in his movement that the JW’s and the Seventh Day Adventists find their roots.
Miller first predicted that Christ would return on 21st March 1842, but then revised the date to April 3, 1843.
Over 3,500 of his followers jammed the Boston Advent Temple, only to be disappointed.
You might have thought that the movement would have died.
But it didn’t. Rather it continued to grow.
Miller decided to recalculate his date for the Second Coming and soon publicised a new date - April 18, 1844.
When the Messiah did not show up on that date, there was again frustration and some followers left the Adventist ranks.
Undeterred by these failures, Miller came up with a third date - 22nd October 1844.
The date was publicized as the Millerite publication True Midnight Cry.
And, surprisingly, this third date rallied his followers.
They began to spread the news of the new date of the second coming with an enthusiasm that had not seen before.
Churches which did not accept this message were denounced as agents of “Babylon.” and the devil
And - despite opposition from established, mainline religious groups -, thousands of people – including many clergy – began to defect to the Millerite cult.
As doomsday approached, the Millerites began to prepare.
One account notes that “Fields were left unharvested, shops were closed, people quit their jobs, paid their debts, and freely gave away their possessions with no thought of repayment.”
Huge press runs of Advent publications like The Midnight Cry warned the public that “The Time Is Short”. “Prepare to Meet Thy God!” and “The Lord is Coming!”
William Miller himself began peddling white “ascension robes” to the faithful, many of whom waited for the miraculous event in freshly dug graves.
But as we all know, the Second Coming did not occur on 22nd October 1844.
In fact if they had read the words of Jesus from this morning’s Gospel reading, where he said
36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
and believed them – they would not have been taken in by Miller’s false prophecy.
It is interesting that Jesus refused to be drawn into speculation about the end times.
So what are we to do about the End Times?
I think there are three things that Christians should be aware of
1. He is coming again
2. God has work for us to do on earth
3. He calls us to be alert – to be watchful
Let’s have a look at each of these three ideas
1. Jesus is coming again
But we don’t know when. Remember Jesus speaking about his Second Coming said this:
36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Mt 24:36)
And he goes on to tell us the consequence of that for us
42 Therefore keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come (Mt 24:42)
The great Christian hope that HE WILL COME AGAIN.
He will usher in a new heaven and a new earth, where there will be no more tears, no more suffering and Jesus himself will be the light in our midst. (Rev 21 and 22)
But, 2. God has work for us to do on earth.
The second idea that struck me from this passage is that God still has work for us to do on earth.
We are called to live our Christian life in our communities
- in close fellowship with God
- loving our neighbours as ourselves and
- sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with our neighbours.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus had this to say about the time in which we are living – leading up to the Second Coming:
42"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Mt 24:42-44)
The thief is the devil and he will come and try to steal – your time, your loyalty, your faith, your peace, your happiness, your health, your freedom in Christ, your marriage.
You name – the devil’s out for to get it.
The only way to foil the devil is to be on our guard and be at work for God.
At Jesus’ Ascension - in Acts 1:10-11, the eleven disciples were left gobsmacked and star gazing.
Two angels were sent to remind them that God still has a mission for them
Let me read from Acts 1:10 and 11
10 And while they were steadily looking towards heaven as Jesus went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel.
11. And they said to them: Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up to heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.
God has a mission for us – to preach the Gospel to those around us – in the way we live and in what we say.
Let’s not be found wanting when he returns
3. Watch, be alert
The final thought that I would like to leave you with - from our Gospel reading this morning - is that Jesus wants us to be alert.
He wants us to be so well schooled in the Scriptures that we cannot be taken in by false prophets, as the Millerites were about 150 years ago.
When I was a young Christian, I was taught to challenge everything I heard from the pulpit.
I was told to ask myself the question:
Does what is being preached coincide with a reasonable interpretation of Scripture.
This Gospel passage is a challenge to carefully mull over what we hear from our pulpits
Conclusion
In conclusion, let us pray
Father, we are encouraged to know that one day Jesus will return in glory and that we are living in the ADVENT of that time.
Help us to live our lives as if he was coming tomorrow and to be to be on our guard – against being led astray by false prophets and teachers.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen
