FIRST (SCOTS) SERMONS THE LORD IS COMING

Transcription

1 FIRST (SCOTS) SERMONS THE LORD IS COMING Scripture Lessons: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Mark 13:24-28, This sermon was preached by Dr. L. Holton Siegling, Jr. on Sunday, December 3, 2017 at First (Scots) Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Mark 13:24-28, The Coming of the Son of Man But 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. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. The Necessity for Watchfulness But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake. Leader: People: This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God Let us pray Almighty and Everlasting God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be pleasing, acceptable, and even joyful in your sight, for you are our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. Over Thanksgiving our family - as well as several members of our extended family - we went to see a movie. And because it has become nearly impossible these days to find a movie upon which everyone can agree, we ended up targeting the 10 o clock timeframe a matinee slot 1

2 and the 10 of us in all ended up divided relatively equally between three movies. Some of us saw Coco some of us saw The Justice League and some of us saw Wonder. On our way into the movie, and also on our way out, there was a poster for yet another movie within the Star Wars lineage. It is set to release in less than two weeks and is called The Last Jedi. To be honest with you, though I certainly like the Star Wars movies, I can never seem to keep them straight and apparently neither could the late Fred Craddock, who once shared a winsome tale of going to see Star Wars, Episode 1, The Phantom Menace, with his wife, Nettie, along with their grandsons, daughter, and son-in-law from Oklahoma. The children and grandchildren were determined to take Fred and Nettie to see the movie even though the children had said, We ve seen it already, but you have to see it lots of times. Now, Craddock didn t want to be totally ignorant, so he inquired around before going to see the movie in order to find out something about it. He was able to learn the name Luke Skywalker - that s about all he had. On the day of the movie they found themselves in a crowded theater. The movie started and in just a few minutes there was a loud applause. Craddock thought that was strange seeing as the movie had barely begun. He asked one of his grandsons what the applause was for and he said, Those two are Jedi. Well, of course, Craddock said. As the movie went on, it became increasingly clear that Craddock didn t know anything about it, and so he asked his ten-year-old grandson next to him, When is Luke Skywalker going to come in? to which his grandson responded, Granddaddy, he hasn t been born yet. Luke Skywalker comes along in episodes 4, 5, and 6...this is Episode 1. Craddock smiled to himself, because for the first time he could actually relate to the movie. He could relate to the movie because he knew that the church functions in much the same way. You see, we know the end of Christ s story before we know the beginning. For example, when we read our Old Testament Lesson this morning from the book of Jeremiah we hear the words, In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David when we read those words we say to ourselves: Hey, that Branch of David, that sounds awful a lot like Jesus. And it does. In fact, it s impossible for us to avoid looking back at all of the wonderful stories of the Old Testament and read and understand them in light of their witness to Jesus Christ. When one considers that the Old Testament finds its partial fillment in its own time and context, but that it finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus. It s altogether appropriate that we do that! That we interpret the breadth of scripture in light of its witness against none other than Jesus the Christ. Think of it like this: the light of Christ though it shines before us today it also shines back in time - and it illuminates everything that 2

3 has preceded it God s creation, the period of the judges, the anointing of kings prophets like Jeremiah. And, I get it, it is natural for us to look back and say when we read the words of Jeremiah, Jesus hasn t been born yet oh, but, friends, He s already there! Listen again to the first verses of John s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Now just as surely as the light of God s love has been shining throughout the history of God s creation, it shines on us now. For today begins a new season in the life of Christ s Church. A time when we prepare ourselves for the birth of Christ for Emmanuel - God with us! And, yes, that child must also be born into your life and mine if we are to ever be truly engrafted into God s story of salvation. But know this, the season of Advent is also a time for us to look even further ahead, and to allow the light of Christ to be for us like headlights shining on that which is on its way. That which is coming to us. In this morning s New Testament Lesson, we are invited to think about tomorrow. We are invited to consider what it means that, even though we know so much about God s story of salvation, we still find ourselves on this side of the final episode, as it were! Indeed, there will one day be a great and glorious consummation - a fulfillment of all that God began at the dawn of time. We affirm this conviction each and every Sunday when we repeat together the Apostle s Creed. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. That affirmation, and others like it, are rooted in both Testaments of the Bible. For just as surely as the days which were prophesied by Jeremiah were coming, especially those which were ultimately realized in the person and work of Jesus Christ, so too are coming the days about which Matthew spoke -- days when the Son of Man will come on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. But of that day and hour, we are told that no one knows...neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. After 14 years of studying the Bible, William Miller became convinced that Christ would return in When Miller announced April 3 as the day, some of his disciples went to mountaintops, hoping for a head start to heaven. Others were in graveyards, planning to ascend in reunion with their departed loved ones. When April 4 dawned as usual, the Millerites were disillusioned; but, they took heart, because William Miller had predicted a range of dates for Christ s return. They still had until March 21 of the next year. The devout continued to make ready, but again they were disappointed. A third date, October 22, 1844, was set, but it also passed by relativity uneventful (Today in the Word, December 20, 1991). 3

4 William Miller is not alone in that kind of prophecy. In fact, in every generation there have been people who claimed to know exactly when Christ would return, and all of them, without exception, have been wrong! The Bible could not be more clear in terms of how surprising, how completely shocking Christ s return will be. In our reading this morning, the Bible says that the days of the coming of Christ will be like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. And we know from reading further that the doorkeeper is put on the alert, because the master s return will happen but no one knows when. It might be in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow or at dawn, but it will happen. Or, as Matthew s account tells us, the coming of Christ will be like the days of Noah. During that time Noah was dutifully going about building his ark, all-the-while the world kept right on turning. People went about their business of eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and no one knew anything was wrong until the floodwaters came. Or, two men will be out in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Or, two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left..all this is to say that while the Lord is coming, Jesus does not expect us to know when it will happen when, exactly, he will return. But Jesus does expect us to be ready. So what does it mean to be ready? Well, for starters, being ready does not mean that we stop living and become petrified for fear of Christ s imminent return. Consider the examples that Jesus gave the slaves were working, the doorkeeper was keeping watch, Noah was building an ark, the man was in the field the two women were grinding meal together - all of them were actively living! I suppose you could say that the people in Noah s day were living it up! They were having a great time. There were weddings, and feasts, and life was good. You get the sense that as the rain began to fall they simply moved the party inside; and there, under the tent, they clapped, and laughed, and danced and died. They died because being ready is not simply a matter of living, it is a matter of living for Christ. Now, some people take the idea of readiness one step further and mistakenly believe that being ready is all about planning. And we can plan alright...we do it all the time. As a church we can plan out how we are going to participate in Meals on Wheels. We can plan a budget for the upcoming year taking into account expenses we might expect in two, three or four years. Individually we can come up with a 5 year plan and work diligently to bring that plan to fruition. But let us not lose sight of the fact that Noah did not plan the flood -- he could only prepare to ride the waves. The apostles, they were not engaged in long range planning when they were gathered together and waited for the day of Pentecost -- they could only prepare themselves. John the Baptizer, he did not plan Jesus itinerary -- instead he proclaimed, Prepare the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight. 4

5 Friends, the second coming of Christ is not something for which we can plan, but it is something for which we can prepare. A family decided to go out and have a good time together. It was a beautiful day and everyone got along. The food was good, and the movie they went to see had a good ending. When they returned home, however, their joy quickly turned to sorrow and even anger. Someone had broken the lock on the door of their home and gone in. The mother yelled, The color TV is gone. Susie cried, My stereo is gone. Bob yelled, My X-Box is gone. Dad screamed, They took my computer. Rick, the youngest child, he ran to the basement to see if they had taken his bike, the one he had intended to get fixed. It had a flat tire and a ripped seat. He came running upstairs to share with his sister the big news. They didn t take my bike! he said, They didn t take my bike! Whereupon Susie looked at him and said, Rick, it really wasn t worth stealing. That story makes me wonder if - when Jesus comes like a thief in the night - will we be worth stealing? In the blink of an eye, at an unexpected time, will we be found as the priceless children of God that we are? Oh, let there be no doubt in your mind as to how precious we are in God s sight. In fact, once we have put our trust in him we see more clearly than ever before that God s love for us is at the very heart of the Christmas message, the Christian message. God was born into this world so that we might be born from above. And the pangs of this new birth occur when Christ enters our hearts, when he casts out our sin and enters in and is born in us today. This newness of life it comes when that happens. So let us be about the business of serving our Savior. Let us build whatever ark we re supposed to build. Let us be about any initiative God has called us to be engaged in. Let us perhaps prayerfully consider being a part of Stephen Ministry. Let s give generously to God s Gift Shop. Let s work in the fields. Let s grind at the mill. Whatever we do, let us do, every last bit of it, to the glory of God, because there will come a time when the world as we know it will be swept away by the sovereignty of God. Life will suddenly change for everyone who walks upon the face of this beautiful earth. So be ready! Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. Let us pray... Faithful God, your promises stand unshaken through all generations. Renew us in hope that we may keep awake and alert, watching for the glorious return of Jesus Christ, our judge and savior, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, both now and forevermore. Amen. 5