Sunday 15th November - 2nd before Advent
Theme: The End of the Age
Readings: Daniel 12:1-3 Hebrews 10:11-25 Mark 13:1-8
Psalm 16
Collect:
Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world's salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Comment:
‘We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.’ That’s what we say in the Nicene Creed, in common with believers all over the world. We don’t just believe in ‘life after death’, if by that we mean that when we die our spirits continue after death in ‘some better place’, and that’s all there is. Our hope is far greater than that. Whatever happens after death (and I am sure that our spirits do live on), we believe that God will bring the world we know to an end sometime, and will bring into being a new heaven and earth where there is no more death or suffering or any kind of evil. That will be the kingdom of God in all its fullness, the kingdom which we pray for where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
The world we live in is the factory in which the new world is being prepared, the field in which the harvest is growing. We have a blue print for the new creation, Jesus Christ, who grew and lived and died on earth, and was resurrected with a new kind of body – a body at the same time recognisably Jesus of Nazareth (complete with the marks of his crucifixion) and yet different, able to disappear at will, a body equally at home on earth and in heaven. After we have lived and died, we have to wait for the time when this age is ended and the new world begun – the ‘Day’ that the writer to the Hebrews talks about, a Day he associates with the second coming of Jesus. There will be a resurrection of the dead, and judgement: ‘He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead’ – for God has to sort out the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, the people who
belong to the king from those who reject him.
The writer to the Hebrews wants both to reassure his readers, and to prevent them taking Christ’s salvation for granted. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on the cross, his people’s sins are forgiven and in God’s sight they are made ‘perfect for ever’(v.14). Our guilt has been removed, we are acceptable to God, and welcome into his presence in prayer. This is what Jesus has done for us! We have not contributed a thing towards this happy state of affairs; it is all Jesus’ doing. All we’ve had to do is to believe it and accept it, receiving Jesus both as our saviour (rescuer) from sin and as our Lord and God, with authority over us and all we do. If we’ve done that, we don’t have to worry about the future, not even about judgement! But we must not take it for granted: Jesus is Lord over us today, and we are his representatives on earth. We need to encourage one another to play our part.
The future on earth is not going to be easy. Jesus warns us of wars and natural disasters to come. These are the ‘birth pangs’ of the new age. (Will they increase in frequency?) God is working his purpose out; let us remain faith-full.
Questions:
1) What helps us to have ‘full assurance of faith’?
2) What is the relevance of Jesus’ sacrifice for sin to our daily lives?
Heavenly Lord,
you long for the world's salvation:
stir us from apathy,
restrain us from excess
and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Comment:
‘We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.’ That’s what we say in the Nicene Creed, in common with believers all over the world. We don’t just believe in ‘life after death’, if by that we mean that when we die our spirits continue after death in ‘some better place’, and that’s all there is. Our hope is far greater than that. Whatever happens after death (and I am sure that our spirits do live on), we believe that God will bring the world we know to an end sometime, and will bring into being a new heaven and earth where there is no more death or suffering or any kind of evil. That will be the kingdom of God in all its fullness, the kingdom which we pray for where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
The world we live in is the factory in which the new world is being prepared, the field in which the harvest is growing. We have a blue print for the new creation, Jesus Christ, who grew and lived and died on earth, and was resurrected with a new kind of body – a body at the same time recognisably Jesus of Nazareth (complete with the marks of his crucifixion) and yet different, able to disappear at will, a body equally at home on earth and in heaven. After we have lived and died, we have to wait for the time when this age is ended and the new world begun – the ‘Day’ that the writer to the Hebrews talks about, a Day he associates with the second coming of Jesus. There will be a resurrection of the dead, and judgement: ‘He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead’ – for God has to sort out the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, the people who
belong to the king from those who reject him.
The writer to the Hebrews wants both to reassure his readers, and to prevent them taking Christ’s salvation for granted. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on the cross, his people’s sins are forgiven and in God’s sight they are made ‘perfect for ever’(v.14). Our guilt has been removed, we are acceptable to God, and welcome into his presence in prayer. This is what Jesus has done for us! We have not contributed a thing towards this happy state of affairs; it is all Jesus’ doing. All we’ve had to do is to believe it and accept it, receiving Jesus both as our saviour (rescuer) from sin and as our Lord and God, with authority over us and all we do. If we’ve done that, we don’t have to worry about the future, not even about judgement! But we must not take it for granted: Jesus is Lord over us today, and we are his representatives on earth. We need to encourage one another to play our part.
The future on earth is not going to be easy. Jesus warns us of wars and natural disasters to come. These are the ‘birth pangs’ of the new age. (Will they increase in frequency?) God is working his purpose out; let us remain faith-full.
Questions:
1) What helps us to have ‘full assurance of faith’?
2) What is the relevance of Jesus’ sacrifice for sin to our daily lives?