The Generation Game

Sermon preached at St Peter and St Paul’s Church Swanscombe on Advent Sunday 2006 based on St Luke xxi.25-36

[Long pause, waiting for something to happen. After a minute waiting, I begin.]

Frustrating isn’t it?

When you’re not sure
what you’re supposed to be waiting for,
nor when it will happen,
nor quite what the consequences
of it will be.

It stresses you out.


Elaine is annoyed.

Her favourite programme
is on after the football,
and she has just switched on
only to find that
Jose Beckham
or David Shilton,
or Diego Smith,
or whoever is supposed to be playing,
is lining up the 150th penalty shot
at the end of another nil-nil draw.

What is she to do?

Should she switch over or off,
or should she stick it out
becoming ever more concerned
that the BBC will actually
take off her favourite programme
because the football has over-run?


The trouble with waiting is
that it leaves you in a quandary:
should I wait a little longer
or do something else.

[PAUSE]

Elaine thinks that
surely the 150th penalty shot
must be a sign that
the game is coming to the end.



The players must be tired,
and they are likely to make mistakes,
so one of them is bound
to score a penalty very soon.
That goalie is looking a little bit floppy.

She watches expectantly,
hoping that her programme will be on shortly,
as Bobby Shearer lines up the shot,
walks back,
takes a run up,
shoots…


The trouble is,
we know that the end of the game is near
because we’re on the penalties,
but the 150th penalty doesn’t mean
that the next penalty will be the last,
it could go on indefinitely.

Even then
Elaine has got the interminable
post-match analysis
to sit through.

Do you ever find yourselves
in situations like that?

What is the limit of your patience?

[PAUSE]

Do you find yourself
becoming more impatient
with the world around you?

How do you feel when Jesus says
“There will be signs
in the sun,
in the moon,
and in the stars;
and on the earth
distress of nations with perplexity,
the sea and waves roaring”?

Do you find yourself thinking
“Is it now?

Is God coming back tomorrow”?

Why?

Are you ready for Him if he does?

[PAUSE]

We certainly see signs around us.
Distress seems an inadequate word
to describe the situation
in the Middle East.

We’ve been told
that all around us
the climate is changing.

The Sun may be getting hotter;
scientists say the expansion of Universe
is actually speeding up.

Aren’t these the signs
that the Lord tells us will happen
before He came back?


But the Lord also says,
“this generation will by no means pass away
till all these things take place.”

So, if Jesus is talking
first to the folk 2000 years ago,
hasn’t the generation that He speaks of
passed away?



Does this mean
that we have actually missed
the second coming of the Lord?

Well, clearly not.

So is Jesus wrong?

—after all He is on record for saying
that even He doesn’t know
when the Day of the Lord
is, was or will be.

Do you really think that He’s wrong?

But this has profound
implications for our belief.

If Jesus is wrong about this,
He could be wrong about
a whole host of things.

[PAUSE]

Think about it.

What do we believe?

Do we believe that Jesus is risen from the dead?

Yes – it’s the heart of our faith.

So this means that He is alive.

Is He with us now?

Well, yes, He promises to be with all His children.

Moreover,
this is Mass – His Presence is more obvious here,
because we come to Mass
for the purpose of meeting and receiving Him,
and He us.

So can He still talk to us?

Well, doesn’t He always?

Surely we can hear Him say to us
“this generation,
(our generation)
will not pass away
until all these things take place.”



He is not talking about His coming again,
He’s telling us that there will always be
these signs around us
that point to His coming.

There are Christians
who will look to the Apocalypse,
the Book of Revelation
to reveal what’s going to happen.

They speak of beasts and horrible plagues.

But Revelation doesn’t tell us
what’s going to happen in the future.

It speaks of events that have already happened
in Roman times
mixed together with events beyond Time,
so we can’t rely on it.

There isn’t going to be a Rapture.

The Lord will not come again
until every person has heard
the Good News
of the Lord’s love for us.


He gives everyone the opportunity
to make an informed choice
– to love Him, or not.

The reason he hasn’t already come
is because He wants you to believe in Him
and have the same chance of Eternal life
as our parents
our grandparents,
our great grandparents
in fact all the generations
who have gone before us
and the generations who will come after us.

So, if the Lord is not going to tell us
when He is coming,
why should we worry about the future?

There will always be wars
and rumours of wars,
and storms,
floods,
famines,
earthquakes,
volcanoes,
and the most terrible catastrophes
to befall mankind.

But Jesus says
that we must not worry
about them happening,
but to use them to look to Him
and remember His presence.

Then we go out and tend to those
who have been hurt by these disasters.

If we spend our time
worrying about the future we cannot control,
then we forget about the people
whose present is appalling,
and who need our love, help and support.

Our future is safe in the hands of God.

We trust Him to love us and save us, don’t we?