Sermon for the Sunday
after the Ascension
It looks as if St Peter has donned his sandwich boards and
is strolling through the streets saying, “The end of all things is at hand!”
How do you feel about that? How do these people who keep banging on about the
end of the world being nigh make you feel?
There have been quite a few dates for the end of the world
given recently, none of which have obviously come to pass. In fact, the
behaviour of some Christians in predicting the End of the World so accurately
is rather embarrassing for the rest of us because it never happens! And we who
do not make such sweeping statements about the End get tarred with the same
brush of lunacy. It’s not fair, is it?
Is St Peter really one of those who wants us to believe that
the world will end next Thursday tea-time?
[PAUSE]
The End of the World – it’s a phrase that carries images of
death, destruction, war, famine, pestilence, Heaven and Hell. And yet, this is
perhaps not what St Peter means because he says in his second letter, “But,
beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Our Lord Himself reminds us that,
concerning the End of the World, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no,
not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” This is clear: human beings are not to know when the End
will come.
Yet St Peter is now two millennia distant from us. How can
the End of All things be near if they are in fact so far in the past?
Perhaps there is a different way of understanding the word “End”.
[PAUSE]
We often say, “the ends does not justify the means.” What
does this mean? It means that the task we intend to complete does not allow us
to use any method (especially an immoral one) to complete it. The word “end”
here is related to the “completed task”. The “End” here is the finished
article. When Our Lord cries out, “It is finished” on the Cross, He is crying
out in triumph because He has completed our salvation in Him. He has done what
He set out to do at the cost of His life. This is Our Lord’s End, but it is not
the end of Him as the Resurrection shows.
Our Salvation is completed only by being completed in Jesus
Christ Our God. This is our End and it is the End of All things.
St Peter is telling us that we are not talking about an
eternal destruction. He is telling us to be aware that we could die at any
minute and we need to be sure that we are right with God so that we fulfil His
desires for the world. In saying that the End of All Things is near, St Peter
is making us pray the Lord’s prayer more sincerely, especially “Thy Will be
done.” It is only through God’s will that All Things will be perfected in Him.
If we reject that and choose the desires of our own will and thus a life of sin
instead then we cannot be part of that Wonderful, Glorious and Happy End.
[PAUSE]
As we watch Our Saviour ascend to Heaven, then we can live
assured that in ascending, He is actually closer at hand to each human being
than He was two thousand years ago in Galilee, Nazareth and Jerusalem.
This End of the World is such good news! But we do have to
prepare ourselves for it!
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