1st Sunday of Advent 30 Nov 08 Sermon

1st Sunday of Advent 30.11.08 When will these things happen?

People sometimes scoff at the apparent inaction of heaven on delivering some of the prophesied events. This scoffing effect was predicted by St Peter: ‘Know this first of all, that in the last days scoffers will come (to) scoff, living according to their own desires and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? From the time when our ancestors fell asleep, everything has remained as it was from the beginning of creation." (2 P 3:3-4)
He then offers the well-known reminder ‘that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard "delay," but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2P 2:8-9)

And the crowd scoffed at Our Lord as He hung upon the Cross because He appeared to be unable to respond. The quieter He was the more bold they became in their taunts. He could have demolished them with a look but He chose to remain inactive at that point.

People gain confidence when their sins go unpunished, and they commit bigger and better sins.

But history shows that God can store up His punishments and other communications. Both reward and punishment are delayed as we act out the human drama.

Just because He does not send lightning every time someone sins does not mean He is not offended.

Just because He lets evil have an apparent free hand for a time does not mean He is powerless to intervene.

The same applies to rewards, and to the righting of injustices in general.

People do good deeds without any apparent reward and they might wonder why they bother.
But here also God can wait, and Our Lord speaks of storing up treasure in heaven. The less reward we receive here the more there.

The same for punishment; it is stored up. No lightning yet, but watch out when the day of reckoning comes.

The same principle gives us heart in relation to injustices committed. In the movies the villain is either caught or killed and the innocent are set right in this life, all in the space of two hours.

In real life the resolution may not come so speedily. The good are often killed, their bodies dumped somewhere, and the evildoers seem to get away with it for a time. How many millions have been massacred, or enslaved or generally mistreated? Where is God, the cry goes up.

He is in Heaven, well aware of what is going on, and He misses nothing. He hears the cry of the poor, the widow and orphan. He will set things right, but it may not be in this life. He never said it would be, and we should not demand it.

We see that our limited perspective on time is a problem for us with regards to good, evil, and justice in general. We want quick answers otherwise we start to lose faith and wander off course.

The call of Advent is to put us back in the right time perspective. Think in centuries not days. Think in eternity, which is beyond time. Think of God who is all just, good, wise and is not likely to be defeated by demonic or human cunning.

We make the same mistake as the people taunting Our Lord when we conclude that God is inactive or uninterested.

We do not know exactly what He will do, or how, or when, but we do know He will redress every sin and injustice ever committed; He will reward the good and punish the bad. He will have the last laugh, we could say.

So we must be patient, and we must be good. Patient with God to fulfil His plans, good in storing up treasure for ourselves, atoning for injustices as far as we can.

There is some good news for evildoers: there is an escape route. We don’t have to wait around to be clobbered for our sins; we can simply confess them and we will be free. Advent is also a call to repentance. Use the time while there still is time.