ADVENT I; St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Pictou NS

 

New Realities DEMAND New Responses

 

Isaiah 2:1-5

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:36-44

 

Last week, I saw the scariest movie I have ever seen.

 

It was a dramatic retelling of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl: a dramatization of the accident, interspersed with interviews with actual survivors involved; a minute by minute unravelling of what happened.

 

The explosions happened because “a test” was being conducted and the people, one man in particular, didn’t know what they were doing. The man in charge would not listen to others trying to tell him that what they were doing was unsafe. In conducting the test, they actually caused the reactor to explode releasing 10 times the amount of nuclear radiation compared to the Hiroshima bomb. The program showed how the wind took this nuclear dust all over Europe.

 

I now knew what caused this explosion and because this new reality, this new understanding that is now mine, I now have an opinion on the proposed development of any new nuclear power sites.

 

While I used to not know what I thought about nuclear power, my awareness of a new reality has given me a new response: I am now against any new nuclear power development because we can’t rule out human error, and human error will happen, and the cost horrifically outweighs the benefits. Mistakes can and will happen and even one mistake rules out all of the benefits that could ever be gained, no matter how good they are.

 

Humanity has to accept human error: a plane crashes because of “human error” and 300 families have to deal with the tragedy, but a nuclear accident doesn’t destroy the lives of 300 families, it destroys humanity itself and with that kind of devastation, we cannot ever hope to cope, because when the ground and the air and our very flesh become toxic, there is nothing left. The price is too much to pay. We cannot afford to have nuclear power.

 

In all areas of our lives, at all times, new realities will always demand new responses from us.

 

The prophet Isaiah outlined a new reality for the people of God. He told them:

 

“In the days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house

shall be raised above the hills;

All nations shall stream to it.”

 

Isaiah is telling the people about a new kind of world order; Zion, the city of God will hold a new kind of position in the world: one of peace and all people will come to Zion for instruction.

 

“For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,

And shall arbitrate for many peoples;

They shall beat their swords into plowshares,

And their spears into pruning hooks;

Nation will not lift up sword against nation,

Neither will they learn war anymore.”

 

The prophet has described a new reality and that new reality demands a new response from the people. For Zion to possibly happen, we need a new kind of thought to prepare and set the groundwork for this new reality; we need to prepare the earth for season of peace.

 

For the people of God, their faith in God, how they see themselves, how they conduct their affairs has a new kind of response from the people now that they know that they are the torch bearers of peace: the torchbearers of a new world order of peace.

 

Isaiah called the people to walk on the light of this new purpose and that new light is peace.

 

Paul gives the same kind of message many years later to the people of Rome: “an ADVENT wake up call” to the people, in light of the new reality of Jesus Christ.

 

“…it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.

For salvation is nearer to us than when we became believers;

The night is far gone, the day is near.”

 

Paul is telling the people that a new reality demands a new response:

“Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day.”

 

Paul likens this new reality of Jesus Christ and what it means in our lives as we are brought from living in the dark, to living in the light of daytime.

 

The reality of knowing and believing in Jesus Christ demands that we live in a new way.

 

In Matthew 24 Jesus talks about a cataclysmic coming of the Son of Man, (“the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.”)  He gives us the idea that the knowledge of His coming and claiming His own for heaven, demands that we live as if we are always to be ready to be claimed and called by Him.

 

Two women came to my door a couple of weeks ago trying to scare me that this day was coming any day now, as a way of getting me to go their church. Because I know Jesus, I was able to diffuse their argument by telling them that “the last days” means past, present and future. They didn’t know what to do with that because they had rehearsed their lines so that they would be in control. Unfortunately those two women didn’t know that… Jesus, that God is in control. They also don’t know their scriptures. They were tying to tell me that the last days were going to happen soon.

 

In spite of all those people who think they know when the end of the world is coming, and they are trying to scare you, please listen to Jesus:

“About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Matthew 24:36.

 

Jesus goes on to give illustrations about how people think and ignore God. He cites the time when people would not listen to Noah about the flood. Jesus tells that when the time will comes for Jesus to arrive, to us it will just be like a normal day;  we will be living our lives and just doing what we always usually do.

 

“Keep awake therefore, (Jesus says) for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” The issue here is that since we do not know when we will go to him, we are to live for Christ each and every day.

 

“But understand this, (Jesus says) if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at the unexpected hour.”

 

I was recently asked to see a woman who has been given a medical diagnosis that her life will soon be over. Her new reality demands a new response.

 

We learn new things, we become aware of what we previously didn’t know, life changes (job loss, sickness and death plunge us into new places where we have never been.)

 

All of these new realities demand that we make new responses to these realities.

 

Everything that I have said so far can be summed up with one notion: we are to live each moment, each day sacredly, as if it were our last.

 

I was taking a psychology course about 1969 and the professor gave us an assignment. The assignment was, “What would we do if we only had two weeks left to live?”

 

We all gave various answers as to what we would do and how we would live. I remember one woman who was much older than me, she must have been about 55, said that at the end, she would just swim out into the ocean, because she loved the ocean.

 

There are always new realities and changes in our lives. Jesus said to live as if he was going to come at any time. My professor said, “What would you do if you had two weeks left to live?”

 

Take your choice. Either way it comes down to the exact same thing:

 

The issue is to be alive, now… today… right this moment!

To make life giving choices, now!

To forgive people now.

To pick up the phone and call that person you need to call now!

To buy that gift now!

To hug someone now!

To write that letter now!

To find out what you need to know, now!

To cry now! To Laugh now!

To love now!

 

Life isn’t going to happen later, It is happening right here, right NOW!

 

AMEN      Rev. Alan Stewart