18^th December 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 30 November 2014

Lessons - Isaiah 64:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37

'O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.' (Isaiah 64:1)
'And then you will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and
glory.' (Mark 13:26)

We are always talking about the weather, trying to forecast whether it will be fine, overcast or stormy. In drought we look for rain clouds and pray that the 'heavens will open'. During floods we wish that the heavens would close and the clouds disperse.

We often draw on weather images to describe the ups and downs of life. When prospects look bleak we say that 'a cloud hangs over our future'. A cloudless sky suggests confidence in the future; dark clouds suggest apprehension. In tough times we say 'heaven help us'.

So, when Isaiah cries out for 'heaven to be torn open' we know that he is using nature imagery to speak about the coming of hope in desperate times.
His people - having known persecution, exile, infighting and idolatry - are in despair. 'Heaven is closed', God is absent and pessimism reigns! And when Jesus speaks of 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud', we know that he is using nature imagery to speak of the coming of hope for humanity.

Not that the message of hope is immediately obvious from the reading. Jesus speaks of such dreadful things happening that hope seems fanciful! He says that the future, like the present, will be bleak. Like a 'gathering storm', history will continue to be full of foreboding events. Calamities of nature - like earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts and plagues - and human brutality, war, oppression and abuse will continue to afflict the world. Persecution (from
outside) and betrayal (from within) will continue to bedevil the Church. We all know too well that dark clouds hover over the earth and our lives.

In view of Jesus' stark realism, should not we be led to despair and pessimism rather than to hope and optimism? How can he speak of hope for humanity? Also, how can we live by hope without ignoring the stormy clouds of life and history and being overwhelmed by the silence of God when heaven seems closed? How can we be confident about the future without becoming 'shallow optimists', who think that 'every cloud has a silver lining' or 'dreary pessimists', who think that 'everything under heaven' is dark?

It does not seem realistic to be told that the sign of hope will be in a 'heavenly cloud'! Not a dark cloud of 'gloom and doom', but a 'cloud' that illuminates the 'power and great glory of the Son of Man'. The 'cloud'
already symbolised for Jews the faithful presence of God at times in their history when 'heaven' was closed to them. Now it is to be a sign of hope that the 'Son of Man' - the 'truly human person with divine authority' - will come to put things right on earth.

When Jesus uses the image of the cloud to speak of the coming of the 'heavenly' Son of Man he is promising that God will be present at the end of history to display openly his power over evil and death. Our clouded future will then become clear.

Now, this promise would be 'wishful thinking' if it were not for the fact that the Son of Man who will come in 'heavenly clouds' is the Son of Man who has already come on 'earth'. Though he was under a 'cloud of suspicion', his self-giving ministry of love, of healing and forgiveness was affirmed by 'a voice from heaven' ('my Son'). The 'heavens were opened' and hope for humanity was embodied.

Despite the fact that, in his suffering, rejection and death it had seemed that 'a dark cloud hung over Christ's future' and the future of the human race, his resurrection from the dead signified that the 'storm clouds' had not triumphed over him - and ultimately will not overwhelm us! In Jesus, the Son of Man, the eternal love of our heavenly Father is shown to be stronger than powers that 'cloud our future'.

Therefore, because of Jesus Christ, those who look to him need not fear the future! 'When these dreadful events happen we shall know that the Kingdom of God is at hand.' (Luke 21:31) So 'look up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near.' (Luke 21:28) Do not be afraid! And do not spend time - as so many anxious people do when reading this text - trying to predict the end. The Kingdom of God is always at hand in the person of Jesus.

'We are called to be people of hope in the face of nature's disasters, human atrocities, infidelities, betrayals, false teachings, the apparent failure of the Gospel, knowing that nothing can prevent this final victory.' (C Hope, Year of Mark, 75.)

To believe that is easier said than done! It is hard to have courage when human dignity is violated and intolerance or apathy threatens Christian faith in so many places. We should be realistic about powers that cloud the horizon today. However, given the privilege of being called to 'bear testimony before the nations' about God's grace (Mark 13:9,10), we cannot be darkly pessimistic. Our hope is not to be found in our ability to change the world, but in the power of God's love for the world embodied in the Son of Man who has already scattered the clouds of darkness and will come to fully illuminate the splendour of God.

Each year on the first Sunday of Advent we wonder why this text is chosen as we prepare for Christmas. Talk of present misery and future glory seems out of place!

Yet it is vital that the birth of Christ is put in proper context. We truly prepare for Christ-mass when we see that this Son of Man is born in fulfilment of Jewish hopes that 'heaven shall be opened' and the sign of hope for faithful people 'from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven' (Mark 13:27). The good news of Advent is that the Son of Man who is to come has already come in costly, triumphant, self-giving love!

Knowing that does not, however, automatically calm our fears or give courage.
We need to confess our dreary pessimism or shallow optimism. But, in the midst of threats to world security, our personal suffering and anxiety about the future of the Church itself, it gives us confidence to see beyond the present to the ultimate destiny of human existence that God has revealed and promised in Jesus. Thus we celebrate the coming of the Son of Man into our strife-torn world and await his coming again to put things right.

There is a splendid cartoon in Peanuts that sums up the Christian hope.
Snoopy the dog is happily dancing by himself, saying 'to live is to dance', 'to dance is to live'. Lucy joins him but quickly tires of his optimism. She shouts at him from the sidelines, 'Floods, fire and famine; doom, defeat and despair!' Unfazed, he continues dancing. Lucy sighs and says, 'I guess it is no use, nothing seems to disturb him!'

Should not we pray to be like Snoopy and learn to live by hope even in the midst of so much in the world and the Church that is bleak and dark?
_________________________________

Rev Dr Max Champion is Minister in St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia.

Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.