18^th December 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 9 November 2014

Lessons - Psalm 78:1-8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

'Stay awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.' (Matthew
25:13)

Today I am constrained by necessity to preach hope! When I see people's selfish approach to refugees, or their hedonistic attitudes to sex, or the terrible effect of degenerative diseases on young bodies, or consider the horror of war in the Middle East, and the deadly impact of Ebola in Africa, or the our timidity in speaking the truth, my hope is shaken. I cannot preach hope because the world is getting better but because the 'absence of hope' is felt so keenly today in church and community. So many of us now believe that, for all practical purposes, 'God is dead'. If we put our hope in anything it is in our own ability to save the planet and bring about justice for all.

In the face of this false hope, which leads to arrogance or despair, we need to recover the New Testament's confidence in what lies ahead. Because of the coming of Jesus in the flesh, hope is sustained knowing that God loves humanity. Because of the crucifixion of Jesus, hope is not fooled by false claims about our own goodness and perfection. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, hope looks forward to the final defeat of sin, evil and death and the glorious fulfilment of life with God.

This specifically Christian hope is not to be mistaken for naive optimism.
The risen-and-ascended Christ, who gives rise to hope, is also the incarnate Jesus who caused unrest and the crucified Jesus who was despised and rejected by religious and political leaders, by the people and his by disciples.

Hope must be won in the contradiction between the fullness of life promised in Christ and whom we human beings so often show ourselves to be. Calvin put it well:

'To us is given the promise of eternal life - but to us, the dead. A blessed
resurrection is proclaimed to us - meantime we are surrounded by decay. We
are called righteous - and yet sin lives in us. We hear of ineffable
blessedness - but meantime we are oppressed by infinite misery. We are
promised abundance of all good things - yet we are rich only in hunger and
thirst'. ... 'What would become of us if we did not take our stand on hope?'
(Commentary on Hebrews, quoted in J Moltmann, Theology of Hope pp 18,19.)

Taking a stand on hope does not mean trying to predict the end. That is clear in our text about 'watching' which is the bridge between the Parable of the Ten Girls (25:1-13) and the Parable of the Talents (25:14-30).

In the first parable, five girls are commended for making sure that their lamps have enough oil to keep the flame alight during the unexpectedly long delay in the bride-groom's arrival. They are welcomed to the festivities because they keep the light flickering in the dark. In the second parable (next week), servants are to be enterprising while they await their master's return.

Both parables encourage disciples to live fully in the present, confident of what God has in store.

This means that we need not fear the future, no matter how dire things seem on planet earth. As Paul and Jesus say, hope is not dependent on how bad things are around us. We are not to be side-tracked by trying to predict the end (1 Thessalonians 5:1ff), but to live by hope even if it means rejection, persecution, imprisonment or death, as it has for many Christians.

I do not suppose that many of us are tempted to set a date. However, we can certainly identify with the problem of waiting that is highlighted in the Parable of the Ten Girls and Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. The 'long march of history' since the resurrection of Jesus has made 'falling asleep'
easier and 'staying awake' harder.

We keenly feel the 'absence of God', as captured by Friedrich Nietzsche, the late C19th German philosopher, in his Parable of the Mad-man:

The mad-man lights a lantern at noon and runs into the market-place crying
out, 'Where is God?' Not surprisingly, he is greeted with scornful laughter.
'Is he lost? Has he emigrated? Is he hiding?' they asked. 'I will tell you,'
said the mad-man, 'we have killed him, you and I.' ... The madman fell silent
... shocked ... At last he threw his lantern to the ground so that it broke
in pieces ... He concluded, 'I have come too soon ... this monstrous event is
still on the way.' ... (Then) he went into several churches, saying, 'What
are the churches, if not the tombs of God?'

This chilling parable could only be told after centuries of disappointment in the Christian vision of the future. It shocks us. It snaps us out of our complacency and confronts us with the reality that, for all practical purposes, God seems to be 'dead'. In his place stands what Nietzsche called the 'new man' (German: Ubermensch) who arrogantly assumes that his heroic deeds will create a glorious future.

If we do not 'hear' the parable of a madman (shining a light in day-time), we will also be deaf to the hope in Jesus' parable (where a light flickers in the dark)!

The Parable of the Ten Girls, as Warren Clarnette points out, teaches:

'the necessity for alertness, enthusiasm and integrity during the long hours
until midnight (v 6), during this time of fading hope when it seems that (for
the church above all) night has fallen and the morning (let alone midnight)
is unimaginably far off. (It) reminds us of the one essential task: to be
ready and faithful despite the postponement of the festivities. In an age so
seriously devoted to immediate satisfactions; where the prospect of deferring
pleasure (whether sensual or religious) is universally abhorred and judged to
be contrary to human rights, this message is desperately needed.' (Take and
Read, The Year of Matthew, p66.)

Such strong, patient and confident hope, in the midst of personal loss, international conflict and social collapse, can only be lived out 'in the light' of God's mercy and goodness which has already shone in the face of the risen-crucified Jesus. In his costly-triumphant life, a future free from the darkness of sin, decay and death has been 'illuminated'.

As yet, that light has not shone into every corner of the world or every heart. It is vital, therefore, that in the darkness that threatens to envelop us, we keep the flame flickering.

We must be 'ready' to give an account of the hope that is in us. We must live joyfully in anticipation of what awaits so that, when those who are in a dark place come into contact with churches, they will find - not the graveyards of God - but vibrant communities of hope.

We do not have to stay awake and 'watch' as if everything depends on us! A celebratory future is assured because it has already come 'in Christ'. Like the wise girls, we may sleep soundly at night, provided we are 'awake' to signs of hope in our midst and 'ready' to shine light on the many dark places, in the community and the Church, that blacken our life-together.
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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.