It’s an undeniable fact that, as people get older, they tend to look back and reminisce about ‘the good old days’. I think that very often though, people do look at times gone by through rose-tinted glasses but nevertheless it’s something people do and seem to enjoy doing as they get older. And something that usually crops up in these nostalgic trips down memory lane are the things that we don’t see anymore, things that have gone from our lives and from life in general. As I read the Gospels for this morning one thing that sprang to my mind that would fit under the category of things we don’t see any more is the Sandwich Man.

By the Sandwich Man I don’t mean someone who sells butties; there’s no shortage of people selling food these days. No, I mean the man who walked around wearing a wooden tabard with advertisements on the front and back. We used to see people like that quite often a few years ago but we very rarely, if ever see them these days. But the Sandwich Man who sprang to my mind as I read the Gospels wasn’t one advertising a product or service, it was a man I used to see every time I went to a speedway meeting at Sheffield, which was quite often, who used to walk up and down outside the stadium wearing a sandwich board that on one side said, ‘The End is Nigh’ and on the other side said, ‘Repent and be Saved’.

We very rarely, if ever, see things like that these days. But that doesn’t mean that people expressing those views have disappeared from society because they haven’t. What they seem to have done is swap the sandwich board for the keyboard and moved online. If you look at Christian pages on social media you’ll soon come across people telling you that the end is indeed nigh, interpreting current events to prove it, and telling you that you need to repent, turn to Jesus and be saved.

I know that very often, people who say these things are dismissed as cranks or religious nutcases, but before we do that we should remember that people have been thinking and saying these things for almost the past 2,000 years; they’ve been saying these things for as long as there’s been a Church. We know they have because we read it in scripture. Just think about what St Paul says when he writes about marriage in his First Letter to the Corinthians: 

This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

It’s quite clear from this that St Paul believed that his generation were living in the end times and Christ would return very soon. He might easily have said ‘The end is nigh. Repent and be saved.’

But throughout the past 2,000 years people have thought that the end was nigh in their time, and they’ve urged others to put their lives in order, to repent, turn to Jesus and be saved now, while there’s still time, before it’s too late. It might have been because of unusual astronomical events or events on earth like plague, war, famine or natural disaster. But whatever it’s been, people have interpreted the events of their day as signs that the end is nigh. And people are still doing it today, usually based on their interpretation of that state of the world. But no matter how often people have thought the end is nigh, we’re still here, the end hasn’t come. So what should we make of all this?

I think the first thing we need to do is to remember that we’re Christians; we’re disciples of Jesus Christ and so we need to really look at what Jesus said before we listen to anyone else’s spin on what he said.

Today we have two different Gospel readings on the same theme – the end times. In one, Jesus speaks about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the disciples ask him to tell them when this will happen and what signs to look for. And Jesus speaks about false prophets who’ll try to lead his people astray. But he also says,

“…when you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.”

It’s usually thought that Jesus is speaking here about the destruction of the temple and the general devastation that happened during the Jewish-Roman War that would happen 30-40 years after he was speaking. That would make sense because there’s no doubt that many people living in those times would have wondered if this was the end of all things and perhaps believed that it was. But Jesus explicitly states that this is not the end, merely the beginning of “the birth pains”. In other words, something painful, yes, but something that must happen before the new life can begin. And as we read on it’s obvious from what Jesus says that, despite what so many people have done and are still doing,  we can’t take things like wars, natural disasters (and we surely can include plagues and pandemics in that category), or famines as signs that the end is nigh. So what are the signs of the end times?

Well, Jesus tells us that quite explicitly:

“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”

The most obvious interpretation of this is that the signs that herald the end will be seen in the heavens, not on the earth. But these words are almost identical to those used by Isaiah to speak about God’s judgement on Babylon. So what Jesus seems to be saying here is that there will be a time of great tribulation, a time of war and plague and natural disaster and famine which will only end when he returns to judge the world. In other words, things will carry on as they always have, there will always be trouble in the world. There will be wars and plagues and famines and natural disasters. So don’t worry about these things being signs that the end is coming. These things are not signs that the end is nigh they are just the way the world is and the way it will be until he returns in glory. But when will that be?

We have to say that Jesus’ words about this are a bit of a problem for us because he says,

Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”

The most obvious meaning of this is that those who were living at the time of Jesus, his contemporaries, would live to see the end and his return in glory. But we can’t take the most obvious meaning as the true meaning of his words because Jesus then says,

 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

So what is Jesus saying here? What does he really mean?

I think we have to accept that we simply don’t know for certain. It’s a problem of translation. Jesus spoke Aramaic, but the Gospels were written in Greek and we’re reading an English translation. We do know that, in Greek, ‘this generation’ could mean Jesus’ contemporaries, the people who were living at that time. But it could also mean, ‘this race’, in which case Jesus would seem to be saying that in spite of the great tribulation that’s coming, the Jews will not pass away before he returns. But it could also mean ‘this age or time’ and if that’s the case Jesus is simply saying that the time of tribulation won’t end until he returns. It’s perhaps significant that Jesus uses the term ‘pass away’ rather than ‘die’. The Greek words are different and when he speaks about death Jesus doesn’t use the word that we translate as ‘pass away’. So there’s no sense that Jesus is saying here that his contemporaries won’t die before the end comes.

So after all that what can we say about the end? Well, I think we have to accept that we’re still going through what Jesus called the birth pains and that these will only end when Christ returns in glory. And as terrible as they are, we shouldn’t regard war, plagues and pandemics, famines and natural disasters as signs that the end is nigh. We’ll know when the end is near because the signs will be on a cosmic scale, and they’ll be unmistakable. But we simply don’t know when those signs will appear or when end will come so it’s useless to speculate. Rather, what we should do is live as though the end is nigh, as though our generation, as though we will not pass away before the end comes. Because above all else, this is the point  Jesus is trying to make in this chapter of St Mark’s Gospel. After all is said and done, his final words on the subject of the end are these;

Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.  And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

Amen.

---

Propers for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (2 before Advent) 17th November 2024

Entrance Antiphon
The Lord says, my plans are peace and not disaster;
when you call to me, I will listen to you,
and I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.

The Collect
Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil,
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope,
may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory,
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)     
Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm 16:5, 8-11
Hebrews 10:11-14, 18
Mark 13:24-32

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm 16
Hebrews 10:11-25                                    
Mark 13:1-8     

One of the core teachings of the Christian faith is that Christ died to take away the sins of the world. And that is of crucial importance to us because it gives us the assurance that we can inherit eternal life in spite of our sinfulness because, through Christ’s death on the Cross, we can be forgiven for the sins we commit. Having said that, I think the Church does confuse matters at times because of the words it uses to speak about this in our liturgies. Sometimes we say that Christ died to take away the sin of the world, but at other times we say he died to take away the sins of the world. So which is it, sin or sins? And does it make any difference?

Actually, yes it does because although those two statements of faith are very similar they’re not the same, and they mean two different and clearly  distinguishable things. And we can see this in this morning’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews where we’re told that

‘…Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.’

So why do we use these two different terms and what is the difference between sin and sins?

It’s probably easiest to start with sin because if it weren’t for sin there would be no sins. As St Paul tells us in his Letter to the Romans, sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam, and this brought death into the world because all people since then have sinned. So sin is a state of being, it’s a predisposition to act in ways that are contrary to God’s will and God’s law. Sins on the other hand are the concrete acts of disobedience towards God that we actually carry out. We could say that sin is a condition we all suffer from, a pandemic illness of sorts, sinners is what we are because we suffer from that condition, and sins are what we do because of what we are, because of what sin has made us. It’s a bit like telling someone what our occupation is and then describing what we do because we have that occupation; this is what I am, and this is what I do because of what I am. I’m a doctor, I diagnose illness, I’m a priest, I celebrate Mass, and so on. So did Christ’s death on the Cross take away the sin of the world or the sins of the world?

I think the best way to explain this is to say, as our reading from Hebrews implies, that Christ dealt with sin by bearing our sins on the Cross. In one sense, Christ’s death on the Cross doesn’t take away the sin of the world, we know that because we all still suffer from sin, that is, we still have a predisposition to commit sins, but it deals with sin by taking away the guilt of our sins. Without Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross we would still be liable to the punishment due for our sins, alienation from God and death. In taking upon himself our sins and suffering that alienation from God and death on our behalf, Christ has removed the necessity for us to suffer those things. So Christ has taken away the effect of sin by taking away the guilt of our sins and the punishment due to us for our sins.

But sin is still in the world and if there is any time of the year when the reality of our continuing state of sin is brought home to us, it must be today, Remembrance Sunday, when we remember those who’ve died in time of war. Because what is war other than the sin and sins of human beings writ large?

We read in scripture that as children of God, disciples of Christ, people who live by the Spirit, we should show the fruits of the Spirit in our lives:

‘…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…’

We’re told that that we should

‘Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.’

Sin is nothing other than a predisposition not to show these virtues in our lives. Sins are the concrete acts that we carry out in not showing these virtues in our lives and in our dealings with other people. And if we think about these virtues what is war other than the end result of nations not showing these virtues in their national lives and their dealings with other nations?

So today, as we remember all those who’ve died in time of war, let’s also remember that they are the victims of the sin and sins of the world and that they paid for the sin and sins of the world with their lives. Not as Christ did because he alone was, in every sense, sinless, but victims of sin and of the sins of the world, nonetheless. And let’s remember too that we live in a state of sin, that we are sinners, and we commit sins. Our sinfulness makes each and every one of us responsible in part for the trouble that sin brings to the world and sins cause in the world. So let’s ask too for God’s forgiveness for the part that we all play in the sinfulness of the world and the suffering that sinfulness causes. But let’s not forget to give thanks too that through the Cross of Christ, the problem of sin has been dealt with. We don’t have to suffer the eternal punishment our sins warrant but can be forgiven and enjoy the eternal reward of the sinless.

Amen.

---

Propers for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (3 before Advent: Remembrance Sunday) 10th November 2024

Entrance Antiphon
Let my prayer come before you, Lord; listen, and answer me.

The Collect
Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
1 Kings 17:10-16
Psalm 146:7-10
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Jonah 3:1-5
Psalm 62:5-12
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 1:14-20

I once read that the world is made up of two kinds of people; those who have read The Lord of the Rings and those who are going to read it. I don’t know if that’s true or not and if it is, I’m somewhere on the journey between those two states because I’ve read two volumes of the trilogy but haven’t yet got around to reading the third volume. But whether you have read or are going to read The Lord of the Rings, you must know something about it. And even if you haven’t read the books, there can’t be many of you who haven’t seen at least some of the film adaptations of them that were released between 2001 and 2003. 

Despite many things in The Lord of the Rings being drawn from pagan mythology, it’s a work full of Christian themes; good versus evil, humility versus pride, mission, redemptive suffering, death and immortality, grace and providence. These things are all there in the work and that’s not surprising because the author, JRR Tolkien, was a devout Roman Catholic. He’s credited with being a significant influence on the great Christian author CS Lewis’ conversion to Christianity and Tolkien himself said that  The Lord of the Rings is “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work”.  But amongst the Christian themes and imagery in The Lord of the Rings, there’s one scene that I think is perhaps particularly suitable for today, All Saints Sunday, because it can teach us great deal about what it means to be a saint. To be the saints that we’re all called to be as disciples of Christ.

The Scene is The Council of Elrond where representatives of the various peoples of Middle Earth gather to decide what’s to be done with the One Ring. They know they have to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord, Sauron, because if they don’t, evil will rule over the whole earth. They’re told that the ring has to be taken into Mordor and be destroyed, but some don’t want that, they want to use the ring for themselves and when they’re told that’s not possible, they belittle those who say it and refuse to acknowledge their allegiance to them. Others are willing to destroy the ring and think they know the best and easiest way to do it. Some think they’re the best ones to carry out the task and don’t want certain others to play any part at all In the mission. In the end the Council dissolves into a heated argument between those concerned, with people on their feet, shouting and pointing their fingers at one another. And while all this is going on the wizard, Gandalf, who in Christian terminology is essentially an angel, looks on and shakes his head in despair.

And isn’t that just like the Church? The Church which has its divinely ordained mission to fight against sin the world and the devil, as our baptismal liturgy puts it. And yet spends so much of its time arguing about how to carry out its mission rather than getting on with it. Which engages in so many mutually destructive internecine arguments about who knows best and who, in their opinion, is and isn’t part of the fellowship that this mission has been given to. About who’s in charge of the fellowship. Even whether they’re willing to be part of a fellowship that includes those with whom they disagree. And can we doubt that while all this goes on and evil goes unchallenged because of it, the heavenly host looks on in despair and shake their heads?

And then, into this tumult, comes a small voice, from a very small person, a Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, who says “I will take it. I will take the ring to Mordor. Though I do not know the way.” Now,  Frodo Baggins isn’t perfect. By his own admission he doesn’t know how to get to the place he needs to get to. His journey there is long and hard. He often gets discouraged and thinks he can’t do this thing he knows he must. He sometimes gets lost on the journey, sometimes he’s led astray by others who lead him away from where he needs to go. Sometimes those who’ve pledged to help him try to divert him from the road he knows he has to follow. Sometimes those who’ve offered their help try to stop him from carrying out his mission. But he carries on regardless because he knows that what he’s doing is the right thing to do. And this is the way of the saints.

Saints are holy people, but they’re not perfect people. They’re people who’ve dedicated themselves to God and to carrying out God’s purpose in their lives but that doesn’t mean that they never get things wrong. It doesn’t mean they never have doubts. It doesn’t mean they’re never led astray. All these things happen to the saints but what makes them saints is that, whatever happens, they always return to their mission and carry on with it, no matter how hard it is, no matter what anyone else says or does to put them off or to try and stop them. And that’s something that we should always try to do too because we are all called to be that kind of person; we’re all called to be saints.

Just recently, I’ve been talking to a few people about vocations, and one of the questions that’s cropped up is how do we deal with being part of the Church when we disagree with what the Church is doing? What do we do when we think the Church has lost its way? Perhaps even that the Church seems to have lost sight of what its mission actually is. I’ve been asked these questions in the context of ordained ministry; what does a priest do in those circumstances? But the answer applies to both priest and people alike, and that is, we carry on following our vocation whether that be as a priest or a lay person because we’re disciples of Christ. And it’s him we follow and no other. I’m not saying that’s easy because I know that sometimes it’s not. We can be disillusioned both with what other people are doing and saying and with our own inability to follow Christ properly. We can be put off by what others do and say. We can find ourselves not knowing which way to go. But it’s in those times that we have to remember who we’re called to follow.

I’m sure that, like me, when you were young you did something you shouldn’t have done and, when you were asked why, you said it was because someone else had done it first. And no doubt the response you got from your parents or teachers was something along the lines of, “And if they’d stuck their head in the fire would you have done that too?” And that reasoning applies to us when we become disillusioned with things in the Church or find being a disciple difficult. Just because someone else in the Church is a hypocrite, does that mean we have to be one too? Just because someone else has given up because the Way of the Cross is too hard, does that mean we should give up too? Just because someone has been talked out of being a disciple of Christ, does that mean we should allow ourselves to be talked out of it as well? Just because someone else has lost their way and strayed from the Way the Cross, does that mean we have to follow them along the wrong path? The answer to all those questions is ‘No, we don’t’. Just as we wouldn’t stick our head in a fire just because someone else has done it, so we don’t have to do what other people have done when they’ve lost sight of the path they should be following as disciples of Christ. Whatever happens and whatever anyone says or does, we should always be faithful to Christ and his way. And even if we do stray at times, we should always come back to Christ’s way.

I know that, sometimes, it’s not easy to know what the right way to go is. We know we should follow Christ’s path, and we want to follow his path, but we can be confused about which path that is, especially when we have people giving us conflicting directions. That happens quite often these days as we try to deal with issues that we don’t read about in scripture.

It’s difficult to know at times which is the right way to go when one group in the Church is saying “This is Christ’s way” whilst at the same time another group is saying “No it isn’t.” And we always have to be wary of people claiming a certain way is Christ’s way when, in fact, that way is the way of the world and of those who are claiming that it’s Christ’s way. So we need a trustworthy guide, and that guide is Christ himself.

In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo is given The Light of Earendil to “…be a light … in dark paces when all other lights go out.” And when we’re in dark places and can’t see our way clearly, we have to walk by the light of Christ. We don’t carry it around in a flask, as Frodo does in The Lord of the Rings, but we do find it in scripture. And we should always carry it with us in our minds and in our hearts so that, when we’re in dark places and we’re not sure which way to turn or who to listen to, we can turn to Christ and listen to him so that he can show us the right way to go and put us back on that road again.

No matter what people say or do, no matter how confusing what they say and do is, we’re called to carry on regardless along the Way of the Cross. No matter how many times we take a wrong turning and get lost along the way, we’re called to keep going and find our way back to the right road again. This is the way of the saints and if we want to be the saints we’re called to be, this should be our way too. To travel the road of good over evil, of humility over pride, of following the Church’s mission to proclaim the gospel and teach people his commandments, the road of sacrificial love, a road we walk by faith in grace and providence, a road that we have to travel along until we come to the end of our lives but a road that, if we can travel it, will ultimately lead to eternal life. 

Amen.   

---

Propers for All Saints Sunday, 3rd November 2024

Entrance Antiphon
Let us all rejoice in the Lord and keep a festival in honour of all the saints.
Let us join with the angels in joyful praise to the Son of God.

The Collect
Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living,
that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)     
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
Psalm 24:1-6
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24:1-6
Revelation 21:1-6
John 11:32-44