THE WAVES OF THE ETERNAL STORM

Sermon delivered on the Second Sunday in Advent the 7th December 2008 by Fr Nicholas JG Sykes in the congregation of St. Alban’s Church of England, George Town, Cayman Islands.

Scriptures: Isaiah 40: 1 - 11    2 Peter 3: 8 - 15a    S. Mark 1: 1 - 8

S. Mark 1: 7f S. John the Baptist said, "After me comes He who is mightier than I ... . I have baptised you with water; but He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit."

AGITATION AND WAVES

This is the kind of statement pointing to something that we might prefer to think is far-off, but which according to the messenger, is about to affect us in a close and personal way. For example, we know some of what is taught about God: but does that teaching come home to us and affect us? Or perhaps it is some statement we read in the newspaper. Everybody hears, for example, that the world’s finances have become unstable; but it is when it begins to bite into someone’s income that he really takes notice. We know that human death is a universal constant, but it is when a friend or loved one dies, or perhaps when our doctor tells us it is time to put our house in order, that the fact of it really strikes home. John the Baptist’s statement looking forward to the Coming of the Lord puts me in mind of someone in a motor-boat off, say, the Public Beach or Cemetery Beach in West Bay. If some disturbance or hurricane is causing an agitation in the sea many miles away from the shore, waves will travel along away from the disturbance towards the shoreline. Thinking of the waves as being caused by the disturbance of the storm, from a suitable vantage point one could follow each wave, starting at the point of the agitation, as it travelled along the surface of the sea. The atmospheric agitation of the storm is the cause of the wave that makes its way through the sea. In a boat on the sea off West Bay, however, you are not travelling along with the swell. All you are doing is bobbing up and down as the wave goes by. The only way you would have of getting to the agitation that is causing the waves would be to motor off through the waves so as to find the source of the agitation. For you in that situation the waves would come first and the disturbance that caused them would come last.

THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT

Prophecy might be thought of as observing, taking note of, interpreting and declaring the waves in time of eternal events or realities that take place at the boundary between eternity and time. As human beings we are naturally like a boat bobbing up and down as the wave passes. If we are totally insensitive, we do not even notice anything as we go up and down. But as human beings, we are usually sensitive enough to discern that something is going on. As people of faith, though, we will need to take further action. We will be compelled to find and get to know the source that is disturbing and calling us. There might be others, though, who act not out of faith but out of fear, and do their best to get away from the disturbance. Indeed if they timed their escape carefully, they might pick a speed that was that of the wave itself, and then they could cruise through life without being affected at all. The prophetic spirit, however, must propel us through and against the waves as they crash against us and disturb our even course, until we get to the root and cause of it all.

THE COMING OF CHRIST IS GOOD IN ITSELF

Last week we considered the integrity and rationale of the Advent event, and saw that it was there not ultimately for the purpose of providing us with a test, but for the eternal vindication of what is right and wonderful. Since we know that Jesus is good, then His Coming must always be good, from the eternal perspective. However concerned we might be about whether it is good for us, our primary consideration ought always be that it is good in itself. Prophecy can pick up that consideration and express it, as I consider it does in our Old Testament Lesson today. The Book of the Consolation of Israel, as this part of Isaiah is called, begins with the words, "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God." The God who is coming will gently restore His people. The imagery is that a level road will be forged for Him through the craggy rocks of the mountains and valleys of the wilderness. There might, though, be some for whom this action will not be good. If parts of the prophecy can be applied to the defeat of the cruel Babylonian captors by the Medes and the Persians, there is bound to be those Jews who had profited in their Babylonian captivity who would not want such a change to take place. It was a disturbance in their life that might not be good and wonderful for them, and yet it is proclaimed by the prophet here as good and wonderful in itself. A genuinely prophetic apprehension of the Coming of Christ will always include this note of Comfort. It is good and wonderful in itself. And we would not want to be in the position of finding that something that is good and wonderful in itself, is bad for us. If that is the case, then we need to be changing our own life’s position in a hurry. Essentially, that was the prophetic message of John the Baptist.

THE DISTURBING AND COMFORTING MESSAGE

That too is the message of the New Testament Lesson from 2nd Peter. In one sense it is a disturbing message. The deluge of Noah’s time that is described in the verses before the start of our lection is expressed in the reading as an image of a worse destruction to come: one of dissolution by fire. "The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up." Yet we are not just idly waiting for it to happen, like commuters at a bus stop. The writer characterises the waiting and watching lifestyle as "hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire." That waiting and watching lifestyle is to be one of holiness and godliness. One might well ask, "Why would one want to hasten such a catastrophe?" We have to get back to the primary consideration, that whatever its effects might be, it is a good in itself. This is expressed in verse 13. "According to His promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." So we are challenged to be ready for that, not being driven away from the Hand of the Lord by fear, but being compelled towards it through faith. Our lifestyle will be affected by that fundamental attitude or orientation. Being compelled through faith, we must be zealous to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace. There are so many, though, who are being driven, Jonah-like, in the opposite direction by fear, who think they can avoid the Hand of the Lord and His Call, by flight.

UNCOMFORTABLE REALITIES, WITH A GOOD AND WISE AUTHOR

St. John the Baptist’s prophetic message was both disturbing and a source of comfort. He said that one was coming who was mightier than he. From John’s mouth, the description of the Coming One’s baptising with the Holy Spirit was more than a little frightening. In St. Matthew’s Gospel it is rendered as baptising "with the Holy Spirit and with fire". We are called by such expressions, though, to amend what is amiss in our lives and get ready. The symbol of this in John the Baptist’s ministry was being baptised into the lifestyle of the true and guileless Israel. We too are called to confront the uncomfortable realities of our own life’s situations, and not to run away from them. The symbol of that is to be a steadfast walking in the sign of our Christian baptism. Our assurance is that however severe the waves in our sea may be, they are caused for a good purpose and by a good and wise Author. The Holy Spirit’s work may be uncomfortable but it is unfailingly good. The message of the Advent of Christ is one of Comfort at the most fundamental level of all. We have the opportunity to be changed from being "in Adam" to being in Christ, and to gain the prize. Our coming to the rail for Communion is a testimony to heeding that call.

QUESTIONS

1. From the eternal perspective the Final Coming of Christ is neither past nor present nor future. Discuss.

2. Identify some circumstances of your life in which you could choose between turning against the "waves" towards their Author in faith, and flight.