Hope and Commitment

Welcome to Advent. It is a new church year. It is a new season as we prepare for God among us.

I want to begin by unpacking Matthew 24:36-44. This is part of a sermon Jesus offers about the end of the age. We aren’t necessarily talking about the end of the earth—just a time when everything will change.

Jesus takes us back to Noah. Noah didn’t know exactly what was going to happen or when exactly the flood would come. He just knew that he had been given the task of building the ark and gathering the animals. Everyone else was simply carrying on with life as normal.

So, when Jesus talks about this coming time, he is reminding us that we do not know. We simply carry on with life as usual and something abrupt and unexpected will happen. If you know when your house is going to be broken into, you might stay up all night. You might plan your day around it. Jesus’ point is that you don’t know when your house will be broken into.

This scripture and similar scriptures are often used to support a “rapture theology.” It’s the idea that at the end of the earth, Jesus will come again. Some people will be taken to heaven—kept safe. Everyone else will be left behind and then the earth will be destroyed.

That’s not really what this scripture is talking about. In the midst of Roman occupation, two people might be working in a field or grinding flour. One is “taken” by the Romans, and the other is left behind. To be taken was not a good thing—it might mean torture or death. There are many places in the world where people are disappeared—Mexico, Iran, Syria, Ukraine—and even here in Canada. One person is taken and family and friends are left behind to wonder, mourn, and pick up the pieces of their lives. You can’t plan for this violent separation. You don’t know when it will happen or who will be taken. Asking questions doesn’t necessarily give answers.

Jesus isn’t talking about God destroying the world at the end time. He is inviting his listeners to think much closer and much more specifically. What happens when the Romans come to occupy your town and take your family member or neighbour? Will you be prepared? How will you respond?

We are much removed from the Roman occupation, but the questions are similar. Will we be prepared for upheaval and uncertainty? Will we be able to live faithfully when something rocks our world? Are we prepared for the God among us who turns the world upside down and changes the way we see the world?

The scripture is an invitation to hope and commitment. Hope is about acting now to shape the future that is yet unknown. It is about believing and trusting that the world could be better than it is and living as though that time were already here. But in practical terms, what does that mean?

A little further on in his sermon, Jesus offers these familiar words: “I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” These are the signs that God has come among us.

These are the hope and commitment we are being invited to make in our everyday lives. Even when it feels like the world is falling apart we are to be a sign of God in the world. This is what it means to be ready. In other words, caring for the world around us is something we do because we believe that God is already here and something we do to be ready for the moment when God arrives. Leading up to Christmas there is often a strong push to support food banks and other charities that help people in need. But the invitation is to be just as generous in our caring throughout the year. This is one moment but God can show up at any time—not just this season.

My invitation to you this advent season is to be prepared for God among us. Live with a vision for the world and then shape that world through your commitment to caring for God’s people and God’s creation.

Where is God this Remembrance Day?

Remembrance Day has a long tradition within our country. We remember those who have died in active service and those who came home wounded and changed by their experiences. As a child, the veterans in my community were mostly elderly and Remembrance Day connected to wars of the past. It seemed like we were looking back to something disconnected from this time except by the memory of the veterans.

The histories and stories of wars past, become even more valuable when we can connect them to the present and the future. War continues to happen in many places around the world. We witness the war in Ukraine. We remember and hold in prayer, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia. Our Minute for Mission tells the story of war that continues in Korea since World War II. There are so many other places where war and violence are a daily reality.

Some of these conflicts we hear about on an almost daily basis. Other conflicts are mostly not on our radar unless we have a personal connection. For many of us, these conflicts feel removed from our daily lives. We might intentionally avoid looking at news in order not to be overwhelmed by the realities of the world’s hardships. But the scriptures Romans 8:31-39 and Micah 4:1-4 offer several signs of hope.

We remember that Jesus came into the world, lived in an occupied territory and was killed in part because he resisted the occupation. Most of us can only imagine what it would be like to live in an occupied territory, or in the midst of war. I wonder whether I would have the courage to resist, whether I would flee to safety or simply hide. Would I use violence to protect myself and those I love? None of us know how we will respond until we find ourselves in the situation. Jesus spoke against the tyranny of the Roman empire and encouraged others to be strong in the face of violence. He himself was killed.

The scripture from Romans reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Paul questions whether hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword can separate us from Christ. Even war and all of the consequences that go with it, cannot separate us from the love of God. So where is God in the midst of such horrific death and suffering? Where is God when the world is falling apart around us?

As Jesus’ life ended in violence, he questioned God’s presence: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” There is nothing wrong with questioning God’s presence, especially when the violence seems overwhelming and final. And yet, we see the disciples move through their grief and despair to a faith grounded in the reality that God is present even in death and violence. Death and violence will not win out.

Along with stories of violence, we hear stories of resilience. We hear stories of aid workers placing themselves in danger to help others. We hear stories of people sharing the little they have. We hear stories of people who welcome refugees. We hear stories of people resisting the violence all around them.

In these stories, we find the strength of God. We find the comfort of God. We find the compassion of God. We find the God who remains present. Romans reminds us “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus the Christ.” These words offer us comfort and hope that we are not alone in the midst of great violence.

Scripture holds out a second piece of hope around war—a world without war! Micah offers us a vision of a world where the resources and energy will go into sharing the world’s resources. Our efforts will be placed in insuring safe, adequate housing and food for all. Micah invites us to imagine a world without fear. What an amazing possibility! What if God’s spirit working through the world’s people was able to take all the resources, we currently put into protecting ourselves and others and put them into making sure everyone has enough?

Hope is always future oriented. It shows us the possibilities. I remember being taught as a child that the 1st and 2nd world wars were the wars to end wars and yet we continue to live in a world where war is a daily reality for many. Without hope, we simply accept the current reality as the only possibility. There has always been war so there will always be war in the future. Hope invites us to dream. There has always been war but what if the future could be different?

Our faith invites us to hope. If we think of scripture, not as God’s promise but as God’s invitation it might help us shape the future. The passage from Micah has always spoken to me since I first discovered it as a teen. I feel like it gives my life focus and purpose. A world without war, where everyone has enough, and no one is afraid. It offers a big ideal—a world without war but breaks that dream into something much more basic—everyone with food, home, safety. I might not be able to change the world, but I can do the work of food, home, safety here in this community. As we do that little bit of work, it creates a ripple that could eventually lead to big change—a world without war. Even if it doesn’t happen in my lifetime, it gives me hope.

I want us to hold these two scriptures in tension this Remembrance Day. We are not alone and nothing, even the current realities of war, can separate us from the love of God. We live with the reality of war and we are invited to hope for a different future.