Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Trinity

Sunday 26th June 2005

Preached by Rev Brian Parker

Check out

One of the key skills of a doctor is to spot symptoms and to make an accurate diagnosis. In doing this he can then take action and that may prevent an illness from developing or at least get the patient on the road to recovery.

The reading from St Matthew’s Gospel this evening is in part about the Second Coming of Jesus. It is a difficult passage but there are some clear insights and straightforward guidance on how we should view this wondrous prophecy.

For a start we are not to go looking for symptoms! The world is full of interpretations and speculative assumptions concerning the Second Coming of Jesus.

Some of these have formed the foundation of new religious sects and sent people off on a wild goose chase of anticipation. And specific dates of the Second Coming have been predicted – these have come and gone and life goes on.

Jesus told his disciples not to run after imaginative theories and speculation. “Men will tell you, ‘There he is! Or ‘Here he is! Do not go running after them”.

That’s the clear teaching of Jesus. Stop chasing after shallow speculation.

In God’s time the Second Coming of Jesus will be clear. All men will know it. There will be nothing obscure about it.

As ‘lightning lights up the whole sky’ the Second Coming will be a revelation that will be prominent and pervasive.

So be patient. And in the meantime get on with living. Put your heart and mind into the ‘now’ and be prepared to work out the meaning of the Gospel in your own personal pilgrimage.

Jesus also makes it plain that the Second Coming will break into the mundane of life. People will be ‘eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage’ and doing business. All perfectly normal and right things to do but Jesus goes on to recall that that was the way it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot.

In those days ‘the flood came’ and ‘the fire and sulphur rained down’. The Lord is reminding his listeners of the reality of divine judgement in our lives.

Jesus is saying that life must go on as normal but we must guard against letting the everyday things preoccupy us to the extent that they divert us away from our duty to God.

‘Remember Lot’s wife” and how unwilling she was to relinquish everything at the time of God’s judgment. Misplaced values divert us and lead us along the wrong path.

William Barclay comments on the judgement of God as something ‘no man will foresee and all men will see”. However life lived in anticipation of judgment will be a life that is ready and prepared to be judged.

This state of readiness will be seen in our dispositions, our commitments, our attachments, and our ultimate loyalty.

A final straightforward lesson from this difficult passage is summed up in the saying: “No man can deliver his brother”.

When the judgements of God break into the mundane of our lives, Jesus presents a stark picture of people together all their lives being separated – one taken, the other left.

The lesson is about personal responsibility and commitment. Just being in the crowd or close to someone who has a committed faith is not the way of salvation.

Sometimes for example it seems one member of a family comes to church. The others leave such duties of faith and worship to him or her. But Jesus warns that we cannot discharge our duty to God by proxy or even association.

The judgment of God is an individual judgment – one will be taken and the other left.

It’s a good thing to get a check up, to examine ourselves and to take stock.

We all need to check out our faith from time to time. We need to consider afresh our faith and the obligations that flow from it. We need to ask ourselves pointed questions that may help to point us in the right direction.

So have the perfectly normal and routine things created a diversion rather than a purpose in our lives?

That kind of self-examination in itself signals a state of readiness for duty and service but it must lead on to deliberate choices and action if it is to be proven genuine.

It’s all down to each one of us – individually, coming together as Christ’s Church in the world, ready, prepared and living by the grace of God.

Of course it can be a disturbing discipline. The following prayer was written by Carolyn Lawrence at a time in her life when she realised that as a Christian she needed to examine her lifestyle and values and indeed what on earth she was meant to do. So she prayed:

Praise to God who disturbs us in our complacency,
Who makes us dissatisfied with our lives because they are not as He would have them be.

Praise to God who shows us the wrong that we must put right,
Who makes us angry when we see evil and ashamed when we turn away and do nothing.

Praise to God who has shown us the way to live,
Who challenges us to live out His love in this world,
In the midst of fear, pain and hatred.

Praise to God who gives us His power,
Disturb us now with your love,
Show us what we must do.

Turn our dissatisfaction, our anger and our shame
into loving action,
And Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.

Amen.