What if tomorrow.......

Advent is a really strange time in the Christian calendar. It is, along with lent, the most solemn season of the year – flowers are taken out of Church, the Gloria is omitted from the service, and the colour of the season is purple – only used otherwise for lent and for funeral services. 

And yet, whilst we have few problems in recognising lent as a time for self sacrifice and reflection, this always seems more difficult during advent. And it doesn’t take a genius to work out why. Outside Church everyone and everything seems to be getting ready for Christmas – decorations are going up, carols are being sung, Christmas music is playing in the shops, and there are dinners and concerts and parties to attend. 

There is a huge contrast between advent in Church life, and the preparation for Christmas going on everywhere else. And this perhaps reminds us of the huge contrast that there is between so much of what we as Christians proclaim and celebrate and the thoughts and practices of so many others in the world today. But I think that’s how it should be… 

Jesus contradicted so much of what was expected of him – He came, not as hoped for by many, with riches or with military power. He didn’t surround himself with politicians or soldiers. He didn’t arm himself with weapons, and instead of drawing up a list of enemies, he asked people to love and forgive, when so many around him knew so much hate and condemnation. 

Advent is a time to reflect on the reasons for Jesus’ birth. It’s a time to celebrate the fact that he loved us enough then, and continues to love us enough today, and it’s a time, amidst all the preparations and busy-ness to look at what really is most important in our lives. 

It’s also a time to consider Jesus’ promise to return again, and to wonder how we’re prepared for that. In the gospel reading (Luke 21:25-36) Jesus reminds us of this wait for his promised return, but it’s not a time of restful waiting, not a time to be hanging around doing nothing, but a time of active waiting and searching, a time to seek God more closely and more intimately as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus and a time to share this message that we know a Saviour who was born to change the world yesterday, today and always.  

It is a time of expectation – and our waiting involves looking for signs, not to stand on street corners with placards announcing, ‘the end is nigh’ but to recognise an urgent message of good news and hope and salvation to be shared around widely and quickly ! The Christian church today must remain a relevant transforming power because Jesus is relevant and transforming today, not just someone on a page of history that we remember with fondness and share nostalgic stories about… 

And whilst Jesus is alive and relevant and transformational, we’re also reminded again that he will come back again – week by week we say it in the words of the Creed – he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead… 

And, without trying to offer any predictions, which would have no foundations whatsoever about the return of Jesus, the signs of disturbance that we see in the world today must surely inspire us to action, not to desperation or to depression, not to standing on a street corner proclaiming doom and gloom, but powerfully showing something of the life and love of Jesus who brings hope and peace and love into any situation. 

There’s an Irish singer called Ronan Keating who some of you may know – some seem to think he’s good looking (my wife included ! though I don’t think he’s really in my league at all !) But anyway he did a song called, ‘If tomorrow never comes’ and I want to think about those words this morning. 

It has to be said first of all, that it’s a pretty depressing title for a song, but what if ‘tomorrow never comes’ for us as individuals. Life can be very cruel at times and whilst the chances are that tomorrow will come for every one of us, we can never know that fact with absolute certainty. Advent is about getting ready, not just buying the presents for Christmas, but making sure that we are ready to meet Jesus whenever that day comes.. And it means trusting and knowing that that day is going to be good… 

Many people put off commitment to Jesus, thinking they’re too young or too busy, and that the time will come for them, but it’s too important to put it off until tomorrow... At baptism or confirmation services promises are made to commit our lives to Christ – not for one off events, not for one section of our lives, but absolutely and completely for the rest of our life. It’s about transformation… 

So advent is a time for considering our commitment. What are we offering of ourselves, our lives, our time, our money and so on for the one who committed everything he had for us and who loves us and treasures us with all of our faults and failings and strangeness ! 

And the second thing I want to think about is what if ‘tomorrow never comes’ for the Church. I’m fairly sure that our Church will have many more tomorrows, but that must never lead us to be complacent. As long as there are empty seats in our buildings, and as long as there are people who do not know the love of Jesus, there is work to be done. 

Some years ago now Helen and I went up to Edinburgh and we did the open top bus tour, and the guide kept pointing out to us how many churches had been closed, and were now shops, casinos, pubs and restaurants. If we travel around much closer to home, we will see the same thing… The reality is that the Church is in danger not because of a lack of faith, but because of apathy, and a belief that everything will be ok in the end. 

It’s been said that one of the surest ways to fill a Church is to announce that it’s closing… Churches must always exist for the people who want to come in for a moment, for a special occasion, for a service, but we must never be satisfied to exist in that way… We welcome those people but we pray that our welcome and God’s power will draw them back…  

During advent, it’s a good time to examine our Churches, and our commitment to them, and reflect whether we are doing enough to keep them open and keep them welcoming and relevant and loving… 

Because being open doesn’t just mean keeping the services going, in other words just existing, but it must mean being active and alive. It must mean reflecting out into the world a message of hope that Jesus offers to a world desperately needing hope, and a message of peace into a world desperately needing peace. 

In short we must be offering a message of real and lasting joy, and hope and peace and love, not just to those who come into our buildings, but actively offering that message to people that we have to struggle to meet, who are outside our Church community, and often outside of so much of what we are involved in. We have too many empty spaces in this church which need to be filled…

And finally what if ‘tomorrow never comes’ for the world. Will we be ready collectively ? As Christians we are taught that Christ will come to be our judge, and the Bible likens this to Christ coming as a thief in the night – we won’t know the day or the hour. At that time we will call upon his mercy, but how prepared will we be to receive that mercy ? 

Perhaps he’ll ask us what we have done for his Church, what we have done to share his gospel, locally and further afield, what we have done to care for the sick, the poor, the outcasts, for the alcoholics, for the homeless… 

When Jesus returns, as he will do one day, there will be no more tomorrows – will we be ready, will the Church be ready? Will we be able to look him in the face and say we did our best, and mean that. Can we say we didn’t let other hobbies or interests get in the way, that we didn’t let others do the work because we knew they would, or can we say that we didn’t spend too long thinking about buildings and about money…

Representing Christ on earth is what we are called to do. It is the highest calling and it is the greatest privilege… 

Advent is a time of self examination – a time for looking forward, not back, a time for hope, not for regret or guilt. It is a time to put things right in our lives – make a new start, a new commitment…

It is a new start in the church calendar – and offers us again the chance to make a new start in our own journey of faith and commitment and love…. The next line of that Ronan Keating song, ‘If tomorrow never comes’ is ‘will you know how much I loved you.’…. If tomorrow never comes will Jesus know by what we’ve done just how much we love him ?  AMEN