Rejoice, the Lord is near

Dr Richard Smith - 15/12/2024

Readings - Philippians 4:4-7 and Luke 3:7-18

 The cry of the human spirit to the universal spirit of goodness and truth that permeates our world is reverberating around the world for the joy that follows peace.

Peace from Wars, Peace from domestic violence, Peace from Child Sexual abuse, Peace from loneliness, Peace from destruction of the environment. It is a cry from every corner of the world at present. It is a constant struggle to achieve Peace in all these areas.

But 2,000 years ago, the Prince of Peace entered our World. John the Baptist, foresaw this coming at a time when the Roman historian Tacitus (56ADS) spoke of the Roman Empire as: “they plundered, butchered, stole and misnamed it empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace”. This was the ordinary persons experience of Pax Romana. And so, the question became: how do conquered people achieve peace when they have been overcome militarily, overwhelmed economically, beaten down socially?

The ancients believed in two principal ways. One was to fight again and again, usually losing to overwhelming power. There were many such Jewish uprisings against Roman power – often sparked by messianic leaders, who thought they were anointed by God to restore the land promised to King David and his successors.  We see parallels in our own time in the recent “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement that carried the Presidential election. Also the war in Gaza with Israel’s attempt to reclaim the promises made to Abraham. Each seeks to reverse the arrow of time, which only goes in one direction; that is forward.

A second response was that of the apocalyptic prophets, who announced God’s own power would soon accomplish what human resistance could not, namely, a total victory of good over evil and the arrival of a world of justice and peace.  (This message is often wrapped in expectations of the Rapture and Jesus’ Second Coming). Many react in the present time to warnings of human caused global warming with the expectation that somehow the problem will be resolved by some mysterious external agency, while they sit back and carry on with life as usual. We see this playing out in our bi-polar political system, which is being challenged by a group of independents led by women. God works in mysterious ways.

The apocalyptic prophet, John the Baptist, appeared in the Jewish homeland and re-enacted the journey of Moses and Joshua, who in ancient times had led the Israelites through the desert before crossing into the Promised Land. John baptised people in the Jordan River as they crossed back into Israel, expecting to achieve by divine power what could not be achieved by mere human strength.

John’s ministry gained popular support, but threatened the ruler Herod Antipas who had him executed, leaving behind a vast network of people, expectant, eager, ready and waiting for God’s power to be revealed. Jesus, who had been baptised by John stepped into this vacuum, but adopted a radical new message and way of living, based on love and forgiveness of one another. He told the people to focus their attention on the simple but very difficult practise of serving one another in such a way as to create a new kind of loving community, which he called the Kingdom of God; so developed the new religion of Christianity – the biggest religion in the world which continues its process of adaptation and evolution in a changing world.

It is in this reality of the Kingdom of God in which we are all invited to be active participants, in whatever way we are able. Jesus led by example. John the Baptist, was an ascetic who ate and drank little and folks thought he was demented. Jesus feasted with others rather than fasted.

Jesus was confident God would provide. Jesus trusted in human generosity, and strongly recommended celebration. He congratulates the hungry and promises them a feast. Jesus shows up both eating and drinking, and so people call him a glutton and a drunk, a crony of toll collectors and sinners. He advises his critics that the groom’s friends can’t fast as long as the groom is around. His parables are filled with parties – over the recovery of the lost coin, a lost sheep, a lost son – Jesus pictures the arrival of God’s rule as a dinner party. He is the proverbial party animal, as a biblical scholar recently put it.

However, the Church in the West in its many forms appears to be in steep decline due to cultural shifts, changes in attitudes towards church membership, an aging demographic, and challenges related to resource management and community engagement. While this has been happening the existential threats to our climate and environment have been going in the reverse direction. There is an inverse correlation between these two global forces. But correlation is not causation.

We could be leveraging our community networks by advocating for environmental sustainability and climate action which would revitalize our relevance among the younger generations who prioritize these concerns.

God is not dead, but forever alive as the Spirit of Goodness and Truth that permeates our world. But every generation has to rediscover this in different contexts and in different ways. As in the time of John the Baptist while we wait for God, God is waiting for us to take the initiative.

We are called to work together within and beyond the Church to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world, as we anticipate the celebration and joy of Christmas during this Advent season.

In Jesus Christ’s name Amen