The following sermon was written by Bishop Elaine Sauer:

St.Luke’s Zion 10th Anniversary
Sunday, December 2, 2007

Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Matt 24:36-44

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Saviour Jesus Christ!

I love history. I’ve been a student of history most of my life. It was my favourite subject in high school and I eventually majored in Canadian history at university.

I have found the Christian faith to be very respectful of history. In fact the first generation of Christians were very conscious of the historical integrity of their faith. The stories of their faith are rooted in the Jewish people and how God worked through them, and the prophets, and then subsequent communities like the gentiles.

The faith stories were set in historical contexts so that people could affirm that these were not myths and fables, but God working through history and real actions to accomplish redemption. Abraham & Sarah & the covenant… Moses & the Exodus, David & Solomon & the kingdom & temple, the prophets & the exile & return…. In your mind you can imagine the culture, the language, the sense of society, who was in charge, etc.

So here is a little historical background to the story we hear in the gospel today.

The Sadducees and Pharisees, main leaders of the church, were collaborators with the Roman rulers and there was much oppression against the Jewish people. Even though these leaders in the church were Jewish as well, they were part of the oppressors. If you think about it,, why wouldn’t they be? How else could they be the big shots in society, how else could they live decadent lives? How else could they hold on to their limited power?
The Sadducees and Pharisees were part of the problem. They weren’t willing to give up their lifestyle, even if it meant their fellow human beings would be less oppressed. They weren’t willing to give up their lifestyle which was a symbol of the decadence that widened the gap between the rich and the poor.

In the gospel reading Jesus is talking about the second coming, of the Messiah coming to save a people. Of what significance was this coming of the Messiah then to this context, of church leaders in collaboration with the government of the day? Of what significant would the second coming be to the Jewish people who were in captivity?

Well, the Jewish people were looking for someone like a Moses to lead them out of captivity. Others who were disillusioned with the priestly leadership, the scribes and Sadducees, were looking for a royal priestly leader with integrity and respect and who spoke with authority when it came to the law of Moses. Perhaps they were even looking for one who was a strong prophet of renewal like Elijah was. Still others wanted a King, someone who had strength to defeat the Romans, who could raise up great armies and seek vengeance on the Romans.

And in the midst of this comes Jesus, who says, wake up, all you people, the day of judgment is coming, the day of the Messiah is at hand. All of you people who are hanging onto those lifestyles you love, look out. All of you people who are busy doing the usual affairs of daily life, look out. That’s not going to matter in the days coming. Wake up, clean up your act, get your house in order, because the Lord God is coming, and it won’t matter what your place in society will be, it won’t matter what you are doing, God’s judgment will come and it will bring salvation but only to some.

Jesus is proclaiming repentance and proclaiming that the one who would bring repentance was coming soon so the people should be ready. They should turn to God so God could clean up their lives and ready them. The gospel reading is an invitation for people to bring a different focus to their lives, to be centred in Jesus Christ, who would bring redemption, salvation.

What does this story mean to us today? Are we in need of cleaning up in preparation for Jesus entering our lives? What keeps us captive to our daily lives? What are the things we hold dear that reflect power in our lives? What makes us important and gives us a sense of self importance?

Maybe a title gives us self importance, perhaps being a bishop or pastor. People rely on or expect great things from a pastor or bishop of the church. They expect the right answers. They expect the pastor or bishop to condone or stand by what they feel and believe, their own personal agendas. They expect the pastor or bishop to have a message of hope when their context has changed, when they have diminishing numbers in their congregations so much so that they question whether the congregation will survive.

If one were to concentrate on their expectations of pastor or bishop, then it would be easy to have a high sense of oneself and one’s importance. But a pastor or bishop is only one person, no more important than the next. They just have a different label. They can’t hold on to and be captive to other people’s expectations or they might think of themselves as more important or more essential to the ministry of this church.

When we let go of our own self importance, then what is really important is God. It’s not about our agenda, or the church’s agenda or an individual’s agenda, it’s about God’s agenda. And God’s agenda is to redeem and save the world. “For God so loved the world” that he gave everything he had- his son- so that the world would be saved.

What of our own context, the world in which we live? What is our historical context in light of what Jesus is saying?

We have a widening of the gap between rich and poor, especially in terms of the north- south line of poverty- we in North American have so much more than our neighbours in South America or Africa. This is not something we like to talk about much though, because it disturbs our comfort zone. We like our lifestyles and standard of living. We are captive to our lifestyles and standard of living, much like the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time.

Last April when I took a trip to the Cameroon to visit our Companion Synod I asked the President what he would most like from one bishop to another. His response was to have a new clergy shirt- he hasn’t bought a new one in over 30 years. I had previously bought two new shirts upon being elected Bishop of MNO synod. I did not think twice about forking over almost $80. A few months ago I bought a new alb. I forked over $195 for that. You see what I mean about our standard of living. We have the money, we spend it. We are captive to our spending power.

I wonder if we are also captive to our greed- we have much, we want more. The Victoria Times Colonist once ran an interesting picture of an effigy of Santa Claus hung on a cross. The headline said “Santa shot Jesus out of the saddle”. A local artist, a Christian, was trying to make a statement about the orgy of consumption in the modern world. He said Santa represents frivolous consumption. Santa has become the focus of Christmas and he shot Jesus out of the saddle, so that Jesus is no longer the focal point of Christmas. The photo was considered offensive to some parents.

This orgy of consumption is evident in other places. We are fishing our oceans to the point where we may not conserve enough for future generations. We have global warming that occurred because we have stripped the forest, used our automobiles to the extent that we have excessive carbon dioxide in the air and excessive hydrocarbons in the atmosphere.

You see what I mean about being held captive to our world so much so we miss what God really wants of us- that we live in our world so that it will benefit all people and not just ourselves, so that the world will provide an opportunity for us to build a better relationship with our God and keep our focus on the right thing- that which will give us redemption.

God was working through the people of Jesus’ time to bring about a change to the world. Jesus’ call was for people to wake up to God’s coming so that the world would be changed.

God works in and through us too, in our time. God is working through us so that the world would be changed, so that it would be better for all people, not just ourselves. We need to be open to God, to be open to God cleaning up our lives and giving us a new way to look at our world and our role in this world, to release us from the things that hold us captive, like our lifestyles and standard of living, and to be part of God’s redemptive work in the world. God is calling us to wake up and be ready for a changed and redeemed world.

Years ago there was an uproar over the Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ. In the last few years there has been much said about the “DaVinci Code. You don’t have to like either of these movies or books but one thing is for sure- they have got people reading their bibles, entering into theological discussions and talking about their faith. They opened up a can of worms for those seeking to know the truth.

Advent is intended to be like that for us- a wake up call, a re-centering of our lives, focusing on the deep faith issues and life issues that confront us- and not for just a very short period of time. It is intended to be all year long, every year, throughout our whole lives.

What is our wake up call? How do hear the wake up call? Who are we as people? Who are we as God’s people? What is the mission of this congregation? What is the mission of our national church, of our whole church? What does it mean to be in mission for others?

These are not just trivial or abstract questions. They are ones that shape our very lives and they are ones that are answered by the call to be centred in Christ.

God has placed us here in this time and place, in this historic time. What will history say about us? What will history say about the church of this time? Will it be remembered for its mission- to help God bless the earth, to breach the brokenness of our world? Or will it be a time remembered with self interest? Will it be a time remembered for being the light of Christ in the world?

You are celebrating an anniversary of this congregation, a joining together to become one in the light of Christ. When you reflect back over the years, what will be the legacy of this congregation? Will it be remembered for being centred on Christ? Will it be remembered for its communal place in the world, for working together as a community? Will it be remembered for its walking in the light of Christ, even in the midst of a society that holds a different view of the world and that could easily hold us captive to a different lifestyle?

The good news is that the coming of the Messiah gives us hope- that we will be called the believers, the witnesses to Christ’s light, the ones who awaited the coming of Christ with meaningful work to be done, communal work as the church of Jesus Christ, all in the name of Jesus Christ who makes us one, who sends out and who blesses the world through Christ’s redemptive act.

Praise be to Christ, the centre of our life who calls us out to be a light in the world, and who calls us to be awake to the needs of the world. Amen.