THE LAST WORD

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON DECEMBER 2^nd, 2007

Isaiah 2:4

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

I have to confess that I was tempted to make my text from our Epistle reading, where Saint Paul says: "Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in quarreling and jealousy". This was because during the week two Australians sailors on leave from HMAS Sydney here in San Diego went out on the town. After a few drinks they got into a vigorous discussion with a local about whether Australian Rules football was better that American football. In the end the two Aussie sailors, fueled by alcohol, got into a fight and they appeared in court, of course. As the HMAS Sydney sailed onto Australia, they appeared in court. Bail was set at $50,000. I was most bemused to hear that the US navy representative said they would be happy to look after them. Look after then, indeed!

Often we hear such a story, and we think "Oh really?" We might say that today about the reading from the Isaiah 2? This prophecy has been heard for thousands of years - they will beat their swords into plowshares - and it still has not happened. Neither, of course, those chilling words "Neither shall they learn war anymore".

Another thing happened this week that prompted the cynical reply "Oh really" was the conference in Annapolis in Maryland called by President Bush to resolve once again the problems of the Holy Land. This conference looks as if it may have some hope of progress. Of course we have all seen this before with previous presidents and previous conferences. So when I heard about it I was tempted to smile and say "Oh really?" Yet we must have in our hearts a hope for peace in that most troubled and most significant of places in our world.

"Beat their swords into plowshares". Isaiah wrote his words thousands of years ago. The image it presents of swords being beaten into tools of trade has been strong in every century and in every culture - filled as this prophecy is with the hope of what the world can be like. Isaiah portrays this age of peace as being centered on Jerusalem - all nations will stream to the Holy City, like moths to a flame.

And peace will result only because in coming to Jerusalem, the nations will follow the ways of God and walk in his paths. Isaiah says it is only by doing God's will that peace will come to our world - and how difficult that is.

It is because nations don't follow God's will that wars happen - that they follow their own counsels and not God's. I guess none of us see that changing just yet. Isaiah prophesied a world of peace with people streaming to the Temple in Jerusalem in joyful harmony, symbolic of the pre-eminence of God in the lives of the nations.

The conference in Annapolis reminded us that Jerusalem, far from being a place of joyful harmony, is still a centre of division and conflict - and all that streams to it seems to be bitterness and vengeance.

"I was glad when they said unto me, we will go to the house of the Lord, and now our feet are standing in your gates O Jerusalem". Who this morning in Israel or Palestine will recite Psalm 122 without vengeance or rancor?

By contrast Saint Paul writes in Romans 13: "It is full time now for you to wake from sleep…let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day". A modern translation puts it more sharply: "Let us live decently". I think decency is the casualty of recent times.

When we consider that conference in Annapolis there is a sense that once again we are beginning a process, we are back at the beginning again. Back at the beginning again - it's a useful phrase on this Advent Sunday. Each year on Advent Sunday the Church invites us to go back to the beginning - to reflect on the promise of the Messiah given to the people of the Old Covenant, which is to be fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. But before we move into this theme of Advent, Advent Sunday also holds up before us the promise of a second coming of Christ at the end of time.

In today's Gospel (Matthew 24:37-44) Jesus states quite plainly that no one knows when this will be. And just as well - otherwise we would all just sit down and wait for the hour - we would have a slanted view of daily life, of family life, and no need to work for a better world. Like those odd Christian churches who preach the second coming with glee and great warnings, as if they really want the world to be destroyed and all those in it. That is not what Jesus tells us.

Today, we stand astride the twin elements of the first coming of Jesus 2,000 years ago, and his second coming - which could be in another 2,000 years, or in 20 minutes! The point of today's Gospel - and the teaching of both Jesus and Saint Paul - is that we must live as if it might happen tomorrow. To live not only as if something glorious will happen - but that something has already happened. That something is Jesus.

Today's collect contrasts the first coming of Jesus in great humility, with his second coming in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead. This is a cause of great joy and hope for Christians, not of fear. For nothing we do in this world will hasten that coming. It will only happen in God's time.

Even if God has something in mind, he might not be bothered about a strict timetable dictated by some protestant evangelist! Punctuality is hardly relevant to someone for whom a thousand ages in his sight are like an evening gone.

Saint Paul is urging us to open our hearts, our minds, our wills to the reality of life now - and the possibilities of the future. What kind of people should we be? What might we avoid and how? What sort of world should we be building? What kind of things should we try to bring about?

The point is this: sooner or later, He, the Almighty, is going to have the last word - for he is both Alpha and the Omega. When this last word comes, will we be ready?

Let us live this Advent so that last word will be a word we will be glad to hear - rather than a word we wish had never been spoken.