Readings: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-36
For the young at heart - Why don`t you look properly?
Do you ever lose things? When I was young I remember Mum telling me to go and get something ¬- maybe I was to put my shoes on or something like that. I`d go and look for them. I knew more or less where to look, but I couldn`t find them. Then I`d go and tell Mum. She`d heave a sigh and we`d head off to my room, where I`d already looked and knew they weren`t there - and there they would be, right in front of us. And my Mum would say `Oh, James, why don`t you look properly?

Jesus got frustrated that people didn`t look properly. Jesus talked a lot about the kingdom of God, where God`s love ruled how people behaved. He compared it with seeds growing and bread rising, about people being like salt - adding flavour to life, producing fruit and loving everyone. Lots of the people listening to him thought he was talking about some time in the future. Some of his disciples even talked after he had died about him coming back at the end of time. But Jesus said, `No, the Kingdom of God is among you now, you just don`t notice it.`

He was saying, `Don`t spend your life hoping for heaven - heaven is here on earth, anywhere we let God`s love reign. Look properly and you will see God`s love at work - and, better still, you can be part of it, sharing God`s love with others. Each time we do that God is made real and Jesus comes again.

Sermon - Hope and the coming of Christ
This candle symbolises hope, and the theme of today`s readings is hope, but they seem to be talking about hoping for different things. How do we make sense of what living in hope meant for Jesus and what it means for us?

It is clear that Jeremiah was hoping for a change in the fortunes of Israel. A return from exile and a time of justice and peace under a new king. The vision of some wonderful time in the future when all will be made right and all be love and peace, with the fortunes of Israel restored was a captivating one, and it appears again and again in the Old Testament.

Again and again we see the vision of the strong, powerful, wise and just king, the Messiah, defeating Israel`s enemies and then presiding over a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

Not surprisingly, the early Christians read passages like this as prophetic anticipations of the coming of Jesus as the longed-for Messiah, ushering in the new kingdom.

But when Jesus talked of a kingdom it was the kingdom of God - the time and place where God reigns - and not the rulers of this world. It wasn`t about changing the political arrangements, it was about living under a completely new set of priorities.

When Pilate asked Jesus, `Are you a king?` Jesus didn`t deny it but said, `My kingdom is not of this world!` Of course, it is tempting to ask, `How do we know that is what was said?` The gospel story depicts this as a private conversation between Pilate and Jesus - how did the gospel writer know the words that were spoken. It is likely, therefore, that this conversation was a construction of Luke.

Jesus has spent three years preaching about the kingdom of God where God`s rule of love prevails. In his preaching he has said many times - the kingdom of God is like . . . but never `my kingdom is like . . `

This kingdom of God was so completely different from the prevailing world order - both then and now - that it was truly `not of this world`, but for Jesus at the last to suddenly claim to be king of this kingdom of God is inconsistent. It makes much more sense to see this as Luke promoting the risen Christ (the spirit of God, as revealed in Jesus` preaching and life) to the position of King of the new kingdom of God.

And that is the sort of light in which we need to view today`s gospel reading. The gospel writers in several places have Jesus making predictions about the end of time and the coming of the Son of Man that are completely out of character with the practical, down-to-earth, witty parables that marked Jesus` preaching. They are much more in line with the preaching of John the Baptist - several of whose followers became Jesus` disciples.

At verse 31 Luke has Jesus saying, `So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.` And yet a few verses back at chapter 17 verses 20 and 21 read like this `Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming and he answered, `The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, `Look, here it is!` or `There it is! For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.

The Gospel of Thomas, which didn`t make it at the Council of Nicea, has the same quote, but puts it this way - `the Father`s imperial rule is spread out upon the earth, and people don`t see it.`

So the `big bang theory` is out. We are not relying on some big event at the end of time to put everything right.

But if Jesus did not preach that he would come again in the clouds of heaven at the end of time, where is our hope? Why have we lit the candle? What are we hoping for?

In the Christian calendar Advent has usually been a time of waiting for the coming of Jesus - a sort of reminder of what it was like before Jesus came. But Jesus has come, the Good News has been preached, the Kingdom of God is at hand. But there are so many for whom those words are not real - for whom it sounds a cruel and hollow joke.

If the Kingdom of God is at hand

• how come I haven`t got enough to eat?
  
• how come I have no clean drinking water?
  
• how come I`m dying of a preventable disease?
  
• how come nobody cares?

How real is the kingdom of God for people like that? Where is their candle of hope?

Here it is, right here on our table.

At Christmas time Jesus turns hope around. Don`t ask what you have to hope for at Christmas, ask how you can help to meet the hopes of others.

Our task this Christmas is not to wait for the second coming, the big bang at the end of time when everything will be set right. We can`t know what the end of time will bring so dreaming about it is a waste of time. Worse, it is a misleading distraction. We are called on to be part of the solution.

Remember the beatitudes. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted - who is there to do the comforting? Blessed are the hungry for they will be filled - by whom? Just you and me!

As followers of Jesus we are called to make the kingdom of God a reality.

This candle of Hope is a symbol of God`s love burning in us, forcing us out of our comfort zone to help those who have no comfort. May we live up to our calling to be their Hope this Christmas.


A thought - Was Darwin wrong?

Did you watch that excellent series on ABC TV on Charles Darwin and the publication of his book on the origin of species? I certainly did, and I wonder if he got it slightly wrong.

Let me say at once that, like the infamous Bishop Wilberforce who criticised the book in public debate and was made to look pretty silly, I haven`t read the book! However, my university training in biology has given me a passing familiarity with the general drift.

In very simple terms, Darwin suggested that all the different species of animals and plants on earth did not come into being at one creative moment by the intervening hand of God. In fact, he theorised, new species derive from existing species as natural variations occur - like the variations you see in different breeds of dogs.

Of course, in that case breeders have intervened to selectively breed for the variations they like. This is called `artificial selection`, but Darwin postulated that in nature changes in the environment, shortages of food and the like, acted to favour those plants and animals whose natural variations made them more able to adapt to the changing environment. This he called `natural selection`. So far, so good.

Darwin`s theory was summed up in the phrase `the survival of the fittest`. This has been commonly misunderstood to mean that the biggest, strongest and toughest survive - if that were so where is Tyrannosaurus rex, and why have we still got butterflies`

No, survivors come in all shapes and sizes, but it is probably fair to say that Darwin saw the survivors as those who could best look after number one - the self-preservationists.

But for me that is only part of the story. There are many species, including our own, for whom taking care of others is more important than self-preservation. Think of bee or ant nurseries where some adults spend their life tending the larvae that will be the next generation.

Sometimes the ultimate self-sacrifice is called for. I remember in the movie ANTZ the scene where a large group of ants formed a pyramid up which the other ants could climb to escape the deluge that eventually engulfed the living pyramid.

And of course all species are dependent on other species of plants or animals for survival. We look after other species like apples and lettuce because we need them. We even look after some species just because they are there - in our national parks.

Some people say that Darwin`s theory does away with God because creation didn`t happen the way the Bible says. I say they couldn`t be more wrong. God is at the heart of Darwin`s theory - the God of love. It all depends on love - love of self, love for others of your species, love for the interdependent species, and finally love for all life.

What has all this to do with the candle of Hope? According to the theory of evolution, under this motive force of love everything is developing and adapting. The long term future for life on this planet of ours is good - life will adapt.

Will we humans be part of that future or will we be left behind like the dinosaurs? It all depends upon our ability to change and adapt. My guess is that we mightn`t like the changes, but that we will adapt.

In this week of climate change debate it is good to think about the lessons Darwin can teach us of the motive power of the God of love in and through all creations and the hope that power of love holds for the future.