Fragility, humility, fidelity - Rev Allister Lane
READINGS: ISAIAH 64:1-9 AND MARK 13:24-37
Fragility
As we come to the end of 2020, I’ve been reflecting that this year has made us all more aware of the fragility of human life. The coronavirus has highlighted our mortality, and that our actions can greatly affect one another.
In this morning’s reading, we hear the prophet Isaiah recognises
we all fade like a leaf. (v6)
Such recognition of human fragility can be debilitating. I wonder do you find yourself resisting or resenting this fragility?
Humility
It certainly gives us humility. And maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Isaiah describes how we are shaped like clay. Isaiah sees that God is unlike us; God is powerful. God is also the Creator. God is like a potter.
In humility, recognising our creaturely fragility allows us to be shaped by the One who has our best interests at heart. Shape me God, make me who you want me to be.
Isaiah calls out to God:
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.
Several centuries after Isaiah, God DID come down. Not by tearing open the heavens, not with mountains quaking, fire and trembling. But in humility, God embraced creaturely fragility.
The word ‘humility’ derives from the Latin word humus (earth) – we understand the meaning of being humble is to be ‘grounded’.
Jesus willingly humbled himself, entered into his own creation as a human baby, became fragile.
Fidelity
Jesus willingly humbled himself in his faithfulness to God’s purpose. As well as humbling himself - coming in human fragility on earth - Jesus suffered and was killed (for us).
He did this in harmony with the will of God (in the power of the Spirit); He fulfilled true relationship with God the Father. And in his faithfulness, Jesus opens up the way for you and me to share true relationship with God.
In today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus instructs his followers to be faithful. How are we to be faithful?
By remaining watchful.
This is ‘apocalyptic talk’. What do you imagine ‘apocalyptic talk’ to be?
Jesus is talking about suffering and crisis. At the time Mark’s Gospel was written, there was a great deal of violence and instability. A Judean Revolt had generated a brutal response by the occupying superpower: the Roman Empire. There was devastation in this moment in history, including the destruction of the temple in AD 70.
When we run out of words to describe crisis-upon-crisis, we might reach for ‘apocalypse’. ‘Apocalypse’ literally means ‘unveiling’ or ‘revealing’. ‘Apocalypse’ doesn’t necessarily mean a conclusion, but rather a warning.
This understanding of apocalypse, is closer to Jesus’ instruction of watchfulness; watchfulness for a time when we are able to see something we have not been able to see. So, rather than feeling fear and dread, we can have hope for the future. Are we watching for the Kingdom? Looking with hope for justice?
When we lit the Advent Candles, we sang:
sight be unblurred, justice be spurred
Are we faithfully remaining watchful, as Jesus instructs? Do we see the kingdom in our midst? “sight be unblurred, justice be spurred”
Jesus is the Lord of history. He is the destination of history. He is the one true end; the one true Lord. (Not a virus, not political instability, terrorism, greed, neglect, or ‘survival of the fittest’.) None of these Kingdom-contradictions will rule!
Jesus Christ alone is the end, the destiny of humanity. The future will arrive with the glory of Jesus Christ who comes again. To trust that Jesus is Lord, and that he will come again, is to live with a ‘faith-full’ hope.
Evil may be noisy, boastful, and blatantly busy everywhere, (it will remind us constantly of our fragility) but it will not triumph. The ultimate victory lies with Jesus Christ.
When the Son of Man comes, may God give us grace to see; may we see the beauty of holiness (that comes for us).
We are now going to sing the carol ‘Once in Royal David’s City’. And I draw our attention to the powerful lines in the fourth verse:
And our eyes at last shall see him / through his own redeeming love