Global
warming is with us to stay. Hardly a day goes by but there is a reference to
the changes in the earth’s climate somewhere in the news, TV, radio, or the
papers…………
Al Gore, one time presidential
candidate in the
There are two striking things
about global warming,
one
is the way that it has fixed attention on
the future…..
and
the other is that very many countries, peoples, institutions, politicians,
campaigners are asking ‘What should we do
?’
In the film, Al Gore points
out that
if we cut back on carbon
emissions, and begin to plant forests on a massive scale then global warming
can still be slowed down………
looking towards the future….. People are asking ‘What do we do
?’
That looking to the future;
that keen sense of what is up ahead,
and that question ‘What do we
do ?’ is to be found right through the world of the New Testament, and the
Early Church is immersed in it………
the
keen sense of the future we find in the New Testament, of course,
has
nothing to do with global warming -
but with the return of Jesus Christ……
The New Testament declares on
almost every second page,
that
Jesus Christ is coming again.
This was the air that the
apostles breathed, and the
the
early believers lived, looking towards the horizons with expectation,
looking
each dawn to see if this was the day,
if this was the last day, dawning………
They, the believers, the
Church lived in the light of that day, when Christ would return…..
In almost all the books of the
New Testament, we find this keen sense of expectation, that Jesus Christ is
coming, a keen sense of His return,
and,
naturally, we find men and women asking ‘What,
then, do we do ?’
It’s exactly this that Paul is
talking about in Romans 13,
the
passage we heard read a moment ago……
and that we will pay careful attention to in the Word for this morning….
In Romans 13, Paul is talking
about the coming, the second coming of Jesus Christ, His return………
And, at first glance, it seems
that Paul answers the question ‘What do we do ?’
in
verses 8 to 10…..
Jesus Christ is coming…. ‘What
do we do ?’
Paul’s answer seems to be
there in front of us in these verses…..
What do we do
? Love one another….. Love your
neighbour as yourself……
and do this, understanding the present time….. because
our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed……….
Jesus Christ is coming…. and
the last day is near at hand…….‘What do we do in the
light of that ?’
Paul seems to be saying:
Love one another….. continue to love one another.
Reading quickly through the
New Testament,
there
seem, at first glance, to be similar verses –
What do we do ?
Work, for the hour is late,
What do we do ?
Continue to endure, for the
time is not long…….
However, there is a difficulty
here………
to do
with our Christian motivation for doing things…….
Surely, we love and serve
others, not because we feel under pressure from
the
end of the ages,
but out of love for
God, who first loved us !
Surely what we do to serve
others is out of recognition of their need,
out of love for
God……… as servants of Jesus,
not
because we feel under pressure since the time is short…
If we were to work, and serve
simply because the day of the Lord is near
it
would be rather a hurried, pressurised serving and working, wouldn’t it ?
Instead of a steady, enduring,
patient work of love in the name of Christ……..
So what does the New Testament
teach us here ? What is the solution, the spiritual
solution to this difficulty ?
Christ is coming….. we
know that, and we think about that as Advent begins
but
the question is not first and foremost ‘What do we do ?’
but how do we live in the light
of His coming….
And as we read on in Romans,
we find that that is precisely what Paul goes on to speak about……..from verse
11 onwards……..
our
salvation is nearer now than when we first believed,
the
night is nearly over, the day is almost here……… Christ is coming
!
So, writes Paul, put aside the deeds of darkness, put on the
armour of light,
clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ……….
this
is how we are to live:
We are to live in the Spirit,
setting aside the sin that day by day burdens us,
bringing
all our wants and needs to our Father in heaven……
coming
to an ever deepening knowing of Jesus,
ever
deepening richness of faith,
living
in ever deepening blessing from the Father…..
Christ is coming
?
How then do we live ?
continuing
to
set aside the old self, continuing to put
on the new self renewed in knowledge as Colossians says,
Knowing with 2 Cor. 4.16 that “Inwardly we are being renewed day by day……….”
This is how we are to live !
And as through the work of His
Spirit, deepening in the love of the Father, we come to know Jesus Christ ever more
deeply,
so out
of our life in Him springs the deepest of hope,
for
His coming,
looking
for His return,
when
He will bring justice, light to the nations, hope to the islands.
looking to that day of everlasting joy and gladness.
Out of our life in Him
will
spring the loving service of others,
that
the Lord Jesus speaks of in the parable we read this morning
where
we feed those who are hungry,
give
the thirsty to drink
care
for the stranger,
visit
the sick, and those in prison……….
It is out of our life in Him
that this loving service flows.
Peter tells us – that the
prophets of old, searched intently, and with the greatest
care,
with
the deepest longing, for the day of Christ’s coming,
For the Spirit of Christ in
them
lifted up their gaze, strengthened their hope, pointed them to the day when the Lord would come, speaking of His sufferings, and all the glories that would follow……….
Is the Church today marked by that great sense of Christ’s coming, as the prophets, the New Testament and the early believers were ?
Perhaps not……..
but
that deep longing for His coming again
has
its source now in our life in Him
and
as our life in Him deepens, so will spring
deep
within us, that longing for His coming again,
and for all that that day will
mean for us.
AMEN.