We are told that the second coming will be unexpected (Matthew 24.44); how do we respond in an age of fake news?
Context
Before and during the UK election campaign we are seeing yet more accusations of fake news. Harold Wilson is supposed to have coined the phrase ‘a week is a long time in politics’ and it is anyone’s guess what will be the key election stories as you lead worship on Sunday? But today’s readings emphasise the need to keep awake and to be ready for the unexpected.
Christian resources for the general election can be found at:
Reflection
Fake news is surely one those signs of the times for which today’s lessons urge us to watch. Even usually reliable sources report stories which turn out at best to be half truths. And partisan websites and twitter feeds churn out so many half truths (for example, by omitting key details or by editing video clips unfairly) that it becomes really difficult to know who or what to believe. Even the BBC has apologised for editing audience reaction material.
Advent is a season of awkward tensions. In church we are seeking to prepare for a second coming which will be unexpected as well as to prepare to celebrate a birth to an unmarried mother, probably in an outbuilding. Around us Christmas is already in full swing - at one house near us Christmas lights have already been on for many days. Carol services and school nativity plays can easily swamp Advent. How can we best prepare in such an environment?
Advent is about waiting. Waiting anticipates that which is not yet reality. If we wait in hope and patience, the power of that for which we wait is already effective within us. If we wait with patience and seriousness, we can be grasped by the God for whom we wait. And if we wait with passion, we have within us already an active power - the power to transform not just our lives but also those of people around us.
As Paul Tillich wrote many years ago, it can be hard for preachers to admit that we do not possess God; but the truth is that we must wait for God to make Godself known to us. If we wait and watch, salvation can come close to us and God can grasp and possess us. All our time is a time of waiting - waiting for the breaking in of eternity. Indeed, time itself is also waiting for eternity to break in. And as we wait, we are challenged to do all that we can now to ensure that God’s justice and God’s kingdom are experienced in the here and now.
In both incarnation and resurrection God has already shown us a glimpse of what it means for the future to break into the present. We are challenged to wait and watch actively: to look for the signs that God is alive and active around us; and to look for opportunities to work for right to prevail and thus for the kingdom to come even on earth. Against that background, even the most important general election for many years pales into insignificance.
Prayer
A theme prayer
God for whom we watch and wait,
give us patience and courage
as we keep looking for signs of the times
and for what you are doing in the world
so that we might join in.
Amen.
In your intercessions pray both for candidates and for voters as we approach the general election. Consider using the election resources listed under the heading ‘Context’ above.
Questions
- How should a Christian balance the 'waiting and watching’ part of Advent with the practical stuff around getting ready for Christmas?
- What might Paul have meant when he wrote that ‘salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers’ (Romans 13.11b)? How can sometimes as abstract as salvation ‘come nearer’?
All-age activity
Use the video ‘Love, pray, vote’, prepared by the Joint Public Issue Team (JPIT) which serves the Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church. Invite those too young to vote to tell the adults what they think it may mean for them (in the future) and for the adults in the group (now).
Young people
Use the JPIT video ‘Love, pray, vote’ (see above) and/or the related blog at Joint Public Issues, and discuss its implications both for the young people present (whether or not they are old enough to vote) and for adults. Discuss the hardest part of waiting, especially in Advent.
Dudley Coates is a Local Preacher in the Yeovil and Blackmore Vale Methodist Circuit and a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference.
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