Today marks the beginning of Advent, a time of preparation when we look forward to Christ’s coming and also think about the Lord’s return, when his Kingdom will be established. Jane Williams, taking an image from The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis describes Advent like this:

Unfortunately for many of us Advent is increasingly a time when we are running around like headless chickens, getting involved in all the physical preparations for Christmas. For a lot of us there may not be the luxury of extra prayer and contemplation to ponder anew the amazing love of God as He puts His plan of redemption into place. But I put in a plea that we at least spend some time on Sundays in Advent to learn more about our loving God and His ways.

The reading from Isaiah that we have just heard describes the coming of God’s Kingdom in all its fullness. For the Jews it represented the Coming of the Messiah as a ‘one off’ event to redeem the world. It is therefore not surprising that they did not recognise Jesus as the promised Messiah. They were expecting a mighty King who would conquer the Romans, or whoever was in power over them. Instead they met with a travelling teacher who challenged their interpretation of the Scriptures. A baby born in a stable who would ultimately make a cross his throne. How did that fit in with the vision in Isaiah? Where was the Lord’s house on the high mountain? Did the word of the Lord come out of Jerusalem? Of course Christ did give us glimpses of God’s Kingdom but we are still not living in the situation described in the Isaiah lesson.

As a teenager I struggled a little with many of the Old Testament prophecies and wondered how they fitted in with the Incarnation. The minister at my Church suggested that I look at the Old Testament view of the coming of God’s Kingdom as if I were climbing a mountain. As one heads up towards the peak one may miss the fact that there are in fact two peaks with a valley between. The first peak represents the Incarnation and the second the coming of God’s Kingdom in all its fullness. We are in the valley between the two peaks. Behind us are the teachings of Christ and the revelation of way in which God establishes Kingdom values. As we travel along the valley towards the second peak we are hopefully learning to be more like Christ and more like the people we were created to be.

So what has changed? How is God’s Kingdom being established on earth? Well, it is down to each of us to help with that work. I remember some years ago moaning about the way something was being done in church and the person I spoke to said: “Well, when all is said and done, we are all just people on the Clapham omnibus!” I want to challenge that view and put it into the past tense. We were just people on the Clapham omnibus but meeting with God should and generally has changed us. We all have a long way to go but I hope that our priorities have changed. God changes us from the inside so that are in effect we are reborn. At present God’s Kingdom is in the spiritual realms but as we grow closer to Him so those characteristics can enter our physical world. And if we are part of God’s Kingdom, even in its incomplete form, we must take on ‘Kingdom values.’ And these are not necessarily what we would expect. First of all our priorities change: as St Paul put it:

Earlier in his gospel Matthew records Jesus telling his disciples to trust God.

Put God and others first and who knows what may happen. I believe that St John’s is a very exciting place to be at the moment. I sense God working in many different ways with many different people. We have concerns about funding our mission in this place but I also see signs that as we step out in faith that the money is coming in. It can be difficult to decide how we should use money that is donated to the church in various ways. It may be tempting to look at our deficit and use any money coming into the church to pay for this. But as I look at the Gospels this does not seem to be the way that we are encouraged to think.

Some events that we run, such as the Christmas Tree festival are a form of outreach into our community and we need to be careful that we are behaving in a Christian way in every part of the Festival. The PCC recently voted that, in spite of our deficit, some of the proceeds from this should support the Box and Help for Heroes. As if to reinforce our confidence in God, the next few days saw significant sums of money come to St John’s from various different sources. Many churches look to give away all of their profits from one off events such as the Christmas Tree Festival. I hope that as we continue to grow as a church this may be something that we could do in the future.

Our Gospel reading talks of people eating and drinking together, before the flood, looking to all intents and purposes the same. But that was only on the outside. Noah had listened to God and prepared for the flood. He had accepted God’s values at a time when others were just making sure that they enjoyed themselves. Noah and his family had accepted God into their hearts. And when the flood came those who had lived only for themselves perished. The Gospel reading reminds us that when God’s Kingdom comes in its fullness some will be left behind.

When we become Christians our values change and we want to tell others about God’s love for all. We don’t want anyone left behind when the Son of Man returns. But it isn’t just about the future, it is about the here and now. Earlier in Chapter 24 Matthew says:

We are entrusted with that task and God equips us to do it with His Holy Spirit. Our Treasurer reminded at PCC we need to habitually look at our regular giving as this is how we should be funding all that we are doing in this place. That is how we will be able to afford all that we wish to do to share the gospel with our community. Philip Yancey in his latest book ‘What good is God?’ said this:

We are here to proclaim that Kingdom. Kingdom values change our behaviour in many ways because they alter our priorities. Underlying the establishment of God’s Kingdom is His awe-inspiring love of all humanity. We who have come to know and love Him are charged with spreading the news of His love far and wide.

As our last hymn puts it:

It is very exciting to be part of God’s Kingdom on earth and I pray that we will all be seen to be lights turning night into day.
Amen.