We Need A Savior

A sermon delivered by the Rev. Roger Scott Powers at Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, on Sunday, December 3, 2006

Luke 21:25-36

The appointed gospel reading for this first Sunday of Advent speaks of the coming of the Son of Man, the coming of Christ. What may seem odd, though, is the passage does not refer to the first coming of Christ, the anticipated birth of the baby Jesus. Rather, it refers to the Second Coming of Christ at the end of history, "the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."

This may seem odd to many of us, because we tend to associate Advent much more with the first coming of the Christ Child in Bethlehem. And indeed, that is an important part of what Advent is about. We remember the story of the birth of Jesus each year at Advent in order to celebrate the story anew. But more than that, we remember the first Advent to anticipate the second. We remember the first time Christ came and dwelt among us, at the same time that we prepare for the day when Christ will come again. And so the gospel reading for today focuses our attention not on the First but on the Second Coming of Christ.

When that time comes, Jesus tells us, "there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations ... People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken ... Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near ... When you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near."

We are certainly living in a time when there is great distress among nations and people are fearful about what is coming upon the world.

The war in Iraq continues and the human costs grow. After three years and eight months, the U.S. has been involved in Iraq longer than it was involved in World War II. It seems hard to believe. More than 2,800 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action, and more than 21,000 have been wounded. As for Iraqi casualties, a recent study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published in the medical journal The Lancet, put the estimate at 655,000 Iraqis killed as a consequence of the war. Sectarian violence in Iraq is increasingly being referred to as civil war.

Meanwhile, half the world -- some 3 billion people -- live on less than two dollars a day. They struggle each day just to survive. 850 million people do not have enough food to eat. 1.1 billion don't have adequate access to safe drinking water. 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. Poverty kills 30,000 children each day.

Then there's the AIDS epidemic. Friday, December 1, was World AIDS Day. It marked the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the disease. Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died from AIDS and some 40 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV/AIDS. Rates of HIV infection continue to grow, with 4 million new cases worldwide each year. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called it "the greatest challenge of our generation."

And record-setting high temperatures just this past Friday remind us of the inconvenient truth of global warming. The ten hottest years on record have occurred in the past 15 years. Glaciers and polar ice caps are melting. Sea levels are rising. Coral reefs are dying. Storms are increasing in number and severity. The potentially catastropic consequences of global climate change loom large on the horizon.

War, poverty, disease, environmental destruction - these global problems are so serious, so overwhelming, so intractable, that one wonders whether only divine intervention can turn them around! We need a savior! We need Christ to come again.

The Iraq War has become such a quagmire that it is difficult to know what to do. We feel a responsibility to bring security and stability to that nation, having invaded it in the first place in a preemptive war. And yet, our very presence there fuels the insurgency and offers a prime target for terrorists. We have to ask whether the U.S. presence in Iraq is making matters worse instead of better. Should the U.S. stay in Iraq. We're damned if we do, and damned if we don't. We need a savior to bring peace on earth. We need Christ to come again.

Global poverty confronts us with overwhelming human need. How do we provide all the world's people with food, safe dringking water, adequate shelter, and basic health care? What will it take? Is it even possible? We who are among the richest 20% of the world's population, consume 86% of the world's resources. As much as we might like to make poverty history, we seem unwilling to live on our fair share of the world's resources for fear that we won't have enough. We need a saviour to feed the multitudes. We need Christ to come again.

In spite of our best efforts to prevent the spread of HIV through education, rates of infection continue to grow. In many cultures, AIDS is so stigmatized that it remains a taboo subject that people refuse to even talk about. We need a savior to heal the sick, to make the deaf hear, and the blind see. We need Christ to come again.

If we are to reverse global warming, we will have to drastically reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. That will require drastic changes in how much energy we use and how we use it. It will affect how we generate electricity, how we heat our homes, and how we get around. Will we make those changes soon enough to prevent a global ecological catastrophe? Can we? We need a savior. We need Christ to come again.

No one knows when Christ will come again -- not even Jesus, it seems. For he says to his disciples, "truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place." Apparently, even Jesus thought that he would return soon, during that same generation.

So, we watch and wait in hopeful expectation of Christ's return. What are we to do while we wait for Christ to come again? "Be on guard," Jesus says, "so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life." Remember, the signs that Jesus is talking about are not signs of despair. Rather, they are signs of hope, that our "redemption is drawing near," "that the kingdom of God is near." Our Christian hope is that, at the end of history, Christ will come again to establish God's reign of justice and peace for all creation.

It is this hope that can keep us going when our efforts to make the world better suffer setbacks. Believing that in the end Good will triumph over Evil and that God's purposes for Creation will utimately be fulfilled, we are less likely to lose heart, to fall into despair, when our efforts to bring about social change do not always succeed. Whether we are trying to end war, or make poverty history, or cure a disease, or heal the planet, our hope in Christ helps us to persevere -- to keep on keeping on.

"Be alert at all times," Jesus says, "praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." "Be alert!" That is what we are to do while we wait for Christ's return. Life is too precious, too wondrous, for us to sleepwalk through it, indifferent to the world's challenges, unconcerned about what is going on around us. We need to be alert, living fully in the present moment -- not worrying about the future or dwelling on the past, but seeking first the reign of God and God's righteousness. We need to live responsible, fully-conscious lives -- lives of integrity and good character.

We also need to pray. We need to pray for peace on earth. We need to pray for an end to poverty. We need to pray for healing and wholeness. We need to pray for the earth, our home. We need to pray as if everything depends on God at the same time that we work as if everything depends on us. May it be so. Amen.