Last Sunday’s New Testament Lesson was from the Book of the Revelation to Saint John the Divine, . . . and when that Lesson was read to us we heard Saint John say, in the sixth verse of the First Chapter; . . . we heard Saint John say that Jesus has “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”.  And, of course, by the word “us” Saint John is referring to the Church, which means that he is talking about you:  you are all priests of the royal household of the Great High-Priest, Who is Jesus Christ our Saviour.
  
    Now, Saint John actually means what he says.  He is not using a figure of speech.  He is dead serious about each one of you being a priest in the sense that Holy Scripture talks about the priesthood in such places as the Book of the Prophet Malachi, wherein the prophet declares the mind of God to be that His priests are ordained by divine will to be the custodians and mediators of sacred truths and traditions.  In other words, one of the central and essential duties that was entrusted to you at your Baptism . . . is to learn . . . and labor to understand . . . and to meditate on . . . and to love every one of the sacred truths which have been revealed to us in Christ Jesus; . . . and then to mediate them -- point them out by what you say and how you live; . . . your Baptism makes you a priest -- a mediator -- of the sacred truth of Jesus to the world around you:  to your neighbor . . . to children . . . to your government . . . to those with whom you work or socialize . . . and especially to those of us who have become dispirited and forgotten the Truth.

    And so sacred is the Truth of which you are priests and for which you are accountable and responsible . . . that the Church has left little to chance by setting these things down in writing for you in such places as “The Catechism”, which begins on page 845 in The Book of Common Prayer.  And the Lessons appointed for us to read in the Daily Office and at the Eucharist for each Festival and every Sunday in the Church Year; . . . the Lessons of Holy Scripture which are the substance of our worship; . . . the Lessons of Holy Scripture nudge us to meditate upon one sacred truth or another . . . and to live it . . . until the Truth that is in Jesus becomes the habitual rhythm of your life.

    And the Lessons for this First Sunday of Advent focus our attention upon perhaps the most profound of all the sacred truths and traditions which Christ has entrusted to us, and, yet, which is most surrounded by ignorance and superstition.  The Book of Common Prayer discusses the matter on pages 861 and 862 under the heading of “The Christian Hope”, . . . and our Hope, simply stated, is this:  the world as we know it . . . or even as we hope it will be . . . cannot be counted on or relied upon to be permanent.  The only permanence that we can rely upon is the permanence of God.

    And so, Holy Scripture tells us that the moon, the stars, our sun . . . the evening and the day:  all these things, as stable and enduring as they seem; . . . all these things, as stable as the Lord God Almighty promised Noah they would remain, in the Noachite Covenant; . . . all these things . . . in the fulness of Time . . . shall pass away.  Moreover, your home, the car you drive, bank accounts, our Federal Government . . . and all the other things which people associate with social security . . . will, in the fullness of God’s time, be no more.  All these things -- the natural order and the social order -- are blessings and graces of God’s devising or God’s permitting which He intends for our nurture, . . . and which He intends for us to learn from.  Just as youth is a transitory blessing intended to give each of us the raw materials for wisdom, . . . so this material reality is a transitory grace intended to give us the raw materials for the knowledge and love of God.

    And so, when Jesus says that

there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken . . .

He is telling us about things that we see or that are reported to us every day:  solar flares and lunar eclipse and stars going nova and earthquake and flood and fire and disease and famine and war.  Jesus is telling us to expect our lives and our world to be transient; . . . Jesus is telling us to expect to endure the many things which evoke fear and uncertainty in the hearts of humanity; the many things which tempt us to hoard our goods and our bread; the many things which tempt us to put our trust in someone or something . . . that is not God.  In other words, by this saying Jesus is urging us to understand that there is a certain instability; . . . a certain incompleteness . . . and, hence, a certain injustice to Creation as it is.  The earth moves and peoples’ houses collapse; the winds blow and the waters rise and entire sections of a town fall into ruin and are washed away.  One man says another is his enemy . . . and innocents suffer from the bloodshed that follows.  Our friends become sick and suffer; . . . perhaps even die . . . while the stinkers live on untroubled.

    But, you see, the prophet Zechariah says, . . . the present injustices of Creation are not random; . . . the prophet Zechariah says that the Lord God Almighty suffers Creation’s present injustices . . . because He has set it moving toward peace and stability; . . . so that

[When] the Mount of Olives shall be split in two . . . and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah . . . On that [Zechariah says]; . . . on that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, . . . it shall continue in summer as in winter.  And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

And this is what Jesus is telling us as well; urging us to face all the terrifying uncertainties of an incomplete Creation moving toward completeness; . . . urging us to face them not with superstition or meanness, but with courage and grace and joy and, above all, hope, saying

Look at the fig tree, and all the trees; as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near.

About this parable, Martin Luther has said in one of his sermons:

[Christ] does not put forth a parable from the fall or winter season when all the trees are bare and the dreary days begin . . . By this he clearly teaches that we are to look forward to the last day with as much joy and delight as all creation shows in spring and summer.  What is the meaning of this parable if in it he does not teach this?  He could have found others that were not so joyous.  (Sermons of Martin Luther, Baker Book House, Vol. 1, p. 80)

Indeed.  And as priests of God -- mediators of this sacred Truth -- it is our responsibility -- mine and yours -- to behave in this world as we will be required to be in the future world, when Creation comes to its completeness in the Lord.  And so, Jesus admonishes us today to stand upright; to act with confidence and compassion; to act as people with hope, and not resort to the selfishness of frightened people who have no hope.  Our Lord exhorts us today to live as He has taught us to pray:  “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Our Lord exhorts us to remember that we are the doers of the Father’s will of which that most blessed prayer speaks.  For, you see, if we are busy doing the Father’s will … with our hearts trusting in the eternal permanence of God; with our hearts happily expecting and willing to receive Jesus on the Last Day, as on a festival; with our hearts set to love and obey and look for God and His Christ, . . . then we will not only know joy, . . . but the world will learn to hope.  Because, you must remember that, in great measure, . . . human misery is the product of despair.  And you, who are the priests of God’s sacred Truth, must teach the world the remedy for despair; … you, who are priests of God’s sacred Truth, must teach the world to know the hope which is in Christ Jesus: . . . both now while Creation crumbles around us, and on the day when it shall come to its completion.