It’s getting better all the time
Or the Lord will fulfil his promise to Israel
a sermon for Advent I
Jeremiah 33:14-16
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”1 Thessalonians 3:9,11-13
How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? May our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.Luke 21:25-36
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
“We are all going to hell in a hand cart.”
“This country is going to the dogs.”
“Things aren’t what they used to be.”
In a survey run by YouGov, 71% of respondents said they thought the world was getting worse, and only 5% said that is was getting better. But what’s the reality of the situation?
Jesus instructs us to pay attention to the signs of the times “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” So what does the metaphorical fig tree look like today?
Is the world getting worse? How should we measure it? Examining the rise (or fall) of Violence and Poverty could help us see the truth of the matter.
1.4 billion people on the planet today are living in extreme poverty. (The World Bank defines extreme poverty as life on less than $1.25/day.)
Extreme poverty and its related causes kill nearly 10 million people every year, mostly women and children. Or to put it another way 1000 people die from extreme poverty every hour. The horrendous attacks by terrorists are shocking and grab the headlines, but in actual fact extreme poverty is the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet.
To give us some perspective: the Second World War was the deadliest war in human history. If we take a sample nine year period around and including the war, approximately 70 million people were killed. Yet over the last nine years, extreme poverty has killed more than 90 million people, and it continues to kill 10 million more each year.
Extreme poverty means a deprivation of most of life’s most basic necessities and opportunities: no clean water, no sanitation, no housing or very limited shelter, high infant mortality, high maternal mortality, chronic malnutrition, and poor or no health care. Schooling is an unaffordable luxury.
What can we do? I wonder if that makes you feel helpless?
Nothing can be done, our work for Christian Aid and with our monthly appeals are just us sitting like the deluded King Canute defying the inevitable tide.
It’s tempting to believe that. But it’s a lie. And a dangerous lie. Not only can something be done, it has been being done and at an accelerating rate over the past several decades.
100 years ago, most people in the world lived in extreme poverty. If there was a bad harvest, someone in your family would die.
In 1990 only 34% of the world lived in extreme poverty. 66% of humanity had left extreme poverty.
By 2005 only 22% of humanity lived in extreme poverty. 81% of humanity had left extreme poverty.
Today less than 20% of the human race lives in extreme poverty.
But this did not happen by chance, this was not inevitable. This happened because people like you knock on doors for Christian Aid once a year. This happened because people like you give to our monthly Majority World Appeal. This happened because people like you write to your M.P. and ask that we don’t cut our International Aid budget in this age of austerity.
This happened because people like you work to build the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
But Jesus tells us to be alert, to read the signs of the times and keep on working. We must keep working, because there is still a lot to be done.
24,000 people continue to die every day because of extreme poverty. Our optimism alone will not help those whose lives are threatened by extreme poverty – we need to continue our work.
That is Poverty – we have work to do, but also every reason for optimism. What about violence. We live with an increased terror threat. Is the world more violent than ever before?
At the start of this year I read the book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Decline” by Stephen Pinker. It’s the most inspiring book I’ve read in a decade. Pinker argues that a smarter, more educated world is becoming more peaceful in several statistically significant ways. His findings are academically rigorous using examinations of graveyards, surveys and historical records.
Here are some of his statistics: The number of people killed in battle – calculated per 100,000 population – has dropped by 1,000-fold over the centuries as civilisations have evolved.
Before there were organised countries, battles killed on average more than 500 out of every 100,000 people. In 19th century France, it was 70. In the 20th century with two world wars and a few genocides, it was 60. Today battlefield deaths are down to three-tenths of a person per 100,000.
The rate of genocide deaths per world population was 1,400 times higher in 1942 than in 2008.
There were fewer than 20 democracies in 1946. Now there are close to 100. Meanwhile, the number of authoritarian countries has dropped from a high of almost 90 in 1976 to about 25 now.
Pinker says one of the main reasons for the drop in violence is that we are smarter. IQ tests show that the average teenager is smarter with each generation. The tests are constantly adjusted to keep average at 100, and a teenager who now would score a 100 would have scored a 118 in 1950 and a 130 in 1910. So this year’s average kid would have been a near-genius a century ago. And that increase in intelligence translates into a kinder, gentler world, Pinker says.
“As we get smarter, we try to think up better ways of getting everyone to turn their swords into plowshares at the same time,” Pinker said in an interview. “Human life has become more precious than it used to be.”
The traditional view of Advent is that as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s first coming as a baby in Bethlehem we also prepare for the Second Coming of Christ – “in the clouds in glory.”
We may no longer believe in a supernatural vision of Jesus coming back to rescue us from Armageddon, but the belief that the Kingdom will come, the belief. that there is hope for humanity, the belief that good will ultimate triumph over evil, the belief that poverty can end, that we can make wars cease – this is what we need to take into our heart this Advent
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
tadonnelly 