Communion Service Sunday 16th November – led by Revd. David Aplin
The day’s theme was “Signs of the end of the age” and we had a reading from Malachi – the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament – telling us that a day was coming when all proud and evil people would burn like straw. In Luke 21, Jesus warned against others who might be saying the time had come, and then offered an archetypal ‘End of the World is coming’ scenario of wars, earthquakes, famines and plagues, with terrifying things coming from the sky. All frequently repeated by leaders of cults over the ages and in a collection of prophecies by French physician Nostradamus in 1555.
When David was a teenager, he’d lived through the Cuba crisis, with the Media talking about atomic war between Russia and America. He’d not been convinced, because he remembered the reading from Luke and did not feel that one boat going towards the American fleet was going to be the start of the end of the age (we now know it was averted by a Russian submarine officer refusing an order to fire a missile).
David had been quite confident because that was not how the Bible described the end of the world. And it’s how he had felt (and feels) at various times of international tension. If it was not how it was described in the Bible, it was not the ‘end of the road’ (It was however ‘end of the road’ for David’s battered pink prayer book now replaced with a shiny new 2026 URC Prayer Book).
The Gospel reading from Luke 21 had come very much at the end of the days of Jesus’ ministry. His disciples were all Jews, with the Jewish expectation of the Messiah. A strong man to lead them to freedom from the Roman oppressors. A warrior king seated on high above the adoring crowds, but humble – entering Jerusalem on a donkey just as predicted by Zechariah.
But Jesus had spoken of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, so they had been disillusioned and afraid. They’d wanted to be part of a coup, but Jesus had kept talking in riddles. They’d asked about the signs that would foretell that the time had come for it to happen. And he’d laid it on the line for them; great happenings, fit for an all-powerful king.
But then Jesus had added a warning that before all this occurred they would be arrested and persecuted, handed over to the synagogues and prisons, and brought before kings and governors because of his name.
David guessed Jesus hadn’t read the manuals on inspirational speaking. But then, Jesus had provided the answer to all their anxieties. He would give them such words and wisdom that none of their opponents would be able to withstand or contradict.
And David shared with us that when he prepares services and sermons, sometimes he gets it wrong. And then the Spirit intervenes, and the words that he’s supposed to say come flooding in. The message that the Spirit wanted to come out, would then come out. He was just the vessel from which it came. So he could understand those words given to the disciples – though losing control could be unnerving.
He recalled visiting a family at a time of a bereavement for a lady who had died very suddenly. Beside her bed there had been a Bible, and her husband had brought this Bible down and said, “This is what she was reading just before she died”. He’d opened it to the page that she’d been reading, and from that had come the funeral address. There had been a message to her in that Bible. It had not been luck. That was what the Spirit could do.
And the last two verses of the reading, “But not a head of your head will be lost. By standing firm, you will gain life”. A great promise. Whatever befell the disciples, they would be saved. For God was with them, and God would protect them. Not necessarily physically, but from the inside. Their souls would be safe.
And so it was for us. God was with us, and He would protect us.
Potters Bar United Reformed Church 