On the four Sundays in Advent Fr Mark and Fr Joe have been using their Sermons to look at the Four Last Things, in the light of the Jubilee Celebrations of the 1700th Anniversary of the Nicene Creed.
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
Fr Joe: DEATH
Fr Joe said:
You’ve likely heard the saying that there is nothing certain except death and taxes – well today, I’ll be preaching on at least one of those topics. There are actually a number of certainties which we will be reflecting on throughout Advent this year: namely that we will all die, we will all face judgement, and that heaven and hell are both very real. Today, as we begin our Advent series on the Four Final Things, we turn our attention to the first of these: Death.
I recently listened to a podcast that suggested if aliens came down to study human behaviour, they might quickly conclude we are obsessed with death. Just look at our culture. Many of the best-selling video games are first-person shooters. Hollywood churns out blockbuster after blockbuster filled with spectacular—and often violent—deaths. Murder mysteries are some of the most popular books and television programmes.
Not long ago, I watched a movie called White House Down with my family. It’s rated 12 – a family friendly movie as far as rating standards go… After the film I googled “how many people died in the film” and I was shocked to learn there were 136 deaths. More than one per minute!
And yet, for all the ways death pervades our entertainment, the reality of death is something we try to avoid. We push it to the periphery of our lives. In earlier generations, death was a constant presence: illness, war, and a much shorter life expectancy meant it was not uncommon for people to regularly witness death up close. But today, modern medicine and improved living conditions have distanced most of us from it.
This cultural aversion to death has consequences. By refusing to confront its reality, we not only fail to prepare for death—we also lose out on the deep, transforming wisdom it can bring to our lives.
Momento Mori – Remember Death. We as Christians are called to Remember Death – to contemplate our own deaths regularly. Far from being morbid, doing so is profoundly life-giving. We can’t live our lives properly until we are very much aware of the fact of death. When we regularly contemplate our own mortality, our entire approach to life changes – our frame of reference for every choice changes.
The reality of death poses universal struggles, especially for those without the hope of Christ. In his book Remember Death, Matthew McCullough identifies four key challenges it presents: death destroys our identity, renders our accomplishments futile, separates us from what we love, and robs us of earthly joys. Yet through His resurrection, Jesus overturns each of these struggles, offering hope and victory.
Let’s take a moment to explore each of these – and see how Jesus, through His death and resurrection, provides the ultimate answer.
First is the notion the death destroys our identity – however we know this isn’t the case as we see the continuity between the pre and post resurrected Jesus. After His resurrection, Jesus’s identity remained intact. The same Lord who walked the hills of Galilee, who ate with His disciples, who bore the scars of the cross – He still was. And so shall we be. Our identity is not confined to this life. Our souls, the deepest part of who we are, transcend death. When we are in Christ, we are anchored in an identity that even death cannot destroy.
Second is the issue of futility. If death is the end, then what’s the point of anything we do? Every accomplishment, every effort seems doomed to fade away. But here is the good news: in Christ, our work is not futile. Simple acts of kindness, words of encouragement, and moments of sacrificial love are gathered up into God’s eternal purposes. They are transformed and elevated, bearing fruit that lasts forever. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians “Your labour in the Lord is not in vain.”
But what of Loss? Perhaps the most painful reality of death is the separation it brings. We lose the people we love, and we fear being lost to them in return. But Jesus offers us a love that even death cannot overcome. As the Apostle Paul declares in Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I lost my father to cancer over a decade ago. And yet, the love I have for him—and the love he had for me—remains just as real. Love transcends death. More importantly, God’s love for us is eternal, and His promises ensure that we will one day be reunited with those we love in Him.
Finally, what of the problem that death appears to rob us of every earthly joy? But in Christ, we see that this is not the end of the story. What we experience in this life—the laughter, the beauty, the love—these are but shadows of the joys to come. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love Him.”
And so contemplating our bodily death regularly isn’t a morbid exercise, but rather, through it we recognise that we are invited to a higher and richer life beyond this one – and that recognition will change how we approach life. Momento Mori. Remember Death…
But Memento Mori isn’t just about looking ahead to the day we experience bodily death. It’s also about looking back—to the death that has already happened. In baptism, we were united with Christ in His death. Paul writes in Romans, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
This means that the life we now live now is not our own. It was purchased by Christ, at the cost of His own blood. And here’s the most freeing truth of all: dead men fear nothing. If we have already died with Christ, then what have we to fear?
Imagine the freedom of living without fear of death. To be able to live with such confidence that nothing in this world would cause even a moment’s hesitation in asking God, in any given situation, “Lord, what do You need from me?”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus himself warns us to be ready for the reality of death.
“Be on guard so… that day does not 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”
Jesus is urging us to stay awake, to live lives of readiness and purpose. Death, as inevitable as it is, should not catch us off guard. Instead, it should motivate us to live in the light of eternity. The choices we make, the priorities we set, the ways we serve—all of these matter deeply because they prepare us to meet Him face-to-face.
As we contemplate death, we are also reminded that it is not the end but a doorway. And standing on the other side is the One who has conquered death the one appointed by God the Father to be the judge of all. His call is clear: “Be alert. Be ready.” How do we do this? By living lives that reflect the Gospel—lives marked by love, sacrifice, and hope. Lives that echo the freedom of those who know they’ve already died with Christ.
Let us embrace the wisdom of Memento Mori. Let us remember death—not with dread, but with the hope and freedom that come from knowing Christ. Let us live lives of readiness, so that when our time comes, we might joyfully proclaim with the Apostle Paul:
“For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Amen
Fr Mark: JUDGMENT
Fr Mark said:
In the Epistle to the Philippians St Paul writes “ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
What he is saying is that God will complete his moulding of us into a perfect specimen on the day of Our Lord’s Second coming …on the day of judgement. That I suggest to you is how we should see Judgment Day.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, in the Bible we read again and again of us going through a refiners’ fire. The Prophets Isaiah, Malachi and Zechariah make mention of it , and in the NT in 1st Letter of Peter we read “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
The prophet Malachi in comparing God’s influence to a refiner’s fire has given us a powerful picture of what happens when God’s people encounter his transformative power. We learn from this passage and other Scriptures that part of God’s role in our lives is to refine us, just as a refiner would refine precious metals like gold or silver. The prophet Malachi emphasized God’s love for Israel and demonstrated the ways in which the Israelites had broken their covenant with God in many ways. God is portrayed as present and active in the lives of his beloved children. He deeply cares about and is moved by their wickedness and how they have disregarded the covenant between themselves and God. God longs for them to return to righteousness and to mend the broken relationship between Israel and himself.
YES! God loves us and wants us to do right! God will forgive us again and again if we are truly sorry, because he can always see the good in us.
For this reason the Day of Judgement is not something to be feared, but to embrace.
God will do what he needs to do, to be in right relationship with his children. That is why God the Son died on the Cross for us. God could not let the sin go unatoned for, so he died to cleanse us of our sin. It is good to be reminded of the price God paid for our sin, …..
…so let us not think we can just go on sinning and know God will forgive us. Yes he will, but at a great price to Him.
A refiner’s fire does not destroy the metal, rather it allows the mess within to come to the top so that it can be removed. A refiner’s fire does not consume, it makes the metal better and more valuable. So be assured Judgment Day is not going to be a negative experience, but a positive day. Don’t think of it as standing before a bewigged Judge in a Court of Law but being in the presence of a loving Father.
So what exactly will this loving Father judge us on?.
The great mystic and theologian St John of the Cross, says “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love”.
At first, it sounds like ( in the words of the hit song) “all you need is love”, or in other words just “be nice.”
But there is another half to St. John of the Cross’ saying. The full saying is:
“At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love. Learn to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own ways of acting.”
It’s a call to recognize that in the end, the only thing that will prove to have really mattered in this life is how we have loved……..but how many of us actually know how to love?
Jesus in his golden rule offered in the Sermon on the Mount shows us how to love, “Always treat others as you would have them treat you”. In other words we always want to be putting ourselves in the place of others…always asking how would I want to be treated in that situation?….sadly to often we are to pre-occupied with self to do that.
So let us take away a challenge from today to try and follow that golden rule more and more during this season of Advent.
God’s redemptive work, as we have heard, will not be completed ‘till the end of time, but let us commit anew this Advent to prepare our selves for Judgement day by being more loving day by day .
Fr Joe- HELL
Fr Joe said:
As we continue our Advent series on the four final things—death, judgment, Hell, and Heaven—we’re reminded that Advent isn’t just about preparing for Christmas. It’s also a season of reflection, calling us to prepare for Christ’s second coming and the ultimate fulfilment of God’s kingdom. Over the past two weeks, Fr. Mark and I have spoken about death and judgment. Today, it’s my turn to speak about Hell. I suspect you can guess who drew the short straw when we were doing the sermon rota.
Our Gospel reading offers us the words of John the Baptist – a prophet who does not shy away from hard truths. John warns the crowds to repent and bear fruits worthy of their calling. With vivid imagery of the winnowing fork and of unquenchable fire, His words prompt us to ask: What is Hell, and how does it fit into God’s love and justice?
Now, in my time, I have met many Christians who insist that hell does not exist. The typical argument which is made is that, “God is loving, and a loving God would never condemn someone to hell – therefore hell must not exist”… And I get where this well-meaning argument is coming from, but I think it misses a few key points and doesn’t have it quite right. I believe Hell to be very real, and let me explain why.
First, we must recognize that Hell is not an invention of the medieval imagination or a scare tactic. Jesus himself speaks of Gehenna and everlasting fire multiple times in the Gospels. The Church has consistently taught the existence of Hell, affirmed by theologians, spiritual teachers, and scripture. This historic understanding of Hell isn’t just an arbitrary teaching of our faith; but rather, it logically flows from two key truths: namely that God is love and that He has given humanity the gift of free will.
Let’s begin with God’s love. Love is not just something God does; it is who God is. God’s very nature is self-giving love. This love is constant, unchanging, and extended to all. As Jesus says, God’s love is like the sun, shining on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. We do not earn this love through our good deeds; rather, our moral goodness flows from the grace of being loved by God.
Yet God’s love comes with a profound gift: our freedom. Unlike the rest of creation – the stars, trees, the rocks or the animals that glorify God simply by their existence, we are created in God’s image and invited to respond to his love freely.
This freedom makes us capable of extraordinary good, but it also carries the possibility of rejection. We can resist God’s love, choosing instead to live in ways that are contrary to his nature.
And here is where we must challenge the common misconception that God “sends” people to Hell. The idea that God condemns people to Hell necessitates an understanding that, were it not for God’s direct action to the contrary, all people would go to heaven. It requires an understanding where, when someone dies and is about to enter the pearly gates, God says, “ah ah ah! Not so fast. You’ve been a naughty boy!” And then picks them up by the scruff of the neck and casts them down to hell. But this is simply not an accurate description of the fallen human condition in which we find ourselves.
Sin, very simply, is that which is contrary to God. It is that which is contrary to God’s nature – contrary to his very being – and as such, God cannot abide by it. We have used our free will, and by choosing to sin, we have chosen to separate ourselves from God. And that is what hell is – Hell is separation from God. We have chosen hell for ourselves. So the idea of a God who stops us from going to heaven and condemns us to hell is completely and utterly backwards.
It’s the opposite which is true. We have condemned ourselves to hell – and it is our loving and merciful God who is doing everything in his power to save us from ourselves – to save us from our bad decisions – to save us from our rebellion against him. It is God who loves us so much that he was willing to send his only Son to bear our sins upon himself, and to die upon a cross, so that we might be reconciled to him. But here’s the catch, it is still our choice. God extends his saving Grace to all, but it is incumbent upon ourselves to cooperate with that grace – and we do so by faith in Jesus Christ.
C.S. Lewis famously said, “The doors of Hell are locked from the inside.” In other words, Hell is not God’s arbitrary punishment; it is the ultimate consequence of our free choice to resist him. When we persist in this resistance, we find ourselves cut off from the source of all goodness, truth, and beauty. This is why the church teaches that Hell is “the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God.”
The fires of Hell are not kindled by God’s wrath but by God’s love. The same love that brings delight to the saints causes torment to those who reject it.
I heard an example once, and as an introvert, I so get this… It goes like this – Imagine two people at the same party: one is caught up in the joy and music and the dancing and the crowd, while the other sulks in corner, wishing they were at home in their pyjamas, bitter that they were dragged to the party, resenting the happiness around them. The difference lies not in the host but in the guests’ response.
This brings us back to John the Baptist. His words this morning are a wake-up call: “Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees.” John speaks of the winnowing fork, separating the wheat from the chaff, and of the fire that burns the unfruitful. These images may seem harsh, but they are an expression of God’s mercy. John is not threatening the people; he is calling them to repentance so that they may escape the consequences of their sin.
Consider the words of Jesus in John 3: “The light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” This is the tragedy of Hell: that God offers us light, life, and love, but some cling to darkness, death, and rebellion. Hell is not God’s desire for us; it is the result of our refusal to accept his love.
But there is hope. John the Baptist ends his fiery sermon by pointing to Jesus, the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only one who can lead us out of the darkness and into the joy of God’s presence. As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the father except through me”.
Today, as we reflect on the sobering reality of Hell, let us hear John’s call to repentance as an invitation rather than a threat. Let us recognize that God’s love is relentless, but it is we who must open our hearts to receive it. As part of the Diocesan year of prayer, we are called to pray for five people – that they might come to faith and know for themselves the love and mercy and forgiveness of Jesus in their lives. Let us double our efforts in doing so, that all might come to experience the saving freedom Jesus offers, and the closeness to God the Father which is only possible through him. The Gospel is truly the Good News that the grace of Jesus Christ is sufficient for all who believe and repent.
So let us choose life. Let us choose love. Let us choose to follow the one who came to save us from ourselves – to save us from our sins and to bring us into eternal joy with the Father. Amen.
Fr Mark – HEAVEN
Fr Mark said:
The word Advent means “to come” in Latin, and is the same route as the word “Adventure”. So where else could our Advent journey looking at the four last things end, other than in heaven. Let us think of going Heaven as a great adventure.
But what does going to heaven mean?
Towards the end of his sermon on Hell last week Fr Joe said, “Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only one who can lead us out of the darkness and into the joy of God’s presence.”
In short God’s nearest presence is heaven. When people talk of heaven they point to the sky, as if God and heaven are up there (MS Points to the sky). This idea comes from the ancient Israelites (Genesis 1. 6-8) idea of the world that earth is some how like an old snow globe. Heaven is outside the globe but above it, while Hell is below it. In this world we like in the snow globe. Our advanced knowledge of space , has of course enabled us to move on from that teaching…….but we still speak of heaven as up and hell as down.
Answering the question what will Heaven be like is not that easy to answer, because we don’t have the language to describe something that is outside our experience, but we do have the Bible. So let us look at what the Bible says about heaven.
In Heaven there is no sin, so none of the effects of sin: no pain, sorrow or death ( Rev 21.4)
There will be no hunger and starvation (Rev 22.2) we are told in the Book of Revelation, but also Jesus likens life in Heaven to a great Banquet, that I suggest is a metaphorical way to say in heaven we will have all we need – there will be no want..
There will be room there for everyone, all people will be able to live alongside each other with out prejudice. In John Chapter1 4 Jesus tells us he goes to “prepare a place for (us). In my Father’s House are many Mansions” For a moment pause and think what the person who knows you best would you get you for Christmas – if money were no object – then multiply that a thousand times. Then we begin to understand what God will provide for us in Heaven.
However good all that is, it pales into insignificance next to the fact that in Heaven we will live with God. we will see him face to face. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
As we heard in the Psalm Response today, “When God shines on us, we are saved!”
So it is in Heaven we can at last fulfil our purpose to ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever’. Then and only then will we be – to go back to my address of two weeks ago – be totally perfectly formed, complete. AND only then will we be able to be satisfied and totally at peace and rest.
After all did not St Augustine say “ You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you”.
