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. (Jeremiah 33:14)

Sometimes people ask me, as a Christian, what I think of Hallowe’en. I think it’s great. If it weren’t for Hallowe’en the shops would start selling Christmas stuff in September. That and, traditionally in this country, Hallowe’en reminds us that it’s time to put the sprouts on. Can you imagine? Three and a half months of tinsel and Santas? Just how many times could you hear “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day” before you just snapped?

Which is why the Church just has Advent. It’s why, each year, over these four Sundays, we symbolically make the journey to Bethlehem; a journey that culminates, for us, on Watchnight when we welcome the coming of Christ into the world. We prepare ourselves, spiritually, for the coming of Christ. We reflect on where we are and where we’re going. Today is the departure point, when we begin that journey to Bethlehem.

Let’s begin by remembering that, in terms of what came before, the birth of Jesus was the outworking of God’s promise. It was the fulfilment of hope. “The days are surely coming,” said the Lord, “when I will fulfil the promise I made to the House of Israel and to the House of Judah.”. The days were surely coming, and now they had arrived, when God would enter his creation and live among his people. The days were surely coming, and now they had arrived, when the kingdom of God would be proclaimed among the kingdoms of the world - as Christ did before Pilate as we heard last week.

So let’s look forward to Christmas! Let’s set out for Bethlehem to gather at the manger and rejoice that we worship a God that keeps his promises - not always in the ways we expect and not always to our timescale, but surely and certainly. Let’s set out for Bethlehem to gather at the manger, not to welcome a herald of the kingdom of God, but God himself, entering his own creation to dwell with us. To know our hurts and our fears. To know our temptations and our trials. To know our weaknesses and our failings. Let’s set out for Bethlehem.

More than that, though, the Gospels proclaim another promise from God - that Christ will come again. That one day all that God began in Christ will come to fruition. That one day the world will be transformed and the kingdom of God will rule over all the world. Which sounds impressive, but what does it actually mean? You could, I suppose, go to the Book of Revelation, which is full of incredible imagery, but a lot of it is symbolic. You could talk about what’s come to be known as “the Rapture”, but its basis in scripture is a bit dodgy. Or you could go back to first principles and ask what the ‘kingdom of God’ actually means.

I was saying last week that we tend to think of kingdoms as places, defined on a map by borders and colours. In Biblical terms it’s more about authority. It’s about whose authority we accept; whose laws we abide by; whose values we accept. If we’re talking about the kingdom of God ruling over all the world, it’s not about conquest by the sword, it’s about people all over the world accepting what God has to offer; accepting God’s authority; accepting the rules God gives us to live by, interpreting them through Christ.

So what would a world like that look like? It would be a world filled with the love of God. It would be a world where no one went hungry or without a roof over their heads. It would be a world where sickness and poverty and want were done away with. It would be a world where no sadness went untended and where no doubt went unlistened to; where the drums of war no longer beat and where nation spoke peace unto nation; where swords are beaten into ploughshares and humanity studies war no more. 

How could all that come to be? Through humanity learning to love one another as we love ourselves. Through humanity accepting the way that God taught us in Christ and living the way he demonstrated for us by living with us as a human being. Through humanity learning that for all our differences, all our flags and our races, all our languages and cultures, we are all children of God; we are one family meant to love one another.

That is our other Bethlehem. Through this period of Advent we don’t just look forward to what was; we also look forward to what will be. It may seem a long way off. We may not see it in our lifetime, but we should set our face toward it all the same and set out for that Bethlehem.

That means looking at the things we won’t need when we get there. We won’t need the selfishness that sometimes blinds us to the needs of others. We won’t need the anger and the jealousy that sometimes burns in our hearts and turns us against our brothers and sisters. We won’t need the bigotries and badges that sometimes cause us to fear those who are different. We won’t need the pride and the arrogance that leads us to despise others or to insist that our understanding of God’s word is the only one. We won’t need all those things that, through the love of God and the Cross of Jesus Christ, are forgiven us. 

So let us ready ourselves to set out for Bethlehem - the Bethlehem that was and the Bethlehem that is to come. Let us prepare to celebrate Christ’s coming into the world two thousand years ago and to his coming into the world again at some time to come; coming into the world to reign - not through power and force and might as kings of the world have too often done, but through the love of God that binds us to one another. A love that is transforming the world and which, one day, will transform it completely.

Let’s give that a word. Let’s call it hope. Yes it is. Cynics say, “Live in hope, die in despair”. No. Live without hope, live in despair. Let us set out for that Bethlehem that is to come. Let us live, today, as if we have already arrived there. Let us do what we can to make sure no one goes hungry - even if it’s just a bag of rice donated to a food bank. Let’s do what we can to look after the poor - even if it’s just correcting our friends when they tell you there’s no such thing in this country. Let’s do what we can to see that all sorrows are met with care - even if it’s just offering a listening ear and a hug. Let’s do what we can for peace in the world - even if it’s just by welcoming refugees.

And let us rejoice in doing so because in doing so we proclaim the world that is to come. “Surely the day is coming,” said the Lord, “when I will fulfil the promise I made to the House of Israel and to the House of Judah.” He kept that promise and he’ll keep this one. One day Christ will come again and the world will be filled with the love of God. You and I may not get to see that - at least not in this life. But everything we have done to contribute to it coming makes a difference and, one day, you and I will live in the presence of God and see that. Until then let us turn our faces toward Bethlehem and step out boldy in the knowledge that the Day is surely coming.

Father, this first Sunday of Advent we set out for Bethlehem. As we go to welcome your Son into the world may we look forward to the time when he will come. May we walk the road as citizens of his kingdom.

Preached at Gretna Old parish church