God of Smoke and Mirrors

Sermon for Advent Sunday – Sunday 30 November 2025 – All Saints, Kesgrave

Text:  keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. (Matthew 24v42)

God give you peace my sisters and brothers.

In the 1980s, whilst on Summer holiday from Seminary, my father collared me to help out in a Magic Show at the Opera House in Port Elizabeth.  All the usual tricks were there, cutting a young maiden in half, pulling yards and yards of scarves out of the sleeves of audience members, magical steel rings that looped and un-looped at will and, the pièce de resistance, making a small car, a Mazda 323 if I remember correctly, vanish.^[1]

During the four nights for which the show ran we quickly discovered that, as the saying goes, conjuring is indeed ‘All smoke and mirrors.’  Most of the magic tricks did not require the presence of a magician; it’s the glamorous assistant who does most of the heavy lifting.  

To make a car vanish all that is required is to close it behind a barred gate, produce a puff of smoke whilst mirrors are slid in place in the gaps in the gate, and the ‘grunts’ (me and my dad) gently shove the car off-stage.  We were a bit over-eager on the first night so some audience members commented about the dent on its front bumper on subsequent nights…

If we are not careful with how we handle the Gospel words about the end of the ages, both today in Matthew’s words or in Luke’s version a few Sundays ago, we can also be fooled by the smoke and mirrors of people ‘vanishing’ whilst some remain left behind and lost forever.

Too often in history, let alone in our own lives, people have been obsessed with when the world will end, sending communities into a frenzy of fear instead of hope.  

In the USA 16% of people believe the Last Judgment will be in their own lifetime.  

We British, on the other hands are amongst the lowest on 3% when it comes to expecting some sort of Last Judgement.  However at 23%, we are the highest nation in the world that lives in the fear of some form of world-ending event.^[2]  

Since the birth of Christ, leaders and groups of churches are estimated to have made over 100 predictions (that’s one every 20 years) for the date and even time of the Last Judgement – some having done so, and got it wrong, many many times.

Much angst could have been saved if only the Gospel was read more widely and the words of Jesus believed more fully;

…about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matthew 24v36)

So what are we, faced with the knowledge that things like a conjurer’s trick vanish and come to an end, but unsure exactly when it will, to do?

1) Know that ‘the end is nigh’ – this is our lived experience:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  (Matthew 24v37)

By the time Matthew, Mark and Luke had written about ‘the end times’ all that Jesus ‘prophesied’ about them had already happened.   Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans.  From Stephen onwards Christians were being persecuted by the Sanhedrin and Rulers had killed apostles with impunity.

Jesus reminds us that this is nothing new.  Since the time of Cain and Abel we have lived in a world that thrives on violence.  Even though we are entering the reign of the Prince of Peace we must not be surprised when you hear of ‘wars and rumours of war’ (Matthew 24v6).

This is how things are.  We are called ‘as far as it depends on [us to] live peaceably with all’ (Romans 12v18) but we are not to be surprised by, nor seduced into following the ways of ‘this naughty world’.

2) Know the futility of seeking the end – the sky is falling

So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matthew 24v44)

We are not to become followers of Chicken Licken^[3] who find themselves consumed by the ravenous Mister Fox.  In our Gospel reading Jesus isn’t warning us about looking for, and living in fear of, a future judgement but being faithful in a present reality.

The disturbances of the world around us are not to become a reason for us to flee the world but instead they are to be a rallying call to help us get ready for, with apologies to JRR Tolkein, ‘The Return of the King’^[4]. 

Like the Riders of Rohan and the Defenders of Gondor we are to be vigilant against the brooding darkness of Mordor whilst at the same time going about the day-to-day business of tending our fields and trading with those in other lands.

This is what it means to be ready for the Return of Christ.  We are not to waste our time running around shouting ‘the sky is falling’ but instead we are to faithfully obey the words of the Lord so that, when all is restored and as Handel, quoting the book of Revelation,^[5] proclaimed;

…and finally, 

3) Know to Keep Watch – we are to be Heralds of the Dawn

…keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. (Matthew 24v42)

Returning to our illusionist and the vanishing car we must not allow ourselves to be distracted by the smoke and mirrors that surround us on the stage of this world.  But instead look firmly at the One who stands in front of us, unaffected by the Smoke and Mirrors of the world, offering the gift of salvation and the promise of the life after life.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. (Matthew 24v42)

For he alone is the One who is ‘the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’ (Hebrews 12v2)and the only One whose words and ways we should follow.  

In the end it’s not about ‘wars and rumours of war’ nor is it about ‘one person being taken and the other left’.  It is about keeping our eyes on Jesus.

It is about living Advent lives, watching and waiting and working for the Return of the King.

How will each of us, during this watching and waiting time of Advent, prepare in our hearts a home for the One who is our Wonderful Counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace?

[This blog ‘God of Smoke and Mirrors’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2025 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged] 

oooOOOooo

The Day and Hour Unknown

 [Jesus said to the Disciples] But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.  That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

⁴² ‘Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

(Matthew 24.36-44)

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^[1] For an updated version of Houdini’s original illusion of making an elephant vanish visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFSLRvCfnhI

^[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

^[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny

^[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_King

^[5] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2011.15&version=NRSVUE