I was born on 27^th July 1953. Not a particularly significant date in Britain but in South Korea, where I have been this week, it is hugely significant. The Korean war which began in June 1950 saw the Republic of Korea (South Korea), supported by the United Nations and British Commonwealth, defend its borders against a surprise attack by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), at one time supported by China and the Soviet Union. Over three years the battle lines moved up and down the country leading to over 1.2 million deaths, at least half of whom were civilian non-combatants. The armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.

It was designed to “insure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved.” But no “final peaceful settlement” has been achieved yet. So while the Cold War in Europe ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989, North and South Korea have remained in a perpetual state of war. How have the two nations responded?

North Korea has made repeated attempts to invade the South. On Tuesday I entered one of the tunnels dug by the North, deep underneath the DMZ using slave labour and dynamite. Only 44 km (27 miles) from Seoul, the tunnel was discovered in 1978. It is 1.7 km (1.1 miles) long, 2 m high and 2 m wide. It runs through bedrock at a depth of about 73 m (240 ft) below ground. It was  designed for a surprise attack on Seoul, and could easily accommodate 30,000 men per hour along with light weaponry. A total of four tunnels have been discovered so far, but there are believed to be up to twenty more. Furthermore, North Korea has 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel, which makes it the largest military organization on earth, even without its nuclear weapon programme. How has South Korea responded?

Through its ‘Sunshine policy’ it has been giving millions of pounds each year to provide vaccines, medical care and food for North Korean children. It has built a railway to bring the two countries together and opened factories in the north to further economic ties. But most significantly of all, while the North has built the largest army in the world, the South has sent more Christian peacemakers into the world, as a proportion of its population, than any other country in the world. The first evangelical missionary to Korea was a Welshman, Robert Thomas. Aged 24, he landed in Shanghai with his wife Caroline in 1863. She died of an endemic disease just a year later, and Robert himself, became a martyr on the shores of the Daedong River in 1866. But a church was born. Even though the Evangelical church in Korea is just 150 years old, numerically, after the USA, there are more South Korean missionaries in the world than any other country.

Two nations – North and South – two very different responses – one fuelled by hate, the other fuelled by love. Today we rightly remember and honour those from our community who made the supreme sacrifice to defend our freedoms and values. It is one thing to risk your life to save a friend or even to put your life on the line for your neighbours. It is quite another to give your life to fight a formidable enemy to defend your country. But at best, all we can hope for is an Armistice – a cessation of conflict. In our gospel reading today from Matthew 5, Jesus wants us to take one step further, to realise that, whether in war or peacetime, God wants to enable us to transform our enemies into family. This is the kind of radical motivation that characterizes an authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Let’s make three observations.

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There are many ways people differ. Bill Hybels observes there are cat people and there are dog people. There are tennis people and there are golf people.

Some people like to sleep with the windows open and some people prefer to sleep with the windows closed – and they are usually married to each other. Some people keep a pen and notepad by the telephone while other people just have children. There are breakfast people and there are people who don’t remember what breakfast is. There are A type people and there are the rest of you. There are Tigger people and there are Eyore people.

There are blue sky optimist people and there are chicken little – sky falling in people. And every team has at least one of each. When it comes to finances, some are cheque book people and some are cash people. There are Windsor farm shop – John Lewis – Waitrose people and there are Staines market – Poundland people. There are carefully balanced every month cheque book people and there are shut the cheque account down every two years and start over people. And you know who you are. There are people with stock brokers and there are people perfectly capable of going broke without them.

We were all brought up differently. But we all have one thing in common. We have a range of assets, talents and skills that we can invest or waste, use or lose.

In Luke 19 Jesus told a parable – I’ve called it the Parable of the Dragons’ Den, because whether you love or hate the programme, the fact is God has invested significant assets in you and he expects a return on his investment. I invite you to turn to Luke 19 with me.

This is a most unusual parable because it’s the only parable, as far as we know, Jesus told that was based on an actual historical event. What historical event lay behind this parable and why tell it at this moment? The answer lies in our first observation:

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This week the Independent newspaper reports, “A man has been bitten in his sleep by Britain’s most poisonous spider as hordes of the arachnid are reported to have invaded parts of London and Kent due to climate change. Dubbed the “British black widow”, the deadly false widow spider, which is about the size of a 50 pence piece, unleashes venom and can kill those who are allergic to it. However, it will only attack if provoked. The false widow spider has also been sighted in Orpington and in Greenwich, where one victim was 29-year-old glazier Paul Lakeman, who felt something on his shoulder as he lay down to sleep. “I was in bed with the light off,” … instinctively I threw it off onto the floor. “I heard the spider hit the floor and I looked at it – it looked like it meant business.” The false widow spider first came to the UK over 100 years ago in crates of fruit from the Canary Islands. Climate change seems to have caused the population to spread across the South East and they are heading for Virginia Water.

Now I know a cluster of false widow spiders in Greenwich hardly compares with the plague of locusts mentioned in Joel chapter 1. But if we lived in Greenwich and our home was infested with them, you might think otherwise. And that is because the way we read Scripture is shaped by our circumstances.

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“Will World War 3, End of Days Begin in Syria?” asks the International Business Times.  “Syrians face ‘Armageddon’ without military action, says David Cameron” in the House of Commons Wednesday. “Syria: Armageddon is on the agenda – again” was the headline in the Guardian.

In the House of Commons, Sir Peter Tapsell apparently asked the Prime Minister, “”If the Americans illegally bombard the Assad forces, and Assad legally invites the Russians in to degrade the rebels, what will NATO do?” If that was understated, I’d hate to hear the full-blown version. It was frightening” writes Simon Hoggart in the Guardian, “…when Sir Peter tells you Armageddon is nigh, it makes the Book of Revelation look like Your Stars with Russell Grant.” “Ready for war? Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin set to lock horns over Syria at G20 summit” was the headline in the Independent on Thursday. “World’s two most powerful men set to face-off over military action in Syria” “Mr Putin warned that Russia would consider any strikes ordered without United Nations backing as an act of “aggression””. And not be outdone Press TV’s headline was ,  “Iran will support Syria “until the end”

“Any US attack on Syria to engulf the entire Middle East” warns Ayatollah Rafsanjani. Providentially today we have come to the Prophecy of Daniel in our series Christ in all the Scriptures. Embedded in this ancient text is a message of hope about the future. Daniel insists, nothing happens by accident. The world is not out of control. God is in charge and to encourage us to trust him, in Daniel, God has forewarned us of what would happen in history. All we have to do is unlock the apocalypse code hidden in the symbolism of the text to discern the signs of the times.

We are indeed living in the Last Days. Please turn with me to Daniel 7 and let’s note three clues that will help us identify whether this passage is talking about the present day.

1. “As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them.” (Daniel 7:21). We are dealing with a time of great persecution of Christians.
2. “The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom” (Daniel 7:24).
3.  “understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.” … “but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.” (Daniel 8:17, 26). So these visions in Daniel are referring to events close to the end of time.

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