Sunday 2nd December 2007 – Advent 1

Last Wednesday Evening the Salvation Army held their annual festival in the Royal Albert Hall – ‘Celebrating Christmas.’

In the course of these celebrations, Commissioner Elizabeth Matear, who is joint leader with her husband of the Salvation Army in the UK and NI, and also the Moderator of the Free Churches in England and Wales, said that she was ‘dreaming of a right Christmas.’ She also said that ‘Jesus coming means that failure cannot be final.’

Both of those statements I would say AMEN to.

Our Gospel reading set for today is part of a discourse that Jesus has with his disciples on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. In the course of his talk, Jesus makes it clear, as I mentioned last Sunday, that not even he, Jesus knows when God will decide the end time will come.

And as a result of this, the disciples and now we, ourselves, are to remain vigilant.

And on this Advent Sunday, the key word is ‘Watch’! For if we were to be aware of when the second coming of Jesus was to take place, we could very easily become complacent - and allow other things to divert our attention. And as a result we could be caught out – and found wanting.

I was reminded of this at a recent seminar I attended on Matthew’s Gospel, which we will be using during this next year, by the quoting of the parable of the ten virgins, five of whom you will remember did not provide themselves with enough oil for their lamps. And so, having gone away to obtain more oil, were not present when the bridal party, arrived, and as a result found themselves excluded as a result.

The thought of being excluded from God’s Kingdom, seems to be taken lightly by some - I believe they do so at their own peril. And in two weeks time we will once again have to listen to John the Baptist, who did not mince his words, on this issue.

Of course every generation since the first disciples have awaited the second coming of Jesus, and perhaps been disappointed that it has not taken place in their lifetime. But that is not to say that it will not take place in our lifetime.

Today the first of the Advent candles will be lit to remind us of the Patriarchs, of Abraham, our father in faith, and David, Jesus’ ancestor in whose city he was born.

Abraham and the patriarchs were called to live by faith and to journey in the hope, of the promised fulfilment as God had told them.

In Advent, as the preface to our order of service reminds us, it is to be for the people of God, a period of restraint, preparation and penitence, together with an expectant longing for the coming of Christ’s kingdom. Waiting, exercising restraint, is something we are not very good at.

E-mails as many of you will have experienced demand an instant response. Now that we are on Broadband, no sooner have I sent a message than an answer often appears on the screen.

Eddie Askew of the Leprosy Mission, who died recently, wrote these comments in his last book – ‘Dabbling with Ducks’.

Eddie said that he had problems with first-class and second-class mail, and the sending of it. He wrote ‘Mrs Bouquet, in the sitcom ‘Keeping up appearances’ told the long suffering postman he should only put first-class letters through her letter box.’ Eddie then went on to say, that a Japanese colleague of his once told him that when he received an important letter, he never replied to it immediately, as that would imply that he didn’t think carefully about it.

He would keep it two or three days before answering, to show that he’d taken time to give a thoughtful reply. Waiting in Advent can also be used as a period of thoughtful reflection.

Advent is also to be, as I mentioned earlier, a time of ‘watching.’ Many believe today that the society in which we live is no longer Christian.

That has nothing to do with the influx and growth of other faith traditions, but rather because many who have been baptised into the Christian faith have not been prepared to stick with it. If the children of today are to be told the ‘Jesus’ story, what better opportunity can there be than the Advent season, as Advent Candles and Calendars are given to them. Hopefully, as Christmas cards are sent and received, some of them will reflect the Christmas story - thus presenting the opportunity for children to be introduced to Jesus and his birth story, if they have not already been told about him by parents and others. The excitement and expectation of a new life coming into the world, and into our own lives, is rarely other than a time of joyful expectation, as we are now experiencing.

As with Lent, Advent is also a season out of step with our times, for it calls for patience and faith in a time of impatience and unbelief. But Advent is also a wake up call to the world in which we live.

The Advent Christ is not simply the new born babe of Christmas or the Judge who will come in glory. For Jesus is the one who will reveal the truth, exposing falsehood. Faith for each one of us should I believe be an on going journey. For we have yet to reach the promised, land

That journey, whether we have just begun it or feel we have already arrived at our destination, will not necessarily have been an easy experience for some. For in the course of that journey there will have been found all sorts of difficulties to negotiate as those on that journey seek to remain focussed on the final goal of that journey. Like any other journey, which we plan, there will be cul-de-sacs to take us away from the main route, causing us to turn around and retrace part of that journey, and for those who use them, not even sat navigators are without their problems. There will be enticing short cuts, which again may well lead us into all sorts of unexpected difficulties, as we depart from the ‘straight and narrow’ so to speak. And there will always be those who offer us so called good advice, only for us to find that the source of their advice is floored, and without any substance. And finally, there may well be those who are basing their advice on the latest and most up to date reference source available, without any justification for it, other than their own personal experience, and because it perhaps relates more closely to their own ‘way’ of life.

And what is the ‘way’ that we are called upon to prepare for the Lord asks Origen, a 2nd Century Egyptian theologian? What is the way that Isaiah speaks of , and we shall hear more about in two weeks time, when we focus on John the Baptist?

Certainly not a material way – for the smoothness of our journeying is not obtained by wealth, although there are those in today’s society, who may well use their wealth for such purposes, but rather as Origen says in response to his own question, by preparing an inner way for the Lord, by making the paths of our hearts straight and smooth.

It is in this respect that each one of us must search our own hearts, as we prepare once again to receive the Christ Child into our own lives, so that we may be found worthy to offer him a home within our selves.

So let us also pray for a ‘Right Christmas’.

Let us be assured that in the coming of Jesus Christ into the world – failure is not final.

And during this Advent Season, let us once again, wait for the coming of Jesus Christ , waiting with patience, watching out for his coming again, remaining alert, so that he can strip away our own unreality, making us instruments to others, of his healing and life-giving presence.

Maranatha – Come Lord Jesus!

Peter G. Vickers – Advent Sunday 2007