Sunday 11the December 2011 - The Third Sunday of Advent

The word advent means ‘coming’ or ‘arrival’. Today is the third Sunday in the season of Advent and we continue to prepare for the coming of Jesus. The early Christian preacher, Cyril of Jerusalem, said “We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first.” Cyril was speaking of the fact that we believe that Jesus who came as a baby in Bethlehem, born of the virgin Mary, will come again – not as an infant but as the ruler of all things. “Our Lord Jesus Christ will therefore come from heaven” said Cyril, “He will come at the end of the world, in glory, at the last day. For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be made new.”

In Advent we reflect on both of these comings – the coming in the past, and the future coming “to judge the living and the dead”. It is far too easy in this time to focus so intensely on the baby that we forget that baby is the Lord who is coming again.

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The first coming of Jesus did not happen without warning. The whole story of the Old Testament points towards him. The traditional service of nine lessons and carols often picks up on some of the ways in which it does that. The story of the fall of humanity in the garden of Eden tells of the way in which human beings lead creation into death and destruction, but it also speaks of the way in which the serpents head will be crushed – a passage which has been seen as pointing to Jesus. When Abraham is called to sacrifice his son, Issac, the sacrifice is prevented by God who himself provides the ram for the sacrifice: again this has been seen as pointing to the “lamb of God” who is Jesus.

As we follow through into the prophets the testimony becomes less vague and tentative. The child will be born in Bethlehem, he will be the suffering servant by whose wounds we are healed.

And then after hundreds of years of silence a new prophet appears. He is John the Baptiser, and he speaks of who will come after him. ‘Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.'

John’s message is that the imminence of Jesus’ coming means that people must get ready. ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’. The need to look at themselves and their way of life and to ask if, when Messiah comes, they and their way of life will be ready to receive him. Luke tells us that he called people to live honestly with care about those around them and that he fearlessly denounced vice and corruption in high places.

It was because of this that John was arrested and killed. John’s arrest seems to have been seen by Jesus as the sign that his own mission should begin.

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John prepared the way for Jesus first coming. We are called to be ready for his return. In his first letter to the Thessalonians Paul writes, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night ... But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day.” He continues by giving instructions for living as children of light and children of the day concluding with the words which form our second reading, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.” They, and we, are told to do this not because it is a good idea or a healthy lifestyle but because only those who do these things are living as children of light. You might want to ask yourself whether you are living in conformity with the instructions in this passage. Whether you are living so as to be ready for the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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You see, I think I’m not. I don’t ‘rejoice always’, I don’t ‘pray without ceasing’, and I’m sure that sometimes I do ‘quench the Spirit’. This passage challenges me to change, and I hope it challenges you too.

In fact I think there’s a need for a change in me, and in you, and in the wider church too. And so does our Bishop. Bishop Steven has challenged us as a diocese to affirm four priorities which we will pursue over the next fifteen years. These priorities are:

• Live a distinctive Christian life in the world
• Share and communicate our faith more effectively
• Hold ourselves accountable for developing a core agenda of ministries in each of our parishes, schools and chaplaincies
• Re-imagine Christian ministry, so that at every level of diocesan life we are not just maintaining our presence but developing it so that the world can be transformed.

Our Bishop writes:

... this is about Christian lifestyle and spirituality; how we live our Christian lives each day; evangelism; and about our expectations of ourselves as Christian Communities. And it is about what sort of ministry we need for the future.

The priorities are not just for the clergy or the enthusiast but for all of us and there will be a major consultation in the new year to which representatives of all the parishes in the diocese have been invited. We will then be expected to act, every one of us, on those priorities.

Why? Because the Church has a task, You and I have a task, to undertake. It is the task that John the Baptiser undertook at the first coming of Jesus and which he calls us to undertake now. To be, ‘the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord"’

Sunday 4th December 2011 - the Second Sunday of Advent

Prepare the way of the Lord

Introduction

Today, on this second Sunday in Advent we come to the ministry of John the Baptist.

Exposition

In some ways it is a bit strange to look at the ministry of John the Baptist now, in the period as we approach the Birth of Jesus, because John didn’t preach or teach in the months or years before Jesus birth. John was just six months older than Jesus and we read of his conception and birth in the Gospel of Luke. Zechariah John’s father was married to Elizabeth. They were both elderly people and were childless. Zechariah was a priest in the temple and one day went to offer incense in the inner part of the temple and whilst he was doing that had a vision telling him that he and Elizabeth were to have a son who would be like the prophet Elijah and ‘turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.' (Luke 1:17). Zechariah would have been well aware that these words come from the prophet Malachi who speaks a prophet who will prepare the way the messiah and be his herald and forerunner.

After John is born we hear nothing more of him until he begins his ministry. He goes out into the desert near the river Jordan as many prophets had done before him and begins to announce that God’s kingdom is at hand and that the Messiah will be coming soon. As a sign of getting ready for the coming of the messiah people are urged to publicly turn away from their wrongdoings and show that they had done this by being plunged beneath the waters of the river Jordan and emerging washed and clean.

Jesus himself comes and spends time with John and then sets out on his ministry. Some of John’s disciples become followers of Jesus. John is fearless in denouncing corruption and wrongdoing in high places and is eventually arrested, imprisoned and executed by Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee.

Application

When Jesus came he did not come to a world which had had no warning of his coming. The prophets of the Old Testament had spoken both of him and the one who would prepare his way. There were many who were ready to hear and eagerly received the message, but sadly there were many more who do did not.

As always it was the poor and the outcast who were able to listen to John and therefore get ready to receive Jesus when he came among them. But those who should have known better were exactly those who did not. Those who were absolutely convinced that they had got it all right were found to be compleatly wrong.

And that is what I want us to think about today. You see I am convinced that God is speaking to us loudly and clearly today, but I’m not sure we are listening. What do I mean by that?

As the author of the letter to the Hebrews said, God speaks in many and various ways. His primary means of speaking to us is through Jesus Christ his Son and through the scriptures which testify to him. But he also speaks through circumstances and people.

I believe that our Bishop, Steven, is one of the people that God is speaking to us through today. He is calling us to consider anew the priorities of our life together. He has written:

Following a period of consultation across the diocese, the November Diocesan Synod is being asked to affirm four priorities for our life together as Anglicans in Essex and East London. These are being presented under the title Transforming Presence and concern how we can:

·         Live a distinctive Christian life in the world

·         Share and communicate our faith more effectively

·         Hold ourselves accountable for developing a core agenda of ministries in each of our parishes, schools and chaplaincies

·         Re-imagine Christian ministry, so that at every level of diocesan life we are not just maintaining our presence but developing it so that the world can be transformed.

In other words this is about Christian lifestyle and spirituality; how we live our Christian lives each day; evangelism; and about our expectations of ourselves as Christian Communities. And it is about what sort of ministry we need for the future.

The November Synod did, indeed, affirm those priorities and they will form the basis of our exploration and action over the next 15 years. We could, of course ignore them and carry on with business as usual. Or we could throw ourselves behind our Bishop’s vision, get involved and act and change as a consequence; for yes, it will mean change and hopefully the biggest change will be a move from carefully managed decline to a new attitude and hope.

As with John the Baptist some will listen and some will miss the boat, and our future will depend on which road we take. Listen to what God is saying to us today:

Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.