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"’