Luke 21: 25-36
Sermon – St Oswald Advent
Sunday 2021
Some years ago, when I was
working in the Truro Diocese a young man, Jeremy was appointed to his first
curacy at St Michael’s, Newquay.
We met up for coffee and
anybody who knows me will be aware that my head is always full of ideas and
resources. I simply love ‘kite flying’ and wondering maybe what if…
This was even more so when my
role was the Diocesan Advisor for Evangelism.
Jeremy was looking for a way
to get to know people in the community and I had an idea.
My idea was to get Bibles
into holiday caravans much in the same way as Gideon Bibles were placed in
hotel rooms. Maybe add to the Bible a children’s colouring book, some crayons
and possible some other literature to help people on holiday explore and consider
the Christian faith.
Jeremy liked the idea and by
way of a launch we decided to run a Biblathon. A not stop public reading of the
Scriptures. On average that takes 72 hours.
Jeremy picked up the idea of
the Biblathon with a passion. He began by laying out a huge roll of lining
paper on several tables in the Church. He carefully segmented all the
Scriptures into small sections with an approximate time scale.
However, Jeremy invited
people not to simply read their chosen text but to use music and drama or
whatever way people wished to present it.
This gave Jeremy the
opportunity to knock on doors around the community and invite them to engage
them with this project that had certainly caught people’s imagination.
We had the local MP reading, schools
offering drama to tell Old Testament stories and stories from the Gospels. The
choir sang many of the Psalms and other pieces and other musical groups came in
to do the same in different styles.
One of the special moments
for me was the Head of Education for Cornwall County Council who was a
practising Jew came and sang a huge chunk of the Old Testament in Hebrew.
The Church had a Narthex at
the back of the church with a kitchen and so food and drinks were available as
the church remained open for people to pop in at any time.
I stayed next to the Church
in my Church Army Mission Caravan.
And in the early of the third
day, around 4am or 5am the last section of the Book of Revelation was read. I
went and made a phone call to Radio Cornwall who were following the project.
Later, around 6am, I gave a fuller live interview.
It really was a remarkable
event and we timed it so that we concluded on the first Sunday in Advent.
We had a large lit candle
burning throughout as a sign that the Scriptures offer a lantern to our feet
and a light to our paths.
We choose Advent Sunday
because it ends the Liturgical Year. This is marked by a change in the
Lectionary Readings and the principal Gospel for the year ahead.
Today we begin Year C with Luke
as our principal Gospel.
It seemed fitting to engage
with the whole of Scripture, God’s big story, by way of entering Advent.
The word Advent derives from
Latin, ad-venire which means ‘to come’ and later moving into adventus meaning
‘arrival.’
The Advent call comes from
Isaiah and echoed by John the Baptist…
Prepare a road for the Lord
through the wilderness,
clear a highway across the
desert for our God
Every valley shall be lifted
up,
every mountain and hill
brought down;
the rugged place shall be
made smooth
and mountain ranges become a plain. (Isaiah 40:3-4)
Advent carries the twin
themes of both a solemn season and a season of great hope and expectancy.
Purple is the liturgical
colour that reflects the solemnity of the season.
Advent candles sometimes in
an Advent wreath have grown in popularity over recent years across a wide range
of Churches.
Although red candles are
sometimes used an older tradition is three purple and one rose coloured candle,
along with the white Christ candle. The rose candle was lit on the Third
Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, which is Latin for ‘rejoice’ from the Introit set for
that day. And if you are thinking of a Steeleye Span song you are right on the
money.
More commonly today it has moved to the last Sunday when the focus is often on Mary and the ending of the season of solemnity turning to one of joyous expectation.
As the idea of Advent Candles
has grown in popularity, any number of themes are now used for the four Sunday
in Advent, God’s People, Prophets, John the Baptist, and Mary. Or Hope, Peace,
Joy and Love, or Expectation, Preparation, Repentance and Rejoice – themes keep
expanding.
One set of themes that some of you may remember did mark out the solemnity of the seasons and serves to remind us that during Advent we are not only considering Jesus coming to us as the Babe of Bethlehem but also his second coming as Lord and Judge of all. This set of themes were known collectively as the Four Last Things, death, judgment, heaven, and hell.
That would rather knock the
edge of any pre-emptive Christmass jollification.
That’s as maybe, but this is
the place our Gospel reading points us towards. This ‘Little Apocalypse’ as it
sometimes referred to – also to be found in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. All of them
set just before Jesus’ Passion Narrative. (Apocalypse - revealing or unveiling)
This is interesting as the Jews held passionately to the idea of ‘The Day of the Lord,’ or the ‘Day of God’s Wrath.’ This would be the time when God became sovereign over all the earth, judgment would be past, evil banished, and evil doers punished. A time when the Jews would fulfil their true vocation to be agents of God reign and rule, image bearers and God representatives upon earth.
This ‘Day’ however, according
to Isaiah and Jeremiah and other Old Testaments prophets would be preceded by a
time of earth-shattering events.
Put all of that together with
what we considered last Sunday – Christ the King. Add in the title above Jesus
as he was crucified, Jesus King of the Jews, and the larger picture begins to
emerge.
We must never forget this
larger narrative. That the Child in the Crib became the Christ on the Cross.
Across the crib always falls the shadow of the cross.
Personally, I do think we
have lost something in our rush to Christmass without giving due thought and reflecting
on our rebellious nature, upon our sins, both personally and collectively.
To reflect upon the knots and
tangles we have got ourselves into that stops us shining as bright lights in
the darkness.
And on our collective sins we
have been soberly reminded of our failure to act as good stewards of God’s good
creation with COP26.
Now all this stuff about
seasons, liturgical years and Advent may appear irrelevant and a tad nerdy.
But it serves to remind us of
our history of our faithful forbears. It serves to remind us that we stand in a
tradition of the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
And it serves to remind us to
place of Jesus in the context of the whole of Scripture not as some superhero
beamed down on a rescue mission so we could go to heaven when we die.
When I was in London, I remember going to Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. One of the speakers was suggesting that Christians do not follow Jesus but rather Paul. He had a good point, and there are several Churches in the West who read their Bibles backwards.
They focus on the Epistles,
mainly Paul, then maybe dip into the Gospel’s and then wander into the Old
Testament to cherry pick proof texts and prophecies.
Put well in the couplet; ‘in
the Old Testament the New Testament is contained and in the New Testament the
Old Testament is explained.’
As well as reading the book
100 Challenges one of the disciplines you may like to consider in the year
ahead is to read something like Tom Wright’s commentary on Luke in his Everyone
series. This has been my own discipline for some years now and I can highly
commend it.
I want to draw this rather
wandering sermon to a close by reading Psalm 96.
As I do note how this Psalm
speaks of God as King of the nations, how all creation is called to sing God’s
praises, how we are to bring an offering to his temple, and how God is coming
to judge all people and will do so with fairness.
All of this is personified in
Jesus, who, post resurrection, is given all authority on heaven and earth, who
was denoted as King of the Jews by Pilate, and who is the new Temple and the
one who was and is to come, offering salvation and bringing righteous judgement
upon all – and so much more, so much, much more.
A wonderful Psalm to help us
reflect upon and engage with Advent as a period of waiting with sober
reflection and watching with eager expectation as we see God’s once for all
plan to bring everything back into good order through the righteous
faithfulness of Jesus that begins with his humble birth – not in a royal house
or hall.
Sing a new song to the LORD!
Everyone on this earth,
sing praises to the LORD,
sing and praise his name.
Day after day announce,
“The LORD has saved us!”
Tell every nation on earth,
“The LORD is wonderful
and does marvellous things!
The LORD is great and deserves
our greatest praise!
He is the only God
worthy of our worship.
Other nations worship idols,
but the LORD created
the heavens.
Give honour and praise
to the LORD,
whose power and beauty
fill his holy temple.”
Tell everyone of every nation,
“Praise the glorious power
of the LORD.
He is wonderful! Praise him
and bring an offering
into his temple.
Everyone on earth, now tremble
and worship the LORD,
majestic and holy.”
Announce to the nations,
“The LORD is King!
The world stands firm,
never to be shaken,
and he will judge its people
with fairness.”
Tell the heavens and the earth
to be glad and celebrate!
Command the ocean to roar
with all its creatures
and the fields to rejoice
with all their crops.
Then every tree in the forest
will sing joyful songs
to the LORD.
He is coming to judge
all people on earth
with fairness and truth.
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