The Season of Advent
Advent Sunday, 2 December, 2001
Fr Neville Connell
Assistant Priest, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Today is Advent Sunday. Once again we start the cycle of the Church's
year – in purple, a stark contrast to the festive air of the world around
us. Some, even earnest clergy, say that we must re-orientate the Church's
pre-Christmas period to bring it into line with the world's approach.
But that would be to misunderstand not just Advent, but Christmas itself.
The Birth of Jesus was much more than a time of celebration, even of the
coming of the Son of God in human form: surely in itself a cause for
celebration. As the ministry of Jesus makes clear, his birth was in fact
the ushering in of the Kingdom of God, of the restoration of all things, the
renewal of the Garden of Eden, we might say.
Jesus' ministry began, as did that of St John the Baptist, with a very
simple, direct message, "The time has arrived; the kingdom of God is upon you.
Repent and believe the gospel." (Mk 1:15)
This kingdom was inaugurated by Jesus in his ministry – his teaching,
preaching and healing were all signs of the Kingdom of God's power to make
whole: of God's power to overcome sin and death in Jesus' death on the Cross
and his rising to New Life on Easter Day.
Our celebration of the birth of Jesus contains then these two elements of
celebration: the birth of the Son of God and the anticipation of the coming
of the Kingdom of God's power and love in all its fullness and glory –
symbolised by the picture language of Jesus coming on the clouds in great
glory, and talk of his Second Coming.
In the early Church this anticipation of the second coming of Jesus was very
much alive. The first Christians really believed that it was imminent. So the
people had to be ready; there is an air of urgency in the New Testament, lest
the people be caught by surprise, unready.
"You know 'the time' has come: you must wake up now: our salvation is even
nearer than it was when we were converted." (Rom 13:11) "So stay awake,
because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite
sure of this that if the householder had known at what time of the night the
burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed
anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand
ready because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect." (Matt
24:42-44)
Now, such language is not easy to sustain in the Melbourne of today, two
thousand years later. Around the time of 11th September it was easier, when
people were very much fearful and unsettled. But not for long, were we?
All has gone much better in Afghanistan than one could have imagined. Thank
God! We can now get back to normal. Australia is doing quite well economically
and, apart from the usual troubles between the Israelis and the Palestinians
(and some other smaller conflicts), things are much as usual.
What is this talk of a Second Coming? It is all rather remote isn't it?
Certainly as I walk along Bourke Street Mall it is (apart from the gentleman
on the GPO steps). The Myer windows are about Wind in the Willows,
which is as it should be at this time of year.
And yet, as Jesus has told us, we do not know when He will come; we don't
know when we will be called to leave this life. That call can come at any
time. The coming of the Kingdom is certainly a corporate matter, but it is
also individual, as Jesus has reminded us in the parable of the rich man who
had had a good harvest and proposed to pull down his barns and build bigger
ones: "You fool, this very night you must surrender your life." (Luke 12:16-20)
Our Readings today, and the season of Advent, are really about renewal in
our personal lives, and thus in the Church. We can be thankful that personal
renewal was just as much needed in the early Church as it is needed today:
"The night is almost over, it will be daylight soon – let us give up all
the things we prefer to do under the cover of the dark; let us arm ourselves
and appear in the light. Let us live decently as people do in the daytime:
no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness and no wrangling or
jealousy." (Rom 13:12-14). What one of my commentaries describes as a
"sensual excess of bed and table."
We are called as Christians to be a people of peace, a peace which is much
more than the absence of conflict. A peace which is emotional, physical,
sexual, financial, mental; undergirded by the spiritual. Who amongst us has
this peace? We will be part way there, but it is a life-long journey. Such a
peace brings balance and serenity in life. It is the peace of God.
Today, some young people and adults who have already begun their Christian
journey through Holy Baptism, have been admitted to the next stage of this
journey. They seek the sacramental and spiritual strength of the Holy Spirit
in Confirmation. We must pray for them, and celebrate with them next Easter.
Our best support for them is our own perseverance in faith, discipline and
love; as people of God's peace, people of the Kingdom of God.
Our world lacks peace, there is so much alienation. Dr John Macquarrie
suggests that even natural disasters such as earthquakes illustrate the
alienation in the whole of creation. The world's people are not at peace
– peace which comes from personal moral behaviour and integrity, after
the example of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. This moral behaviour and integrity is
our offering to the people around us, that we might all be ready for the
coming of Jesus to us in his Glory.
|
Views is a
publication of
St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne Australia.
|
