Niggling fears–gift and response.
Advent 4: 22nd December, 2002
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus'. (Lk 1:30-31)
The Annunciation gospel is this year our gospel for Advent 4. The events which we celebrated liturgically nine months ago have now come to their fullness. The young woman of Nazareth who responded to the particular call of God for her and who stands as a model of faithful and generous response, is now at the centre of our final preparations for the birth of the Lord. The long wait that the words of the prophets have recorded through the centuries of the story of the people of God, is about to come to an end. It is by the willing participation of this daughter of Abraham; it is her 'yes' that has made all this possible through the power of the spirit of God so wonderfully at work. God at work in a human being. God in a new burst of creation: the same Word that is always at work, becoming flesh – embracing our humanity. Our humanity offered the wonderful grace of embracing God. Now that is truly a 'quality of life' issue that we can all respond to. Our starting point has been our tapping into the story of one specific human life two thousand years ago – one particular young woman, whose life was absolutely and immeasurably changed and enriched.
Concern for the 'quality of life' or indeed for 'the quality of our own individual life' is something we are all familiar with. We often discuss it when there are issues of major illness around, or the increasing frailty of extreme old age. We also have it in our minds when we compare for instance the manner of our living as compared to say more than half the world, living at or below subsistence level. And 'quality of life' is also clearly a concept that has spiritual dimensions as well. It is an issue that is directly addressed frequently in the gospels. We remember the many occasions when the quality of spiritual life is contrasted with other indicators. Certainly many of the poor and materially needy show a very rich and creative openness to God.
So where might this take us? Obviously we would endorse the proposition that a human life is greatly enriched by the embracing and the growing of the dimension of the spiritual – by finding a place for God. The person who experiences the presence, the love, the care of God is never quite the same again – even if there are many stumbles yet to come.
We remember than in Jesus Christ we are worshipping one who declared: "I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly". And immediately, of course, we need to acknowledge that so much of what we see and do and are falls far short of that. But still it is the case that over these twenty centuries people who have experienced something of this new life, have wanted to share it. The Annunciation was a particularly spectacular example of this type of experience in the life of Mary in Nazareth. Smaller annunciations are experienced in every generation, in very many lives. This has profound implications for how we live and work with each other, what sort of world we try to be part of. God's involvement in a life. God's involvement in a world.
So the baby we are to honour in two days time is and was no ordinary child. This child born in an ordinary way of an ordinary woman is, we declare 'God with us' – Emmanuel. This Jesus is one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. "So God almighty came to be one of us" goes one modern carol. And that should make a difference.
It is not a sustainable position then to say, as some might, that Christianity has no place in the issues of the day, or to assert that God and the Church are best occupied with things heavenly or the life of the world to come, rather than with things earthly or the problems and the challenges of the here and now. The Scriptures old and new and the history of the people of God through all these centuries, make it abundantly clear that there has never been a time when things were separated in that way. Sometimes we might fervently wish that they had been! But really it is not an option. Indeed all religious traditions would agree on this. What you believe makes a difference to how you live and what you do and how your world is shaped. Or at least how you would like to have it shaped, if that were possible. Always there are conflicting value systems at work.
Can we consider for just a moment the specifics of the particular way that God chose to identify with this creation? The young woman who received the message that we recall today in our gospel and who was to bear this Child was the partner of a carpenter. The circumstances of the birth can be romanticised but to our ears they are not pleasant or comforting. The times were politically volatile and uncertain. The country was under occupation. People on the edge of the community – shepherds – were the first to recognise the significance of the occasion according to our traditions. Within days the whole family were to become refugees with soldiers out to kill them. This is the time place and manner in which God was to choose to identify with this creation. The God we worship in Jesus Christ knows what it is to be human and indeed to be human in bad times and hard situations.
So it has to be that Christianity has much to say and do about the issues of this world as well as those of the next. All aspects of life – the way we live with and care for each other, our family life, our economic life, our values, our ways of organising ourselves – all the way to matters of life and death and war and peace. These issues are inescapable. And they are not only matters that are appropriately considered privately. These are matters that fundamentally colour our life together corporately. We have to be part of that. The values we hold and honour because of our awareness of the story of our salvation, that might be said to particularly begin with the event described in today's gospel, mean that we have no choice.
So faith and trust in this Jesus Christ – so much more than a babe in a manger – really does mean a different way of looking at the world and of experiencing life, of living. Christians and groups of Christians have an obligation to speak out, to reach out in order to bring about positive change, and at times to protest and to object simply because they follow one who himself did just that. That will mean working to end injustice. That will mean works of charity and mercy. That may mean opposing the powerful. It will mean praying for peace when all around there are cries of war.
All around this festive season there is an edge of uncertainty. The heat and the drought and the fires yes. But even more is that quiet and niggling fear that events are in train that are way beyond our control that will nonetheless have a huge impact on the lives so many millions, including our own. And it is not at all clear what lies ahead or why.
Today's gospel is part of the great story of the re-intervention of our God in the affairs of this world. We are given another chance to get things right. We are offered another, further, even more accessible window into the heart and ways of God – offered in the greatest love and generosity. We are even offered a model of response and hope and promise.
The offer of God remains open. The world would appear to be in at least as big a mess as that of the eastern end of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago. Perhaps a fresh start is what we all need.
The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus'. (Lk 1:30-31)
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