Growing in faith and in social action
Advent 4: 23rd December, 2007
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
The baby we are to honour tomorrow evening and Tuesday is and was no ordinary child. This child, born in an ordinary way of an ordinary woman is, we declare to be, 'God with us' — Emmanuel. This Jesus is one with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And that should make a difference. Christians are followers of this Jesus, God who is also one of us.
The readings for the Sunday before Christmas Day understandably take us close to the actual birth stories themselves, as close as we can. Our three-year cycle moves us around: the Annunciation gospel is the gospel for Advent 4 next year. Last year it was the Visitation with Elizabeth. Today in Matthew's account we actually have the story seen through the eyes of Joseph and for Matthew — writing as he was for a community of Jewish Christians — Joseph was the link that affirmed the relationship with King David. Jesus son of David, son of Abraham, Son of God, is the promised Messiah, the one who will save us. That is the message Matthew wants to convey. In this account Mary does not get to say a word but the stage is set for the coming birth, loved and supported by her husband, who honours the work and the gift of God that is taking place in her, as she brings her child to full term.
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 particular 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.
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 was the subject of the speculation that we recall today in our gospel and who was to bear this child, was the betrothed 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, our concern for the environment — all the way to matters of life and death and war and peace. These issues are inescapable. And they are not matters that are only 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 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.
We remember the many occasions in the gospels 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 that the wealthy do not.
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 that 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.
It is not a sustainable position then to say, as some still do, that Christianity has no place in the political or social disputes 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. 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. Indeed all religious traditions would agree on this. What you believe makes a difference to how you live and what you do and how you work to influence the way the world is shaped. It will make a difference as to what you stand up for, or stand against. In this year of the 200th anniversary of the first steps to abolish slavery we have a good example of what was initially extremely unpopular Christian activism, on the part of William Wilberforce.
Today's gospel then is just part of this whole great story of the decisive re-intervention of our God in the affairs of this world. We are given another chance to get things right. We are offered in Jesus another, further, even more accessible window into the heart and ways of God — offered in the greatest love and generosity. We are even offered models of response and hope and promise in Mary and Joseph.
The offer of God then remains open. The world would appear to be in at least as big a mess as the situation that applied in the eastern end of the Roman Empire some two thousand years ago. Perhaps then a fresh start in our relationship with God is what we all need.
At this time of the year that is exactly what is on offer.
The Lord be with you.
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