New Beginnings

Sermon for the 1st Sunday of Advent Sunday 30 November 2008 Isaiah 64. 1-9 1 Corinthians 1. 3-9 Mark 13. 24-37

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of the Church‟s year. The rest of the world does things differently. The calendar year begins on the first of January. The financial year begins in April. The academic year begins in September. But this is the Church‟s „New Year‟s Day‟. And so today is a time for new beginnings. Today, we start a whole new calendar of seasons, feasts, festivals and holy days. Today, we also start a new cycle of Bible readings. The Church has put together a three year scheme of readings to help us to make sense of the Bible. It‟s given the rather grand name of a „lectionary‟. Today we begin Year B. In the course of the year most of our Gospel readings will come from St Mark‟s Gospel. And today also marks the beginning of a new Church season – which is given the name of „Advent‟. The season of Advent comes around at the same time every year. I suppose we think of it as the run up to Christmas. But what does „Advent‟ really mean?

Well, our English word „Advent‟ comes from the Latin words „Adventus Domini‟, meaning „the coming of the Lord‟. At this time of year we are all waiting eagerly for Christmas. And at Christmas, every year, we celebrate the birthday of Jesus, the coming of our Lord as the Christ-child in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago. In a way, during Advent, we are preparing for the biggest birthday party of all. That‟s what all our frantic planning and shopping and baking, cards, wrapping paper, decorations and crackers are really about. Of course, part of our preparation for that great birthday party lies in remembering how the birth of Jesus came about so long ago. We re-visit, through the words of the prophets, the yearning of Israel for its Messiah, the one who will reconcile God and mankind, in whom the glory of God will be revealed: the one who is the „Morning Star‟, the „King of Nations‟, „Emmanuel‟ or „God with us‟. We share with Mary and Joseph the waiting and the wonder and the worries of pregnancy. We learn, with Mary, that the child who is to come is very special. He will be great and holy and powerful and will be called Son of God. The birth of a baby is always a time of rejoicing. It‟s a new life, a fresh beginning, a time of hope. So how much more will we rejoice at the birth of this special child. “Comfort is here; help has come down from heaven”, wrote Bernard of Clairvaux, more than 1000 years ago. “God the Father has sent to earth a sackful of his mercy… Only a little sack, but it is full. To us a child is given indeed, but in him dwells the fullness of God.”

So Advent is a time of joy and excitement and anticipation. But Advent is about more than remembering the birth of Jesus and preparing for his birthday celebration. It‟s also about looking ahead, into the future, to another new beginning when Christ will come again – and God‟s new world will come in all its perfection. „Keep awake!‟ says Jesus, „for you do not know when that time will come‟. During Advent we wait with renewed hope and longing for the time when Christ will come, not as a vulnerable child in a stable, but in power and glory, for the completion of God‟s new creation. The Jews of Jesus‟ time had their own views about what would happen in that „end time‟ – and about the signs that would herald it. They envisaged a powerful and terrifying upheaval in the created universe, when „the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.‟ For the Jews, this „Day of the Lord‟ would be a time when God would actively intervene to punish sin – as the prophet Zephaniah foretold : „a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry‟. As Christians we pray fervently for the „Day of the Lord‟, for the time when „God‟s kingdom will come and God‟s will be done in earth‟. Our Christian hope for the coming of God‟s kingdom is lodged firmly in the promise expressed in John‟s Gospel:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” We long for the coming of „a new heaven and a new earth‟ in which God will make his home amongst his people and be with them to wipe every tear from their eyes - and in which death, mourning, crying and pain will be no more. As Martin reminded us last week – “the world we live in is far from perfect”. As we hear the news today from Mumbai in India, from the Congo, from Zimbabwe, from Afghanistan and Iraq - as we recognise the suffering of people around us who are in pain or distress - should we not be joining today with the passionate cry of the prophet Isaiah to the Lord, our Father:

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!” So Advent, „the coming of the Lord‟, is a season in which we remember the coming of Christ into the world as the baby in Bethlehem and in which we anticipate the second coming of Christ to usher in God‟s reign of love and peace. But Advent also reminds us of another coming of Christ which is perhaps even more immediate and meaningful for us. Jesus was „God with us‟ during his lifetime in 1st century Israel. Jesus will come again to reign in God‟s new world. But Jesus is with us, too, today – here in this ‟in-between-time‟ in which we find ourselves living out our lives.

Remember the lines of the popular Christmas carol:

Advent is a time for new beginnings.

“No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.”

If we are to prepare ourselves for „the coming of the Lord‟, it‟s a time to hear the call of Jesus to wake up. And, as at the start of a new day, it‟s a time for cleansing and refreshment – a time to turn away from the darkness and look into the light – a time not for sleeping but to be active in the service of Christ.

What is really in our minds when we pray for the Holy Child of Bethlehem to be „born in us today‟? Perhaps we are inviting Jesus to be with us at the difficult times in our lives - to bring hope when we are depressed, comfort when we are in pain, and reassurance when we are anxious. Or perhaps we are asking Jesus to help and guide us when we are trying to make sense of the problems and complexities of life – to prompt us to seek out ethical responses and to make love the focus of our relationships with others. Maybe we want Jesus to be with us, to walk with us and talk with us, in every part of our lives. The spiritual writer Esther de Waal reminds us that we can find God in the ordinary things of life as well as in its highs and lows. She writes: “I should look around me and see that God does not demand the unusual, the spectacular, the heroic. [My rule of life] asks of me as wife, mother, housewife that I do the most ordinary, often dreary and humdrum things that face me each day, with a loving openness that will allow them to become my own immediate way to God.”

Today is the start of a New Year for the Church. Let‟s make a resolution to strengthen our faith in Christ who is the same „yesterday, today and forever‟, to rejoice in the knowledge of his presence with us today, and to pray with all our hearts and minds for the coming of God‟s kingdom. New Year is a time for celebration, for new life, new vision and new hope. So „Happy New Year‟!