Bible Sunday
THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT
The Advent of Christ Into the Soul by Grace
Last Sunday marked the beginning of the Christian year, and we were exhorted to "wake up from our slumber, for the day of God's visitation is at hand." Having been awakened to the imminent return of our Lord, we are about the business of preparing our hearts, minds, and bodies too- in a real sense- receive once again, the grace of Christ; as we are re-awakened to the salvation received in the Advent of the eternal Word who became as we are that we might become as he is.
The season of Advent truly is a Season of the Word: a time of preparing to apprehend and joyfully embrace the Word which "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:8). By knowing Redemptive history and employing the gracious gift of memory, we remember the First Advent of Christ, who, by leaving the heights of heaven to take humanity upon himself, saved us from sin and death. And utilizing the gift of the projective imagination, we can envision our Lord's Second Advent when the blessed Bridegroom will return again to gather his bride and having stood on the day of judgment, consummate the eternal, perfect union promised to Christ's beloved.
In this way, we simultaneously look forward and back as Advent beckons us to both remember and anticipate the day of God's visitation. But the teachings and writings of the church fathers teach we learn of a third Advent: one that occurs in between the first and second coming of the Lord. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, born at the end of the 11th century, speaks of this as a present Advent of Christ, how the Lord Jesus comes presently to all who, by faith, turn unto him in the sacrament of Baptism.
The Word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, penetrates and enters into the heart, Adventus, comes to us, dwelling within. In other words, this third meaning of Advent is the present coming of the Word of God into our souls by grace. And this comes by hearing the Gospel proclaimed in Holy Scripture made effectual by Divine grace. Advent then is most fully realized in three ways: first, the coming of the Son of God in carne: in the flesh, historically; his coming in mente: in our souls, now, presently, by grace; and ad judicium: at the judgment, when the Lord returns at the end of earthly history.
Scripture is the Foundation Which Shapes Anglican Spirituality
The revelation given in Holy Scripture is the Divine and living Word of God, which penetrates the heart, separates bone from marrow as an arrow penetrating deep into the conscious soul of man. We are and can be shaped by many things, but It is the Biblical revelation of God, which most profoundly shapes the spiritual life. This strong emphasis on shaping the heart and mind through reading and meditating on Holy Scripture is at the very heart of Anglican Christianity: it is the very life-blood of Prayer Book spirituality, which is a way of life and worship saturated in and arranged around the Bible.
A liturgical, Prayer Book life as it moves through the entirety of the Bible, proclaims God's Word to his people day by day, week by week, year by year: a pattern that has remained substantially unchanged for more than a millennium, up until our own generation. Just think of the Daily Offices, which basically arranges Scripture into the prayers of the Church. And, the prominence of the spoken Word in the Eucharistic liturgy read, prayed, and preached.
For this, we should give thanks to original twelve disciples and the earliest Church who humbly conformed themselves to the Apostolic pattern of worship and to the Fathers of the English Reformation, who made it their Holy Crusade to re-position Holy Scripture as the all-sufficient and sole authority of Anglican life and doctrine. Elevating Holy Scripture was of paramount importance to men such as John Wycliffe and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer as evidenced in the sixth Article of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (found at the end of your prayer book), which states,
(quote) "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation" (end quote). These 16th-century reformers were determined to correct the medieval magisterial innovation of elevating the authority of tradition to that of Holy Scripture. And we thank the Lord for their having prevailed!
One of the great reformation enterprises, in addition to translating the Scriptures into the language of the people, was returning to the sole-sufficiency of Holy Scripture in keeping with the consensus of the Apostolic Fathers. Men like St. Athanasius, who wrote in his Against Heresies, "The holy and inspired Scriptures are fully sufficient for the proclamation of the truth."
And St. Gregory of Nyssa, "[W]e are not entitled to such license, namely, of affirming whatever we please. For we make Sacred Scripture the rule and the norm of every doctrine. Upon that, we are obliged to fix our eyes, and we approve only whatever can be brought into harmony with the intent of these writings."
And again, in the writings of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, "We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith."
The Great Reformation Enterprise
Now, when I speak of the Reformers re-establishing the sole authority of the Bible to Mother church, we mustn't think of these reforms occurring in the abstract or impersonally. For their great concern to re-align the Church solely under Scripture, most certainly included reorienting the day to day lives of every Christian. The English Reformers not only labored for Scripture to re-assume its proper authority and place in the governance of the Ecclesia Anglicana but in the hearts and minds of every baptized Christian.
This reformation desire for Christians to live under the authority of Holy Scripture is very evident in the Collect appointed for this Second Sunday in Advent, which is found on page 92 of your Prayer Books. Its authorship is attributed to Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and first appeared in the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. It is a beautiful prayer, and most instructive for us to whom the Word of God has come and visited the soul. Let's take a look at Cranmer's prayer.
The Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent
"Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning..." We first begin by turning towards the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we call "Blessed Lord." This familiar expression found throughout Scripture sets forth our petition by blessing God, who is the Creator of all things and worthy to be praised and adored by his creation. The psalmist sings, "Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein" (Psalm 69.34). And why? Because they exist and flourish because of the God who made them.
With a similar idea in mind, St. Paul begins his epistle to the Ephesians saying, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." Just as the sea and trees sing praises to their Creator, so too, the covenant people of God bless the Father of our regeneration, who created from ashes new life and a people brought forth by the blessings of Christ. Therefore, the Father is the Blessed Lord who is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, rightly praised and adored by all creation and especially by us, the redeemed.
Having identified and addressed the One to whom we desire to offer our prayer, we move into recollection employing memory, remembering the gracious act of the Triune God, who "has caused all Holy Scriptures - the Canon with both Old and New Testaments - to be written for our learning: for our benefit, salvation, sanctification, instruction, and education. And the Word of Holy Scripture is sure because it is of Divine origin.
In his second epistle St. Peter says that we would "do well to pay attention [to] as a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in [our] hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." And we are to use this gift given of God under his perpetual care as a living possession for our good and his glory.
Being in the presence of the Lord and suitably recollected by the help of his Spirit, we are now in a position to offer our necessary and unrestricted petition. And it begins with a strong verb, "Grant." We plead with God to "give unto us" (to "Grant") because we are wholly and totally in need of mercy from Him to whom our supplication is offered. In other words, we desperately need God's grace to assist our reading and understanding, Divine favor to ultimately benefit from this supremely beautiful gift that he has placed in the hands of holy mother Church, the Holy Scriptures.
"Grant that we may in such wise hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them." These verbs- hear, read, mark, learn & inwardly digest - reflect a movement from an initial, superficial acquaintance with the Bible to a most heartfelt reception of its content deep into the heart, mind, and will, and in fear of God. To hear is to hear both with the outer ear and with the inner ear and thus hear in mind and the conscience, where the seed of the Word of God must be sown: "the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21).
To read is yet another way for the Word to enter the soul. To mark is to pay close attention to what we hear and read, and to meditate upon it, to "chew the cud" as it were. To learn is to commit to memory the essentials of what is heard and read. To digest the Word of God can only occur when there has been the receiving, the noting, the meditating, and the remembering, for, in digestion, the spiritual food enters the "bloodstream" of the soul. "How sweet are thy words unto my taste!" rejoices the psalmist, "Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Ps 119:103).
Beloved, the result of receiving the Word of God rightly is that by patience and the comfort of God's Word, we embrace and hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life the beatific gift to be ours in the unique and majestic glory of the Second Coming of Christ, which is the Christian hope. Now, comforted by God's Word, we patiently wait for the Second Coming of Christ to bring this evil age to an end and to inaugurate the eternal day of the kingdom of God.
Thus, a primary theme of this Collect is the right use of Scripture as a means of preparing for the Second Advent as we live in the Light of the First Advent. In other words, though it is a very appropriate prayer for the beginning of Advent and of the Church Year, it is also a prayer that is suitable for every day which the Lord gives us.
And it ends with the full recognition that it is only through, by, in, and with Christ Jesus that we go to the Father for succor and the Father comes to us with gifts and blessings. Saturated in the Holy Scriptures, we are prepared for the Second Coming in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead. In the hearing, reading, marking, learning, and inwardly digesting the Word of God, we are genuinely prepared to watch and to pray.
The Word of God in the believing soul is the ground of patience, comfort, and hope.
St. Paul writes, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope." That is so we might not fall away, but being stirred unto a steely resolve and comforted by the Scriptures, we might exhibit patience, that by living patiently, we might abide in hope. For these things are productive of each other, patience of hope, and hope of patience. And both of them are brought about by the Holy Scriptures.
I will close with an excerpt taken from The Most Reverend Father in God, Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Metropolitan Primate of England and his Preface to the Great Bible of 1549:
"Wherefore I would advise you all that come to the reading or hearing of this book, which is the Word of God, the most precious jewel and most holy relic that remaineth upon earth; that ye bring with you the fear of God, and that ye do it with all due reverence, and use your knowledge thereof, not to vainglory of frivolous disputation, but to the honor of God, increase of virtue, and edification both of yourselves and others." Amen+
