That We Might Have Hope
THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT
What do you think of when you think of advent? Perhaps this is the first advent you're consciously aware of and participating in as a Christian. Maybe you grew up in a branch of Christ's Church where once the Feast of Thanksgiving is over, the twelve days of Christmas begin, counting down the days until that wonderful morning when presents are ripped open, the dinner table endowed with a wonderful family meal! Well, if you're under the impression that the twelve days of Christmas precede the birth of Christ like a kind of retail countdown clock, a slow pressure cooker letting you know that you better get your shopping done because time is running out... if this is your understanding of the twelve days of Christmas... then allow me to re-orient your view of Christian time.
The twelve days of Christmas actually begin on Christmas Day and continue on for eleven more, ending on the feast of the Epiphany (that's the proper day for Christians to take down the tree as well!). So the days that precede Christmas (the time we're in now) is called advent, not the twelve days of Christmas! Just think of how wonderful it will be to celebrate one of the highest feasts of the Christian year for twelve days; that's how big of a deal the Church has made out of the birth of our savior for over two thousand years; a feast much too large to squeeze into one day. So this year, let's keep Christ in Christmas for more than 24 hours before chucking the tree to the curb. For some, whether their first or thirtieth Advent season, treat it as nothing more than time to get everything done before Christmas.
It's kind of like some of the couples who come for pre-marital counseling. The priest gives them important and meaningful books to read, spends time over dinner and coffee expounding upon nuptial theology, and explaining the sacramental nature and mystery of marriage. He tries to share everything he has learned and has studied to prepare them for a life-long commitment to one another, the need and means of nurturing their covenant, to remain open to child-rearing and parenthood, and how to build a fruitful Christian home. Some of it sticks, but more often than not, the first question is, "How long will the ceremony be?" I get it. It's almost impossible for two star-crossed lovers on the verge of a wedding to think about anything other than the wedding day, the reception, and all that needs completing. They are far more focused on a day instead of a shared life together.
I return to my initial question: what does advent mean to you? The very question may strike our modern ears as odd because, for the most part, time in our day doesn't really have any meaning beyond measuring it: it's too long, it's too short, it passes by or drags on. Like good scientists, we measure time but have lost the capacity to understand it because we view time as mere data: "56 seconds and the coffee will be hot" and so on. But time is more than data; it is sacramental as well because time is filled with meaning. Christians have always understood time sacramentally because all created things are made to signify their Creator: even time, which God created and set in motion when he created the rising sun and setting moon on the first day. For us, today, Sunday has meaning: this is the sabbath day of the Lord, the day in which we cease from our labors to worship God and find rest in Him; imperfect rest which points to another future day when we shall be raised from the dead to enjoy the eternal rest of God in his presence always. Sunday is more than simply the 24 hours preceding Monday.
The season of advent is filled with meaning as well, for these are expectant days, days of anticipation as we await the coming of the Lord, his advent made manifest through the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The days of Advent progress along the linear horizon of time, but at the same time, we Christians are participating in the higher or Divine Time of Advent. It's like being in two time zones at once, on a dual track of day-to-day time, but infused with an awareness of and meaningful responses to redemptive history, which is playing out simultaneously. Today is more than Sunday; it's the 2nd Sunday in Advent, which means we are two weeks nearer to the birth of Christ, or to put it another way, two weeks closer to God coming to us in Christ. You may have noticed in your prayer books how we are instructed to pray the Collect for the first Sunday in Advent every day until Christmas- even our daily prayers are the conscience of this higher time.
In some mysterious way, we are waiting in hope with expectant Israel, as they looked for their Messiah. In some wonderful way, we are carrying the child within us, awaiting his glorious birth. We, too, wait for the promise to be fulfilled. And we do so year after year, and somehow by grace, actually experience true Advent longing and receive real healing, renewal, and joy on Christmas morn. Last Sunday provided an opportunity to begin our Advent contemplation on the Lord's return. And from Holy Scripture, we discovered two aspects of our Lord's return: the grace of salvation ushered in by the first and judgment when he comes again on the Last day. In this way, we simultaneously look forward and back as advent beckons us to remember and anticipate the day of God's visitation.
But in the teachings and writings of the church fathers, we learn of a third Advent: one that occurs between the first and second coming of the Lord. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, born at the end of the 11th century, speaks of this third understanding 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. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God's Word (the advent of the Word) penetrates the heart, comes in, and takes up residence. In other words, this third meaning of advent is the present coming of the Word of God into the soul by grace. An Advent made possible by hearing the proclamation of the Gospel and made effectual by Divine grace. Advent then is most fully realized in three ways: first historically, in the coming of the Son of God in carne (that is, in the flesh); his coming to us presently in mente (in the soul); and in the future, ad judicium (in judgment) when He returns at the end of earthly history.
Holy Scripture is the Divine and living Word of God which penetrates the heart, separating bone from marrow like an arrow penetrating deep into man's conscious soul. Friends, we are constantly being catechized by one thing or another, spiritually formed by diverse tutors. But it is Holy Scripture, the Word of God, that profoundly shapes the spiritual life. At the very heart of the Anglican way is a strong emphasis on renewing the inner and outer man through reading and meditating on Holy Scripture. In fact, the Bible is the very life-blood of Prayer Book spirituality, a scripture-saturated way of living out a Christian life in conformity with God's Word.
A liturgical, Prayer Book life as it moves through the lectionary readings marinates the days, weeks, and years in God's Word: a daily pattern virtually unchanged for more than two millennia. Just think of the Daily Offices, which basically arrange Scripture into the prayers of the Church. And the prominence of the spoken Word in the Eucharistic liturgy where God's Word is read prayed and preached. For this, we should give thanks to the original twelve disciples and the Fathers of the early Church, who humbly conformed themselves to the Apostolic pattern of worship. We are forever indebted to the Fathers of the English Reformation, who made it their Holy Crusade to reposition 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, "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 tradition beyond the authority of Holy Scripture, and we thank the Lord for their having prevailed!
In addition to translating the Scriptures into the people's language, one of the great reformation enterprises was returning to the sole-sufficiency of Holy Scripture in keeping with the consensus of the Apostolic Fathers. In his treatise Against Heresies, St. Athanasius wrote, "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." 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."
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 re-orienting the day-to-day Christian life. The English Reformers not only labored to reclaim Scriptures' proper authority and place in the governance of the Ecclesia Anglicana but its prominence in the hearts and minds of every baptized Christian. The Collect appointed for this Second Sunday in Advent (BCP 92) illustrates the strong desire the English Reformers had for every Christian to live under the authority of God's Word. Its authorship is attributed to Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and first appeared in the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer in which we pray, "Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: 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, by 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 comfort, patience, and hope, for the Apostle tells "WHATSOEVER things were written aforetime, were written for our learning; that we, through patience, and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope." For the final Word of Scripture for every faithful person is hope: the blessed hope of salvation and attaining the beatific gift at the Second Coming of Christ. Hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ who promises that in that great and future day of trial and tribulation, a time so terrible that men's hearts fail from fear, in that day, Jesus will come on the clouds, he will return in great glory. On that day, "look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption, draweth nigh." Redemption will come to all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ.
St. Paul tells it like this in his epistle to the Thessalonians, "the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." According to Paul, tribulation will precede rescue. And, rescue will come, whether we're asleep in the dirt or staring upwards at the awesome sight of his advent, we all shall be gathered together in his arms and remain with him forever.
St. Paul says these things are written not only for our learning but that we might have hope. Hope in a life filled with despair and so many difficulties. Hope of a future with God so that might not presently fall away; having a real and tangible hope in the promised resurrection of our bodies to stir up a steely resolve to push through life's challenges. The return of Christ as revealed in Holy Scripture is our comfort today and hope for tomorrow. And now, as we prepare to come to the Holy Table, understand that the grace and goodness of God given to you in the sacrament of Holy Communion are but a tiny foretaste of the divine goodness to come at the advent of the Lord. Then his presence shall not be veiled by creaturely things, but fully revealed in all his glory. Amen+
