Advent Sunday - Last week's sermon

It’s ‘Happy New Year’ in church terms today, we start the liturgical year on Advent Sunday. 

I was thinking that Advent had crept up on us this year, until I read an article on the BBC website entitled ‘tis the season of ostentation’ that reminded me that the Christmas lights on Oxford Street have been lit since the 5th November, when ‘Robbie Williams was the celebrity switching the lights on…  In Cardiff, we held off until the festive 15^th of November before we turned on the lights.  I couldn’t work out whether they were turned on by Bjorn the Polar bear, or Bob the Builder and Wendy.  Someone said it was Dr. Who?

Such is the demand for a good ‘run up’ to the greatest shopping event this year.  There is nothing else that comes near…

We can go to visit Santa, we can visit a ‘winter wonderland’, we can even buy and authentic German sausage from a huge barbeque in the city centre.  We will make our own particular preparations…we are preparing in church too.

There’s the real challenge for us this ADVENT.  I believe that advent is a time of ‘great hope’  (an advertising executive might say that it ‘has great potential’). 

Potentially people might come through the doors of our churches to hear that message of hope and peace,

Potentially their lives will be changed,

Potentially we will understand a little more about ourselves and our relationship with God.

As we meet those who come through our doors this season, we are entrusted with the task of welcoming them into our family, as they share with us the Advent journey to Christ being born with us once again.

ADVENT, more than any other time in the Christian calendar, is the time when people come close to the gospel message, and the selfless love of God - that resulted in him sending his Son to us.

This Advent, we are entrusted with the task of sharing the meaning of the season with others, We need to build roads by making the Church and our worship available to all.  We also need to look for new ways to speak to those around us in our community – and all in less than four weeks. 

And there won’t be a German sausage or a polar bear in sight!

Don’t worry, help is at hand!  Through Advent, we will light candles on our Advent wreath to remember the Patriarchs of our faith, the Prophets, John the Baptist, Mary, mother of our Lord, and we then take our place in the line to be the next to remind people of the importance of these few weeks.

Last year, at the beginning of Advent our readings were a bit grim – this year we have Jeremiah speaking God’s words

‘The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made’

He is promising to bring a new covenant, security and safety.

This joyful theme is continued by St. Paul, writing to the new Christians in Thessalonica

“How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we feel before God because of you?”

Even though the Gospel is continuing the apocalyptic theme, there is still reason to be encouraged, because we are challenged to be joyful!  It reminds us that there is a glorious connecting between God and his people in both the first AND second coming of Christ.  Charles Wesley once wrote…

Advent is a season of expectation and preparation, as the Church prepares to celebrate the coming (adventus) of Christ in his incarnation, and also looks ahead to his final advent as judge at the end of time. The readings and liturgies not only direct us towards Christ’s birth, they also challenge the modern reluctance to confront the theme of divine judgement:

Every eye shall now behold him robed in dreadful majesty.

I can’t imagine how that could be any better?  God is keeping his promises, we are being encouraged, and we are being reminded that Christmas is the past, present and future of our faith!

We might not have German sausages…or a polar bear…

What else could make church better?  Well…how do you fancy converting to become an ORTHODOX CHURCH?

The ORTHODOX CHURCH how they worship, live and celebrate, is always strangely attractive to me.  There is no ADVENT for the ORTHODOX church; there is a fast just like LENT.

Red meat and poultry, dairy products, oil and wine, eggs and fish are prohibited (there are a few exceptions – wine is allowed on a Tuesday and Thursday and meat is allowed on the weekends)

However, it gets better!

The Eve of the Nativity (24^th December) is a strict fast day called Paramony (or preparation), but then as soon as the first star is seen in the night sky the Nativity begins! It’s also called the afterfast and the celebration continues right through until January 4^th when presents are given.

This seems to be more sensible in a way - Lots of prayerful preparation and lots of celebration.

Do you think we should convert to become Orthodox Christians?

Well, I am growing a beard, and the service next Sunday will be four hours long…..

As our church prepares, this evenings Advent Carol service will take us right back to the beginning.  God is creating the light, the promise to his people and the message of the Prophets.  There will be no Little Town of Bethlehem, but there will be Hark the Glad sound!

Here are some things others have said about ADVENT;

Old-fashioned, Spiritual Christmas?. John R. Brokhoff, Preaching the Parables—Cycle C. p. 28.

"What has happened to the old-fashioned, spiritual Christmas? The cause is our disregard of Advent. The church set aside this four-week pre-Christmas season as a time of spiritual preparation for Christ’s coming. It is a time of quiet anticipation. If Christ is going to come again into our hearts, there must be repentance. Without repentance, our hearts will be so full of worldly things that there will be ‘no room in the inn’ for Christ to be born again.…We have the joy not of celebration. Which is the joy of Christmas, but the joy of anticipation."

Take Time to be Aware Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 196

"Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.”

My prayer for us all is that this ADVENT we might recapture some of those things we thought long past, and get ready, once again, to hear the greatest story ever told.