Vigeon Post

ADVENT SUNDAY  
In recent years the supermarkets have discovered Advent Calendars - and you see them piled up by the checkouts with their promise of a chocolate a day until Christmas Day.
You can also have a Ramadan Calendar and a Divali Calendar and I don’t mind that at all. At least they relate to the beliefs of Islam and Hinduism. Ramadan calendars even have a prayer for young Muslims to recite. When was the last time you saw a prayer on an Advent calendar? Many of what are called Advent Calendars are really nothing of the sort. They begin on 1st December instead of Advent Sunday and now often go on to New Years Eve. and most of the decorations and illustrations have little to do with Advent .  Advent has become  a time for works parties and carol services. It’s not Christmas that has been commercialised but Advent.  
But some of us may remember the time when Advent was a season for scaring us out of our wits. A time to waken up our souls with a bang. A friend of mine told how, when he was a student,  he was in church in Edinburgh on Advent Sunday , and  was dozing through the sermon. Through the mists he heard the words;  “AND WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY ?”  He opened his eyes and found the preacher was pointing directly at him.
It is not really  a question for us to laugh  at.  Even I, the mildest and most liberal of men  have from time to time preached an Advent course of sermons on the FOUR LAST THINGS - Which are you may remember DEATH  JUDGEMENT HEAVEN AND HELL. And as a nice all American girl said “I don’t like those words -give me Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny any day”
    So let us be traditional and  think on these things. I love the story of the keen golfer who as he got into later middle age became a little anxious as to whether heaven was really his kind of thing. On the way out of church one Sunday he asked the Vicar if he knew if there are any golf courses in heaven. “I really have no idea “ said the Vicar who was a City fan himself, “ but I’ll get in touch with head office and you can ask me again next week”.  Next Sunday he said “Joe I ‘ve been making enquiries and I think you may be interested in what I have found out.  The good news is “Yes there are several champion standard golf courses in heaven. The bad news is that you are teeing off on Wednesday at nine o’clock.”  Death as we say these days has replaced pornography as the unmentionable subject even in church.  And if we mention it, we make it into a joke.  The best one is Woody Allens saying “I don’t mind talking about death at all - its just that I dont want to be around when it happens”. I used to take a meditation in Worcester Cathedral about once a month; and one week, a regular lady approached me afterwards and said “Thank you Owen; I have been worshipping at the Cathedral for seven years and that is the first time I have heard the word DEATH mentioned”  Our faith has to be a faith of good news about Death or it is nothing.
    Judgement. The trendy belief in this generation is that your life and your body is yours to do what you like with, so long as you don’t get in other people’s way as you do it.Its  a very comfortable way of thinking if you want to be drinking your night away in Earlsdon; but it doesn’t sit easily with our traditional Christian belief that we are answerable for what we have done with our gift of life and what we have done with our God given bodies. Is Judgement an out of date idea ?  Well, if you say the word ‘assessment’ instead of ‘judgement’ you realise that it is not an old fashioned concept at all.  In many jobs you are regularly assessed as part of your employment package. These days even Vicars can be assessed on the extent to which they have reached their aims and objectives. And Bishops tell me they too have to do the same.Which is one reason why I am quite glad to be retired - they can’t do anything to me now !
    You don’t need to have a picture of God as a sort of tyrant like Saddam Hussein to find the prospect  of being judged or assessed to be more than somewhat disturbing. Indeed we all know that it is much more painful to offend someone who loves you than it is to cause pain to some figure head of an authority. We would do anything not to be found out. Do we ever penetrate the painful words with which we begin our worshp? “Almighty God unto whom all hearts be open, all  desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden”    
Heaven. The big question - really too big and painful to ask - is how well do I fit in with the ongoing life of the Universe ?  Am I worth keeping or am I to be thrown out in some divine wheelie bin await the dust cart. One of the words used in the gospels for Hell is Gehenna which was the original land fill site in Jerusalem. Hell is where the rubbish goes. The Gospel is really a warm invitation from its Creator to become  completely integrated as a permanent part of God’s creation. Or as we pray frequently without much thought, that we may rise to the life eternal. There is - along with this good news - the alternative option; that is that we turn our backs on the offer, decide we know better and thus be liable to be cut off by our own choice from fellowship with God and end up with the unwanted rubbish.
        So those are the traditional four last things which are the theme of Advent. It really is all about how we look to the future; how we anticipate what is to come. On the whole - I feel - we would rather NOT ponder these things. Certainly we must never fall into the trap of being morbid about them. There is a human tendency to fear the worst about the future. Yet it is not always disastrous.
For 2000 years ago, there was a great deal of looking to the future. The Jewish people had a great expectancy that in some way God was going to intervene into human history, and turn a topsy turvy world right ways up. The reason why you and I are sitting here this morning is that we believe that in fact God did do something - that his answer was not the sending of a sort of El Quaeda invading force of angels but that he sent Jesus to the human race - for which at Christmas we shall all rejoice greatly.
    For Christians are an Advent people - we believe the    essential nature of God is that he is always coming. The tragedy of our Christian story is that he was not recognised when he came in Jesus Christ  He was not recognised because his nature is that of divine self giving love. And that is not what a world seeking power or pleasure thinks it is looking for. As the poet once wrote:
“When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed him by”. On the whole the powers that be have for 2000 years thought that the message of Jesus is politically irrelevant - governments looks for other solutions to the world’s problems. And yet he came, and he comes and is for ever coming and to those who welcome him he can transform our lives.
    For a parable of this, I think of a young man getting interested in girls. He has an ideal picture of the woman of his dreams. In his mind there are her vital statistics, her blond hair, blue eyes and come hither smile and happy laughter. But this is not the real world only the figment of his imagination. Behind the laughing cavalier, there lurks the real bloke, unsure of himself, lonely, putting on an act of laddishness in front of his mates.
    Then one day he goes to a party and finds himself next to a rather dumpy quiet girl with dark eyes and mousey hair and he groans inwardly at being saddled with such company. And then the magic chemistry begins . He finds in her an instinctive sympathy and understanding; they laugh at the same things, they like the same music. And in the words of John Wesley “his heart is strangely warmed”. And before he knows what has hit him, Love has come.. He has not found what he thought he was looking for - but something else ever more precious and enriching has come into his life.
     Go about looking for love and you will be disappointed . But be open to the unexpected and it comes to you - as Christ came to the shepherds and the wise men. So we remember the words of Jesus in  our Gospel. Keep awake and keep alert: - You may encounter your Master at any moment - he may appear at any time. Be ready to accept him. You will not see him surrounded by shepherds and wise men or angels. You don’t have to encounter him as he staggers up the hill of Calvary or appears in the garden of the resurrection. He doesn’t come to you on a Christmas card scene - he comes to Walsgrave. Expect then to find him in the one you love; in the friend sitting beside you in the pew; in the house you call home; in the unlikely sort of people you meet with day in and day out; in the fellowship of a party; in the pinky red of a winter sunset or the joy of a clear daybreak after a night of storm; in the neighbour who is sick or depressed; in the laughter of children and the wisdom of old age; in the unlooked for word of encouragement ; in the piece of bread and the sip of wine. And strangely - most of all when you feel alone and misunderstood or neglected and are tempted to say that life has lost all meaning and all joy.  
At any one of a million moments of your life do not be surprised to find that Christ comes near to you in ways you never expected - and therefore all the more miraculously. It has always been known in Christian tradition, that those who suffer in body mind or spirit will find themselves nearer to the heart of the Christ who was nailed to the cross than any lucky person who never has a care in the world.
All this is part of the testimony of faith that has been handed down through countless generation. For God, you see, IS Love. And you cannot find love - Love always has to find you. So watch out and be ready - you never know - He will come - his Advent is always and everywhere..


SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT 2005
ALL SAINTS LEAMINGTON HASTINGS

“The voice of one crying In the wilderness prepare  ye the way of the Lord”
As a teenage boy in Carlisle, the summer months were decorated by visits to Edenside Cricket ground. It was surrounded by a natural amphitheatre on which surprisingly large crowds would follow the exploits of local cricketers on long sSummer evenings.  One of the features of the crowd was a local personality who made loud comments about the match and  gave unsought advice to players.  His most frequent admonition was “One more determined effort !” Perhaps it is a shame he has not been out in Pakistan this past week!   His name was Mr Jenkins but for everyone he was simply known as THE VOICE. Indeed hearing his stentorian tones was one of the attractions which drew us to the games; and added a real dimension of amusement to the. crack of ball on willow. He was not A voice but  THE Voice. It is a voice which demands being heard.
We might describe The Bible is the book of THE VOICE OF GOD.  How common is the phrase “And the Lord said to ....”  Probably most of us will have realised that that voice would probably not have been heard by anyone except the hearer.  And we realise that the phrase  does not so much refer to theatrical voices off or Hollywood special effects  but to voices in the head, voices in the heart, voices which carried conviction; voices that drove the hearer in a particular direction.   
Our gospel reading today is telling of how the Jesus story began. It is generally agreed that the gospel of Mark is the earliest of the four gospels to have been written; so it is fascinating to realise that when it was published  it contained nothing of what we call the Christmas story at all. It does not seem to have been very important  for those first century Christians. They were much more interested and concerned about looking forward rather than back -  for they believed the world was probably coming to an end. And  they believed that that  the Jesus process began when John the Baptist came  as “a VOICE crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord”.  Get ready. He’s coming.  
And then we realise that this is all a quotation from the prophet Isaiah, words we heard in this morning’s first reading and which are very familiar because they are the opening texts of Handel’s “Messiah”.  
Isaiah chapter 40 is amongst the finest of  all biblical texts.  It is sometime called the chapter of the four voices . Let us listen to them.
The first is the voice of consolation. We in this country have not been humiliated as a nation for a thousand years. We have been near it but have usually escaped by the skin of our teeth - which is why we keep on retelling the story of the Battle of Britain. We have to understand  this voice of consolation - comfort my  people says your God and assure her that her warfare is all over, that they have paid for their sins twice over and things will  be different from now on. We church folk are probably dimly aware that there was such a think as the exile in Babylon besides whose waters the people of  Judah sat down and wept.  It is difficult to realise what a traumatic experience it was; and what a turning point it was in the life of their nation. They went away captive as the remnant of the people of Israel - they came back to Jerusalem as the first Jews.  They went away in great desolation; they were to return in great consolation. God had given them a second chance to be his people. That is what the prophet told them.  
It is a common place of Christian experience, if we are in touch with our feelings,  that from time to time we go through a period of desolation when everything seems grey; and the God who, at a former time we believed in and rejoiced in, seems now far from us. Desolation is the absence of anything to believe in any more. It is important that we realise that this is an almost universal experience; it does not mean that we are particularly stupid or wicked.  We are like a baby waking in the middle of the night and screaming because it thinks it has been abandoned. The sweet words of consolation from its mother which calms its fears are like the voice of God who consoles us in our trials.
The second voice is the voice of anticipation.  Advent is the season of anticipation.  There is a famous anecdote of how in 1939,  there took place the naval engagement called the Battle of the River Plate.  The Royal Navy needed reinforcements quickly and they were not easy to find in the South Atlantic.  Just at the needful time the cruiser Cumberland appeared over the horizon, twenty four hours before it was expected.. It  seemed a miracle for it to have reached its rendezvous in the time since it received its orders.  The British Commodore signalled in Morse “How did you get here so quickly” The Cumberland replied in one word ANTICIPATION.
    This voice cries In the wilderness prepare the way of the lord; every valley shall be raised up and every mountain and hill laid low. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. What it really means is that God is coming back and we are to build a state of the art motorway to take in his cavalcade. This is of course symbolic or poetic language; but the meaning is clear. Wake up and be ready for what God has in store for you.  There is a nice message on the wall of our local Baptist church at Walsgrave which reads. “Only I know the time - and its getting late. God”.  To get the flavour of the voice we might perhaps go back to the halcyon days of last summer when the call went out to greet the English Cricket team  after their Ashes triumph, the streets of London were cleared and everyone looked forward with great anticipation as they waited with great excitement for their  heroes to come in sight.
     In the year that Our Lord was born in Bethlehem there was great anticipation among the Jewish nation that God would be coming to bring glory back to his people.  What they did NOT in fact anticipate was Jesus.  He came unto his own and his own received him not. We are surrounded at this season with the voice of anticipation - it is the essence of the run up to Christmas. As believers our anticipation needs to be something  more weighty than the trappings of Christmas festivities which evaporate so quickly when the day has come.
    The third voice I call the voice of realism.The voice says “cry !and I said what shall I cry ? “All flesh is grass and their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flowers fade; surely the people are grass; but the word of  our God will stand for ever.” It is a voice which cautions us to beware to superficial optimism.  In his short poem “The Patriot - an old story”  Robert Browning reminded us  of how someone welcomed as a new leader can so quickly be rejected by those who had cheered him.
“It was roses roses all the way
and myrtle mixed in my path like mad;
the house roofs seemed to heave and sway,
the church spires flamed, such flags they had,
a year ago on this very day.  
There's nobody on the house tops now -
just a palsied few at the windows set,
for the best of the sight is, all allow,
at the shambles gate - or better  yet
 by the very scaffold’s foot I trow”   
In some sort that is not an unfamiliar experience in the world of human affairs .  There is a sense in which the voice of realism tells us we should never believe completely in human promise. We see this in practice in our own democratic political system where a leader and his party are welcomed in as the restorers of their countries fortunes; and sooner or later they show that they a re fallible humans like ourselves. The political party is irrelevant ! This is what is meant by  All flesh is grass.  Religious faith exists to remind us that we need to put our ultimate trust in something deeper than human promises.
    And the fourth voice contrasts again with its predecessor.  In the wake of  a realistic view of human nature comes the voice of hope. Hope means projecting our faith into the future. It is a delicate virtue, easily squashed in the light of experience. But surely Isaiah is right to end on a note of hope.  Without our dream of a future as it might be we would be poor indeed. Our previous voice of reality can so easily descend into cynicism where cold water is poured on any  vision of the future. And not just hard cynicism -  any Vicar will tell  you that one of the most  disheartening aspects of his ministry is the way that as soon as he comes forward with a plan for a way forward into the future there are always several voices on his council who are quick to tell him why it would not work.  
Isaiah’s voice of hope for the future reign of God is appealing. “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd he will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young.”  This is not a sentimental picture. Rather it suggests to me a picture of a way of living where we are all cared for; and indeed care for one another. . In the words of St John; “Brothers and sisters, if God so loves us then we ought also to love one another”.   In the early 20th century there lived a distinguished Indian Christian by the name of Rabindrath Tagore who chose to live the life of an Indian Holy Man;  and he became known world wide in Christian circles. He expressed his hope in these words:-
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
where knowledge is free
where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
where  words come out from the depth of truth
where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom ,my Father, let my world awake.
A voice like that makes us aware of how far our world still has to go; and it is fatally easy to give up the struggle and settle for as comfortable an existence as we can find for ourselves.  
So there are the foujr voices
Do we listen to the voice of consolation which heals the past  and encourages us to look forward, or turn our faces to the wall and think ‘things will never change’?
Do we listen to the voice of  anticipation, or turn over in bed and mutter “it will never happen “
Do we listen to the voice of realism or do we go on imagining our religion is a pleasant escapist hobby  based on nostalgia ?
Do we listen to the voice of hope but think the challenge of the future is not worth the effort ?
As I wrote these words my mind  picked up the most famous VOICE of the 20th century at a time of near despair in World War Two.  You may remember Winston Churchill quote these verses :
SAY not the struggle naught availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain,    
The enemy faints not, nor faileth  And as things have been they remain.      
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;  It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,    
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,  And, but for you, possess the field.    
 For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,  Seem here no painful inch to gain,      
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,  Comes silent, flooding in, the main.    
 And not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light;    
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!   But westward, look, the land is bright!
One of the moments of light this past week has been the voice of our new Archbishop of York.  Better minds than mine have glimpsed that perhaps he may come to be the VOICE  for which many of us have been longing .  John Sentamu’s voice is not crying out in the wildernessof the Jordan valley but in the desert that is the rudderless society in which we live today. We must pray that his voice is the voice of consolation, the voice of realism, the voice of anticpation and the voice of hope   Towards the end of his sermon he said “The Church in England must once again be a beacon by which the people of England can orient themselves in an unknown ocean by offering them the Good News of God in Christ in a way that is practical and relevant to their daily lives”
Those are good words for the stiffening of our spiritual sinews in  these dark  December Advent mornings