Not the end or the beginning of the end but perhaps....

Today is the last Sunday in Advent. We’re nearly at Christmas – most of the shopping has been done, most of the cards delivered, but we have a few precious days of advent left – a time to reflect again on what it’s all about. 

And our readings today really help us to do that. In the Old Testament we heard from the prophet Micah (5:2-5a) with the incredible prophecy that it was in this little town of Bethlehem of Ephrathah that the Saviour would be born. Much of the Book of Micah is a book about injustice and even judgement. It’s about people who claimed to believe in God but whose lives didn’t show any evidence of it making a difference. 

From this small town of Bethlehem God would reveal once again his incredible power with a child born to change the world. God didn’t need grand palaces, he didn’t need to use political power or wealth. He simply showed his love in offering a relationship. 

So often it’s easy for us to be distracted in doing what we hope will be great things for God, when actually all God really wants is us and our commitment… Bethlehem was a plain and simple town, and Mary was chosen as an ordinary woman, but God uses places and people powerfully… 

The writer to the Hebrews (10:5-10) adds to these thoughts in a way as he describes the futility of living by the system of sacrifices. Of course much of the Old Testament rules seemed centred around this system of making sacrifices to God – but what happened was that the sacrifices simply became routine and ritualistic… 

Jesus came not to demand sacrifices of others, he would make the ultimate sacrifice for us all – his offering of himself is all that we will ever need to enter into a relationship with God. St Athanasius of Alexandria, who was a Bishop in the early 4th century wonderfully said, ‘He (meaning Jesus) became what we are that he might make us what he is’. 

Sometimes we try to do things for God and we do them with the best of intentions. We work hard, we try hard, we perhaps put resources into things, but they don’t work and we wonder why… And then we take a closer look and we realise that we forgot to put God in those things at all… 

In a study group I’ve been involved in recently we spent an evening thinking about good and bad worship. We thought about the things that help to make worship really valuable for people and we came up with lots of ideas, many of them I think pretty good, and then one man in the group sat back and said, ‘we’ve not talked a lot about the Holy Spirit tonight’… 

Suddenly it was a jolt, because he was dead right – for all of our discussions and plans we’d ignored the only thing that really mattered – the involvement of God in our work. 

And as the writer wrote this letter to the Hebrews I suspect it wasn’t written totally to people whose hearts were in the wrong place. It wasn’t written to people who were just doing things for show, but it was written to people who had lost their focus on what matters. 

But our gospel reading, I think, calls us back and calls us to focus again on God (Luke 1:39-45). Mary discovered she was to give birth to Jesus and went off to her cousin Elizabeth out in the hill country. We don’t know why she went – maybe it was to get away from the scandal of her pregnancy, but whatever the reason she received an incredible welcome from Elizabeth – a welcome extended even by Elizabeth’s unborn child who we are told leapt in his mother’s womb. 

We don’t know what discussions took place afterwards but nothing could hide the delight of Elizabeth as she saw Mary and recognised the task for which she had been chosen. Two ordinary women called to do extraordinary things for God... 

And in the moments of the greeting we all learn an incredibly valuable lesson and that is to celebrate with joy our relationship with Jesus. In that moment there was nothing more important and that is true for us all today…. 

Recently I read, I think on facebook, but I haven’t been able to find it since, a quotation which said, ‘We carve our suffering in stone, but we write our blessings in sand.’ Isn’t that true ? Suffering of any kind is hard, and it lingers, whilst thanksgiving is so often pushed aside, and this is really relevant in the world today I think. It’s easy to see pain and let it linger but we are called to be people of good news – not people of silly smiles raising false hopes, but people who have something to say about joy, hope, peace and love…. 

As St Athanasius said, Jesus became what we are in order that we might be what he is – the embodiment of those qualities… 

As we approach the end of advent our candles on the advent wreath are starting to burn down. In some churches they will already be reaching the point where the first advent candle has burnt down so much that it’s starting to threaten the greenery on the wreath !

But these candles and the advent season are symbolic – they are not one off things to be celebrated but symbols that we take into the future. When the candles are blown out for the last time this year, it isn’t an ending…. 

Winston Churchill famously said in November 1942, ‘This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning’.

Advent represents the beginning of the new Christian year, and it is a chance for a new beginning as we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ, but advent and Christmas are certainly not an ending or the beginning of an ending, but perhaps represent a point of beginning and moving forward… 

Advent and Christmas lived and celebrated in isolation are pointless, as pointless as the empty ritualistic sacrifices of the Old Testament, or worship conducted on however grand a scale without God being the absolute central person in that worship…. 

There’s a story about a family who befriended a Romanian couple on holiday. At Christmas time, aware that the Romanian people were struggling they decided to send a present and included a Christmas pudding as well and just to top it off they put a sprig of holly in the top of the pudding. A little while later the Romanian couple wrote and said, ‘Thank you so much for the present which we really appreciated, and thank you for the plant. Unfortunately we watered it but it died…’

The sprig of holly was never coming back to life however much it was watered and we must never be afraid to look at our faith and our worship and see what is living and what is powerful and what is meaningful… 

And whether we worship in the greatest and grandest cathedral or in a tiny rural church, what is living in our worship must be Jesus… back again to St Athanasius, ‘Jesus became what we are that he might make us what he is…’

As the advent candles burn, we wait to light the final candle, the candle that represents the light of Christ that has come in the world and shines through any darkness – but we wait, not just in anticipation, but with the knowledge that the light will conquer any darkness. 

For we light the symbols but we know also the reality – and the symbols are a wonderful call to reflection – a challenge to examine ourselves and our church… 

What hope are we offering to those who don’t know Jesus ? What hope are we offering to those living in distress ? What does the hope of Jesus mean for us ?

And what about peace in a world full of conflict ? Where is the peace in our own lives and how do we share that peace ?

What about joy – Bishop Leslie Newbigin said, ‘The local church is called to be an explosion of joy in the community’. As advent has come and will soon go, what have we reflected about joy – and how we can share that joy ?

And then there’s love – the most fundamental principle of Christianity. Jesus was born because God loves us, every one of us, regardless of who we are or what we might have done – the gospel isn’t exclusive, it is meant for all… 

Christmas is for all people because it started a new relationship between God and his people, a relationship that transforms… 

There’s a story about an ice skater who is told just before he is about to skate that he has already won the competition. The person in second place can’t catch up with his score… And with that news the nerves and the fear and the tension start to disappear and the skater goes out relaxed and ready to show the audience the moves of a champion… 

We can live like champions because God has won for us a victory that can never be taken away, God’s light has shone into whatever darkness there may be in the world or in our lives, and that light will overcome any darkness… 

So as we approach the end of advent, let’s be confident of God’s love for us and confident of his victory over any darkness, but also ready to respond… Not with meaningless and empty worship, not with lives which proclaim something on a Sunday but reveal something different for the rest of the week, not with a nature that looks at others and what they’re doing, but focusing on ourselves and on God – the God who loves us, who holds us, who walks with us and who never leaves us… 

Jesus didn’t come blazing in glory – he was born in Bethlehem and God chose just a star to signify his birth… but that star heralded the arrival of a Saviour, the light of the world had come, and the world would never be the same… 

And so, let’s make a new start today – let’s celebrate advent and commit to Christmas by pledging to try and do everything to live out those qualities of hope, peace, joy and love…. And watch and wait and pray that Jesus will come and that he will again transform the world, beginning with us… AMEN