Advent 1 Notes

Happy New Year!

The new Church Year begins with a change in the Gospel – after a year of reading from Matthew we switch to the shortest of the Gospels, Mark in what the lectionary (the system of readings which the church uses) calls year B.

Before we look at the text, let’s remind ourselves a little about Mark’s Gospel. It is, as we have said, the shortest of the Gospels at only 16 chapters long – and even the ending is thought by most scholars to have been tagged on at a later date.

It is all duplicated elsewhere as well – it forms the basis for Matthew and Luke and so it shows up in those books but we have it on its own because when it is read through as a book, without their extra bits added in it has its own unique flavour. As we go through the year we will probably notice some of its unique features. If you have time it is always a good idea to sit and read the Gospel from end to end as we begin a new year – that is how they were meant to be read and that is how you will notice their uniqueness.

Mark, of course, does not have the story of the birth of Jesus, we have to go to Matthew and Luke for that, so we will have a slightly slow start in terms of using the Gospel in year B as we have to switch out in a couple of weeks. We start, however, nearer the end of the Gospel – again where we were in Matthew, towards the last days of Jesus – back in that bleak “Day of the Lord” language.

I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in my email to you all that Advent used to be a much darker affair generally. The themes were death, judgement, heaven and hell. These were common themes, not local ones. With bleak northern winters, one can well imagine monasteries and churches stripped bare and the last remnants of warmer weather disappearing as bleak weather set in.

Although we are not keeping these themes it is worth pondering the Gospel for a moment. There are a few possible things going on here. The Day of the Lord is a Biblical theme which runs throughout the Old Testament. It does, certainly, have themes of judgement because it will shed light on all those things which was happening and so those things which are wrong will be revealed. The Old Testament has two ways of seeing things, right and wrong, there is nothing in between. The Day of the Lord reflects this.

But the idea of Jesus coming is shot through the New Testament – as the books of the Bible were first being written, and Mark is one of the earlier books, we get a sense of urgency and expectation. Jesus would be back soon. The letters to the Thessalonians are full of this, written a few years after the resurrection. In the early letters Paul tells people not even to get married as it is a waste of time and energy, a distraction to the task at hand.

As time goes on, the urgency dissipates. Still, the writers believe Jesus is coming, but there has to be a sense of business as usual mixed in with this sense of coming. But then and now all of this gives way to complacency and that is something quite different. You and I are pretty sure that Jesus is not going to show up any time soon, that we are going to go to sleep in our beds tonight and tomorrow night and we are going to die from whatever kills us but that we are not going to meet our Lord face to face until after we leave this earthly journey.

Anything else would make us crazy right? Anything else would…..well….?

Yesterday I was looking on that Amazon thing they do every year – that discount thing. I have to say there was not much I was interested in. I am not sure whether it has changed, or I have changed, or my kids have grown or what it is. But at 5pm yesterday  you could get, and this is real, pet slipper socks, not kidding, pet slipper socks, well, dog slipper socks. Now, I am sorry if you have the one dog which for some bizarre medical reason needs socks, but I found myself wondering  where we had come to that Amazon was selling not just socks, but slipper socks for dogs. Come Lord Jesus!

Complacency is just about the worst thing which could afflict us and it is killing the Church. We think we can drive around it first gear and we wonder why we cannot keep up. If the fear of God in the form the Day of the Lord does not do any good then perhaps the love of God in the form of imagining Jesus walking in right now and saying “OK, you’re done, tell me what you’ve been doing for me,” will work for you. What would you say? What would you eagerly blurt out? Forget fire and brimstone – just imagine Jesus being all eager and willing and wanting to know what you’ve been up to with all those gifts and imagination and wonder and heart that He gave you and……well……..

The end of the Gospel is about keeping awake. We tend to think about keeping awake as involving caffeine and artificiality but that is not at all what the Gospel writer has in mind. This does not mean set out on some gruelling 8 hour car journey which your body was never designed for and fuel yourself with Starbucks Grandes every 2 hours along the way. This means something so different, something so natural, but something which we have to remind ourselves to do, something which we have to learn to do and that is to pay attention, too stay awake, to watch for and with Jesus.

Evelyn Underhill was an English mystic and writer. If you looked at the list of books which we suggested you will see that mine was an advent book of readings from her – it started on Thursday which was perfect – exactly what  I needed – this is a quote from yesterday –

“Now the living out of the spiritual life, the inner life of the Christian, the secret correspondence of his (or her) soul with God, is from one point of view a great business……..for it is no mere addition to Christianity, but its very essence, the source of its vitality and power. From another it is a journey, a bit by bit progress, over roads that are often difficult, and in weather that is often pretty bad……..”

But this sort of keeping awake, this sort of disciplined approach and constant attention to God, the souls constant journeying with God is something which we are all called to. Even if we are those who express our spirituality through doing, we must pay attention to our being in Christ and if we are those who are good at being we must pay attention as the Holy Spirit prompts us into doing.

But this is a conversation, and eternal conversation.

Would you be surprised if Jesus walked into the back of the Church or would you simply say – oh there you are – lets continue the journey? You see that is the difference.

In this season of waiting, in this season where we know that the veil between heaven and earth is rubbed thin in incarnation we are invited into that place between. We are invited into that place where heaven and earth are held together.