An aspect of Advent
During Advent we are invited to look forward to the story of Christmas which reminds us that God is not remote and far away, but is here with us. We remember the vision of the Second Coming that reminds us that God’s will for the world and for us is for peace and justice everywhere, both on earth and in heaven.
There is yet another kind of Advent. The coming of God into our own lives, and of his continuing presence with you and me, now. This third kind of Advent is probably the most challenging for many people. No doubt we will probably each have our own ideas about what we mean by the word ‘God’.
Have you noticed that Advent, is also the beginning of ‘Adventure’. Our life with God is an invitation to adventure. Adventure is exciting, stimulating, satisfying. But it can sometimes be uncomfortable and risky.
From the Gospel stories, it seems to me that Jesus was frustrated by the state of religion in Israel at that time. It looks as though the mainstream faith had been largely taken over by the priests and Levites and the scribes. Of course, organised religion always needs leaders but if they dominate and control the whole thing, faith can become small, narrow, elitist, stodgy, comfortable, dull, and even corrupt.
In this situation, many ordinary Jews perhaps chose a low-profile religion, in which they accepted what they were told by their leaders. They did their best to follow all the requirements of the religious regulations, in the hope of a quiet life and keeping on the right side of God.
But in the Old Testament, there are important stories of God’s trouble-makers. The prophets challenged complacency. They rocked the boat of conventional religion.
In Jesus’ day, there were still visionary groups and individuals who felt there must be more to faith than conventional rituals and rules. One of these was John the Baptist who was certainly not a quiet conformist.
So what should Jesus do? Should he follow the priestly ‘party line’, or should he take inspiration from the prophets?
As far as I can see, Jesus respected the traditions of Judaism, but saw the need for reviving the prophetic vision of God’s purposes. This meant challenging people’s comfort zones.
So Jesus went to John to be baptised. I think this was a deliberate radical action to make it clear where he stood.
What are the prophetic advent challenges facing you, me, the church and the world today?
At the beginning of his ministry Jesus quotes Isaiah to set his own agenda for ministry
‘to preach good news to the poor,..to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’
I think we can take it that when Jesus talks about the poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed he includes those who are spiritually poor, or captive to outdated traditions, blind to new ways of seeing spiritual truth, or oppressed by intolerant attitudes.
For myself, I think there are three kinds of challenge which are particularly important. Of course there may be others that you can think of.
One challenge is the widespread inequality and injustice that exists, both in our own country and across the world.
Another challenge is the stewardship of God’s creation, again not just locally, but worldwide. This challenge is related to the first one. If we ignore it the effects will cause others to suffer, either now or in the future.
The third challenge has become increasingly important to me. How do we make sense of our faith in and to a world which no longer understands traditional language and ideas about God?
It seems to me that the world is impatient with the kind of religion which may seem to be chiefly concerned on the one hand with arguing over correct doctrine, and on the other hand is preoccupied with raising and spending money so we can carry on as we always have.
So many other things are crying out for compassion and responsible action. Of course there are opportunities to respond to these other challenges, and many do so, but have we got the right balance of our priorities?
Challenging the way things are may be difficult, uncomfortable and risky. Jesus was willing to be very direct in his challenges to the faith leaders who he thought should really know better. This line of action eventually brought him to the cross.
Jesus however was also very understanding of the ‘ordinary’ people who had not been taught of any other way of being faithful to God.
In our Western Dales Mission Community, there are a variety of different ways of understanding our faith. This was also true within the Judaism of Jesus’ own time, and it has also always been true of Christianity.
I think part of the challenge facing us as we try to make sense of our faith to ourselves and to others, is to admit and accept that none of us can know and understand God completely. In which case it seems both conceited and cowardly to try to make God who is ‘for all’, fit into a box that suits our own ‘comfort zone’.
This means that there will be many different ways of relating to God. A big part of the challenge is to realise that this is not a weakness or a disadvantage, but a strength. It allows us to see that God is far richer and greater than our personal thoughts and beliefs. It opens the door to honesty in our faith and to increased trust in each other, if we are not always either judging or being judged. It can become a help to our spiritual maturing.
I was personally very encouraged a few years ago, listening to a local Methodist farmer speaking at a fellowship meeting. His message was straight-forward, based on the Bible, taking the stories at face value. But what stood out for me was his personality. It was clearly God-centred, but not ‘pious’ or authoritarian. It shone with God’s love, compassion, patience and humour. Not everyone will be able to share his understanding of the Bible in the same way, but I knew I was in the presence of a man ‘under the hand of God’, even if I might not agree personally with everything he believes. The greatest personal encouragement came in a brief conversation after the meeting, when it became clear that he does not expect everybody to agree with everything he says, but recognised that each of us has our own relationship with God.
Each person’s faith should be respected. This does not mean we must uncritically accept another person’s insight. Faith cannot be second-hand in that kind of way.
Equally we should feel able to share our own beliefs with each other without fear or favour, and without insisting that people who have a different point of view must be wrong and ought to change.
We need to be able to accept and even welcome difference itself. Can we learn how to disagree with mutual respect? Can we agree to disagree in love? God is greater than any of the traditions or doctrines of the Church, important though they may be.
Are we ready for the adventure of faith to which Jesus may be calling us in this century?
The prophetic challenges of
Being ready lovingly to respect and enjoy variety in the church and beyond, on matters of our faith and practice.
Being ready to review our priorities to take more account of world justice and compassion,
Being ready to review our priorities to take more account of care for the earth,
Personally, I feel very inadequate. I make mistakes and I expect I will continue to do so. I will go wrong, but perhaps the worst mistake would be not to try to accept the adventure and its challenges. Jesus showed us a God who is not only great and awesome, but one to whom we can relate as a patient and loving friend, and who is willing to help us bring about the values of his kingdom, and to help us get up when we fall down on the job.
So whether or not we have been followers of Jesus for a long time, or even if we struggle to accept organised religion at all, this advent time can still be an invitation to all of us, and a reminder that the positive values and principles which the word ‘God’ attempts to represent, are always present, and always challenging us forward to new things in a shared adventure of faith and/or commitment.