01.12.2012
Archbishop’s First Address At Advent Quiet Morning in Christ Church Cathedral
An Advent quiet morning is being held in Christ Church Cathedral this morning, Saturday December 1. The speaker is the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, who is addressing the theme of preparation and expectation at the beginning of the Advent season as we await the coming of our Saviour. The Archbishop is delivering three addresses, the first of which is reproduced in full below. The second and third addresses will appear at 11.00 am and 12.00 noon.
Quiet Day Address 1: Given by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, in Christ Church Cathedral on Saturday December 1.
THE PACE OF LIFE
Preparation, expectation and carefulness seem to me to be key themes of the Season of Advent. In today’s world the key problem, of course, is enabling any of us to take these themes seriously – particularly in the Season of Advent. And I do not really think that it is because people have decided not to do so, even though there are plenty of Advent Calendars for sale – for children, adults and even for dogs! Surely this can bring to the surface broad–ranging and fruitful theological discussion. I think the fact that it doesn’t quite happened occurs because the pace of life has changed and keeps changing and closes down the possibilities which once were there more easily to be found and used. All of this overload means that we are less open to information which is not immediately and directly relevant to our preoccupations at any given time. I just wonder if this, maybe, is why contemporary liturgical revision has given us the rather helpful added benefit of Sundays before Advent to enable us to ‘get in early’ with what might otherwise not even happen as ‘the Christmas rush’ sets in. And this ‘getting in early’ has to do with trailing – like the first five minutes of a good film – the themes which will unfold with both subtlety and directness as the cinema fills up with people and with excitement. The challenge I have for you and for me is this: Is there any recognizable way in which we can carry into Christmas the messages of Advent, or indeed disappear Advent? Nonetheless, in that rather cringe–making modern phrase, we are where we are. I have long ago parted company with the idea that berating people in the church and in the Christian tradition about what they don’t know achieves anything. It simply alienates people who, for whatever reason, have not had the chance to know what we know – whoever we are, at any moment; but then there are so many other people who know more than what we know and yet, mercifully, do not hold this knowing against us!
As you face into Advent, you may well be confused by it as a Season. Advent Sunday is the day on which the Church’s Year begins. It is therefore a time of new beginnings and the person whom I associate most immediately with Advent Sunday is John the Baptizer. And I do so both with a sense of exuberance and a sense of wistfulness. Not only is John the confident prophet of the new age with whom Jesus his cousin identifies through seeking baptism from him and through talking the same language of societal justice; he is also the person whose disciples go directly to Jesus almost with a sense of defeat on their lips and ask the saddest of questions: Are you the one who was to come, or should we really be looking for someone else? John is also a figure who, like so many of us today, stands on a fault–line; and, again, like so many of us it is a fault–line of identity. John looks back into what we call The Old Testament and forward into what we call the New Testament. Of course, in his time there was no such thing as either of these. There were Scriptures behind – and ahead there really was nothing! But John is looking for an identity, conscious that a new age is sweeping in; he is part of it but as its forerunner and herald – and no more.
If we stop and think, this is, in so many real ways, a frightening place to be and only those who have been there know what it is like. Whether it has to do with sectarianism – polite or impolite – or human sexuality or contested ethnicity or indeed the old–fashioned sexism which has not gone away – these are the sort of things which the now largely forgotten Hard Gospel Project sought to address in the Church of Ireland. Sadly, it did so in the context of a largely unreflective Church of Ireland which felt it could dismiss such matters because, in its opinion, sectarianism – for example – was a problem created for Northerners by Northerners. Almost two years of experience in these United Dioceses leave me very wary of the naivety of this line of argument. Unresolved histories along with the instincts for social superiority and for leaving unturned the stones which accompany them on every side leave us as needy as ever when it comes to what really are issues of justice for others and our own identity combined. But, ingeniously, we don’t quite see it this way! We still tend to deflect from the windscreen the sort of direct encounter which one day will have to happen. Advent is uncomfortable precisely because in the person of the infants John and Jesus it brings us face to face with finality. The theologians call this: eschatology and, once again, we deflect this sort of language from our windscreens and thank God that we can drive on, because the traffic lights have changed once again in our favour. But I tell you, it simply will not last. Eschatology has to do with an ultimate responsibility for acts which we do on a daily basis.
Let us revert to those sad disciples of John and their equally sad sect–leader. John the Baptizer was consciously preparing the way for someone else. This is not the sort of work which many relish and in a very particular way is rather maternal – it is what mothers do. His disciples did indeed ask if they should be looking to Jesus as the Messiah or whether they should be looking for someone else. This level of lack of self–confidence is as old as time itself but is rather frightening when it happens to you or to me and we do not know how to get to the other side of it. But there is also a much more positive side to John; he himself is clear that people should prepare the Way of the Lord. It is also clear in his public utterances that he is aware that he himself must decrease while Jesus Christ increases. So he has thought it through and is living it out. And still, perhaps, the most glorious preparation which John still offers to us is that of preparing the Way of the Lord and preparing for the Kingdom of God. This is where our focus must be and indeed it may be something which you might like to tease out during the quiet time which you have to yourselves. It is the Kingdom of God which holds together Advent and Christmas, the stirrings of life and floral colour in the desert and the stirrings of life and squirming laughter in a child born to be Prince of Peace. Preparation, expectation and carefulness give nurture to new life both and lived in the service and love of others.
The four short weeks of Advent are such that, as friends and followers of Jesus Christ, we might use them as we approach Christmas in such a spirit of exuberant forward movement. Preparing the Way of the Lord sounds like the sort of thing we should be doing all the time and indeed in many ways it is. But Advent gives us scope to start all over again, and often this is exactly what we need. Preparation brings us close to all sorts of people and it opens up pathways and avenues for those who might never expect to be on this Way. It is where holiness meets with invitation. In the conventional church, we have become less good at dealing with both of these together, so Advent is a good time to look at how these two actually work together. Preparation also connects us with the unfinished business of the prophetic books of the Old Testament and in particular with the specific ways in which they weave their way into our worshipful life at this time of the year. The prophets come to life in Advent. We hear and we see through the language of The Prophets the possibility of The Law coming to life for all nations. I quote from Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland and South Africa and founder of Rabbis for Human Rights: ‘From a Jewish religious perspective, this ethical dimension is critical to the meaning and success of Zionism. The Torah not only declares that the Jewish people is ideally to dwell in the Land in order to live as a nation in accordance with the revealed Divine tenets and commandments, but that failure to do so undermines the ability of the People to live in the Land and leads to exile….Moreover this condition is overwhelmingly portrayed both in the Torah and in the Prophets in terms of the values of justice and righteousness and the social ethical precepts, especially towards the vulnerable and ‘the other.’ I am well aware that there is much more to this total story which others would contest and I do not deny it; however Rabbi Rosen points us towards the sort of combination and concentration of Law and Prophets and a life of principled service of others which is not only attractive but revitalizing of our own discipleship of Jesus Christ and derivative, as is only right, of the Jewish traditions.
December this year gives us both Advent and Christmas in the same month, those two Seasons of the Church’s Year when we make preparations and make celebrations. Advent is one of those times of year when we are probably already too busy to notice a great deal of what is happening. But maybe that is part of the role of the church, patiently and carefully to continue to do this sort of work on our behalf, when we ourselves in fact mean no harm or disrespect and are just too busy. Personally, I think that Advent works for a number of reasons. The main reason is that it is, in fact, quite short and is very quickly swept up into a Season which most of us love and enjoy, that is the Season of Christmas. The busy timeframes within which everybody seems to work these days mean that often something short makes more of an instant and a lasting impact. Advent moves forward quite quickly and, before we know where we are, we are into Christmas. The cry of John the Baptizer announcing that the Lord is nigh sweeps us along and, before we are sure where we are, we are into the Season of incarnation and festivity. This very sense of movement itself does us no harm. Too often our church life is sluggish, repetitive, banal and incoherent. At what is often a cold and frosty time of year, Advent blows like an honest wind through the cobwebs of our souls if we pause to look it in the face and allow it to reflect our true selves.
I ask you to take this perspective of preparation as something which lies at the core of Advent into your quiet time. Advent gives us such perspective and enables us to get ready for Christmas in ways which help us to enjoy it and to hold fast to its essential meaning. John and Jesus together are personalities who hold out such a living hope to us today on the Eve of Advent itself.
24.xi.2012