It’s 28th November and so far I’ve not heard Slade's classic Merry Christmas Everybody played.
This song was released in 1973. I was ten at the time. And the lyrics seemed somehow to have been written about the way we spent Christmas. Like most children I would have loved snow to fall on Christmas Day – but it never did. We were always waiting for family to arrive whether grandparents from the nearby town of Tredegar, or aunts and uncles from London or cousins from Swindon. So even on Christmas Day there was a sense of waiting – especially as the tradition in our house was not to have presents until after the Queens Speech! No wonder I’m not a monarchist!
But actually there is a line in that song that is quite profound when you stop and think about it – “look to the future now it’s only just begun”. That is not a Christmas lyric but an Advent lyric. For in Advent we are juggling some interesting concepts. We are looking to the future but equally the future has already begun.
We are looking to Christmas in which we are thinking of how Jesus came to earth 2,000 years ago. But we are also looking forward to a time when we hope as Christians Christ will come again and bring in his Kingdom. But equally we are concerned about there here and now.
Throughout Advent, I'm basing my services on a book called “Another world is possible, another world is here”. And the title of that book suggests to me the same idea that consciously or unconsciously Slade were singing about. About how, as Christians we should always be looking to the future – the glorious hope of Christ coming again and bringing in his Kingdom. But also how we have a part to play in bringing in that future. Of shaping the Kingdom of God. Of preparing the way for the Kingdom of God.
Advent is a time in which we seek to build a bridge from the here and now and look forward to the what might be. Advent is a time to dream dreams. To hope. As Bruce Kent puts it in the introduction to the book
In other words Advent gives us hope that another world is possible and announces that with Jesus another world is here.
We all like to look back. We take comfort from memories from times past. And it is good to look back. To take stock of those things in the past that have made us who we are today. And at times those memories can be important to help us through the times we are in now. But we are called to be people who look forward as well.
To that extent we are no different to the people of Israel and Judah at the time of Isaiah. They had just enjoyed a golden period. A peaceful period. But this era ended with the death of King Uzziah in 740BC. For the next hundred years the might kings of Assyria wielded their power in the Middle East.
Isaiah witnessed the collapse of the northern kingdom of Israel under the onslaught of Assyria. Isaiah, ministering to the people of Judah, warned them that they too could go the same way as Israel for like the people of Israel Isaiah saw that the people of Judah were rebellious towards God.
As it happened Judah did not fall prey to Assyria. The Lord intervened. But sometime later, the Babylonians would sweep in taking the people of Judah into exile in Babylon. From there those people
Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
The people of Judah in exile in Babylon wept as they remembered what had been.
But Isaiah, and that other great prophet Jeremiah, reminded the people of Judah that they should not look back. Rather they should look forward. They should look to the future.
And while Bible scholars think that the passage we’ve heard from Isaiah today was written before the exile, the prophet is still looking forward beyond the present, beyond the conquest by Babylon. Looking forward to a time when God’s kingdom will be established. Looking forward to a time when God will reign.
What this passage is saying is that the reign of God will involve a radical transformation of the world as we know it. God’s reign will mean a change from nationalism and conflict to unity and peace. And when this reign is established what will the response be? People will:
“ ... will beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.”
Professor Gene Tucker in his commentary on Isaiah makes the observation on this passage that “Isaiah’s proclamation is not a summons for people to bring in the new age.” Rather, the Professor says it is a proclamation that the future is God’s. In other words God will determine the future. God will shape the future.
That is comforting for it means that in God’s time we’ll be restored. Peace will reign. However, that is not to say that we do not have a part to play in bringing in God’s kingdom. Clearly we should respond.
That’s what verse 5 means as I see it:
5 Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the LORD.
The light of the Lord means that those of us who already live in the presence of the Lord are challenged to take the first steps on the path that one day all nations will take. God’s path. We are to show the way. To demonstrate what God’s kingdom and his reign will be about. We are to demonstrate love and compassion. We are to demonstrate peace.
Pope John Paul II saw peacemaking as an urgent task for everyone – not just people like himself who had the ear of the world’s leaders. He called on everyone to make gestures of peace. And he practised what he preached. His trademark gesture of kissing the ground when he got off the plane symbolised the unity of the world and the preciousness of every part of it. John Paul seemed to recognise that gestures can speak louder than words. Gestures can reach across barriers, dispel suspicion and offer healing and reconciliation.
The post master of my parents’ village in South Wales is a Muslim by the name of Mohammed. Being a small village he is known by everyone and he knows most of them. He knows my parents well and knows that they are Christians. And it is he a Muslim who is one of the first people to hand deliver a Christmas card to them each year. They find that simple thing as greatly moving. Gestures can reach across barriers, dispel suspicion and offer healing and reconciliation.
Professor Stanley Hauerwas is feisty Methodist Texan theologian who teaches as Duke University in the USA. Much of the work he has done over the last 30 years has been in promoting peace. This has at times made him very unpopular.
He tells the story of how he once pinned a notice to the door of his University office. It read: "A modest proposal for peace. Let the Christians of the world agree that they will not kill each other."
The notice caused a storm of protest from students. ‘How dare you talk only about Christians killing Christians,’ they insisted. ‘Surely you should be concerned with everyone refraining from deadly violence.’ To which Hauerwas responded, ‘well of course, it would be just great if everyone stopped killing others. But you have to start somewhere. And I did say it was a modest proposal for peace!”
A Modest proposal for peace. You have to start somewhere.
We look forward to celebrating the coming into this world of the Prince of Peace and as we look to a time when he will come again and establish God Kingdom. As you leave today you will each receive a small candle. I invite you to light a candle throughout Advent as a symbol of peace. And as a way of focusing your prayers on the future and seeking what God has in store for us here at St Andrews.
5 Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Let us look to the future – it’s only just begun.
