Advent

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‘The glory that is to be revealed to us…when the creation will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God’. Thus S. Paul addressed the fledging church in Rome, but the message remains equally valid two thousand years later.

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Advent is a time of expectation (the word derives from the Latin venire, to come) and in our minds is usually and very properly focused on preparation for the coming of the Christ-child at Christmas but there is a further and more eternal expectation, elegantly expressed by Eric Milner-White:

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Let me love thee, O Christ,

In the second coming,

when with an inconceivable love

thou standest and knockest at the door,

and wouldest enter into the souls of men

and into mine.

 

Plant in my soul, O Christ, thy likeness of love;

that when by death thou callest,

it may be ready,

and burning

to come unto thee.

 

Our earthly life is, in effect, a perpetual Advent, a preparation for ‘the glory that is to be revealed to us’ but this does not mean we should spend our lives being miserable in sackcloth and ashes, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears and clothed in penitential purple as we await our inevitable demise  ̶  nor is it appropriate to live our lives just in the hope that things will get better beyond the grave.

 

It is easy to think of the concept of the second coming of Christ as a primitive expression of hope, to give hope after the traditional Advent threatening hazards of death, judgement, heaven, and hell: that may indeed be a valid interpretation. None of us know what is to come.

 

Meanwhile this Advent and in the remaining years of earthly sojourn, quietly contemplate the glory of God revealed to us in mystery of the Christ-child.

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Deacon Douglas MacMillan

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The Collect

 

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power

and come among us,

and with great might succour us;

that whereas, through our sins and wickedness

we are grievously hindered

in running the race that is set before us,

your bountiful grace and mercy

may speedily help and deliver us;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,

be honour and glory,

now and for ever.

Amen.