Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up,
and lift up your heads”
Well, Apocalypse Now to be sure, with “signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear”. Sounds like the evening news. But perhaps you took some comfort even from the Dies Irae last week in the contrast between the forms of the secular apocalypse and the features of the sacred apocalypse; the one seemingly hopeless and in despair, the other precisely about hope and joy. Not however by putting any trust in ourselves but by looking unto God and his Word.
Advent is inescapably apocalyptic. It is about our watching and waiting upon the motions of God’s Word coming to us, the Word which awakens us to the truth of God which is the true and only measure of our lives. On The Second Sunday in Advent we are awakened to the presence and the truth of God coming to us in the pageant of Holy Scripture. In the face of the impending doom and gloom of our world and day, we are awakened to hope and joy. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,” Paul tells us, referencing the Hebrew Scriptures, though, ironically, what he says will extend to the writings of the Christian Scriptures including his own letters. But learning what? He tells us the purpose of the “things [which] were written,” the purpose of the Scriptures: “that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” That word “hope” is mentioned four times in today’s epistle. That hope is about our life in Christ now and always. The point is wonderfully captured in Cranmer’s celebrated Collect which expresses an Anglican sensibility about the Scriptures as God’s Word which we are to “hear…, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest; ” in short, fully immerse ourselves in them. Why? Because they gather us into the life of God.
In his homily on A Fruitful Exhortation Unto the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture, Cranmer notes that “he that keepeth the word of Christ is promised the love and favour of God and that he shall be the dwelling-place, or temple, of the blessed Trinity.” That means attending to the Scriptures. “The Scripture of God,” he says, “is the heavenly meat of our souls; the hearing and keeping of it maketh us blessed, sanctifieth us, and maketh us holy. It turneth our souls; it is a light lantern unto our feet. It is a sure, steadfast, and everlasting instrument of salvation.” Scripture is a doctrinal instrument of salvation because it is written for our learning. It turns our souls to God.
This is a high doctrine of Scripture that emphasizes a learning that is about wisdom and truth in contrast to an instrumental reason which all too often manipulates and destroys by reducing ourselves and one another to machines, objects, and things at the expense of the thinking that makes us truly human. Advent offers a corrective and a critique of human reason at once confronting us with the continuing sagas of folly and wickedness in a world where power trumps truth and opening us out to the redemption of our humanity by recalling us to God through his Word and Son.
