Christ Church

“What went ye out into the wilderness to see?

Jesus’ question to the multitude in the wilderness concerning John the Baptist is equally his question to us in the wilderness of our contemporary world. It is complemented, I think, by Mary’s questions at the Annunciation about “what manner of salutation this should be” and “how shall this be seeing as I know not a man?” Advent is the season of questions which open us out to the truth of God coming to us as Word, as Judge, and as Light. On this Sunday, there is a change of emphasis, a kind of lightening of the darkness even as we enter into the darkest week and day of nature’s year with the near approach of the winter solstice.

This Sunday is sometimes called Gaudete Sunday, the term derives from an introit anthem taken from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians which we also hear in the Epistle reading for next Sunday. The emphasis is altogether on rejoicing. Gaudete means Rejoice!

The third candle on our Advent wreath is rose or pink coloured suggesting a lightening of the purple or violet colour which symbolizes the penitential aspect of Advent. In some places, too, the vestments are rose-coloured for this Sunday. Gaudete Sunday in Advent has its parallel with Laetare Sunday in Lent which is another word for rejoice. But the rose or pink colour also signals the special role of Mary in the divine work of human redemption, something which is captured in many of the carols and hymns of the season such as the lovely 15^th century German Marian carol, Es ist ein Ros entstprungen, ‘Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming,’ especially as set to Michael Praetorius’s 1609 harmonization of a sixteenth century melody.

It is hauntingly beautiful, at once reflective and joyful. The image of a rose in bloom “mitten im kalten Winter, wohl zu der halben Nacht’, ‘amid the cold of winter when half spent was the night,’ is especially lovely and moving. The second verse underlies the theological theme which complements our readings today; at once the fulfillment of prophecy and the role and place of Mary in the redemption of our humanity. “Isaiah ‘twas foretold it, / the Rose I have in mind; / With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind. / To show God’s love aright, / She bore to men a Saviour, / When half spent was the night.”

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This is the second of two Advent Meditations on the Book of Common Prayer Prefaces. The first meditation is posted here.

“Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away”

The prefaces to the Book(s) of Common Prayer are intriguing and instructive. They have a certain quality of restraint about them that is remarkable given the turmoil and controversies about theology and polity in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. They advance modestly and firmly a spiritual ideal and purpose. The Original Preface of 1549 Concerning the Service of the Church, altered slightly in 1552 and again in 1662, identifies what was a common concern for both Roman Catholics and Reformers; namely, a sense of the primacy of Scripture and the desire to provide a clear and easy method of reading through the whole Bible “or the greatest part thereof” in the course of a year. Cranmer quotes the Spanish Cardinal Francis Quignonez almost verbatim in describing the problem and in advocating the solution.

The only difference between them was about whether that method would be in principle for all people or just the clergy and about translation from Latin to the vernacular. Even on that point there was some common ground. While the Roman Catholic liturgy would remain in Latin, there would be translations of the Scriptures authorized by the Roman Catholic Church and preaching would be largely in the vernacular tongues of the emerging national states.

What the Prayer Book Original Preface by Cranmer discloses, however, is a central and essential principle that underlies the idea of Common Prayer. It has to do with an attitude and outlook towards the reading of the Scriptures as ‘a doctrinal instrument of salvation’ wonderfully expressed in Cranmer’s homily on A Fruitful Exhortation Unto the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture as well as in the beautiful Collect for The Second Sunday in Advent. “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 “that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.”

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