Sermon for the 3rd of December - First Sunday of Advent

The apocalyptic gospel reading admonishes us to keep awake, keep alert, because the day of judgement is coming when Christ will be revealed. Advent is the only season in the Church’s year that invites us to think seriously about judgement. We have four weeks of reflecting upon what things in our lives are inconsistent with kingdom values – the values of peace, love, compassion, kindness, justice. It stands in stark contrast to the Christmas party festivities.

I wonder what comes to your mind when you hear the word judgement.

Last week’s celebration of Christ the King, we thought about Christ at the final judgement separating the sheep and the goat. The message seemed to be that those (the goats) who didn’t show compassion, were thrown into the eternal fire of hell. And the sheep into heavenly splendour.

I expressed deep discomfort with how it’s framed in such a binary way …. Because we know that there are some days when we are more goat-like than sheep-like. And my encouragement last week to was to daily become more sheep-like. A bit more wholly!

But the fact is, whilst the world is a place of wonder and delight, of adventure and abundance, it’s also a place where groups like Hamas commit the most awful acts. And something deep within us cries out for a reckoning. These brutal acts of terror are an outrage. The perpetrators need to be brought to justice: they need to be judged for their warped evil acts.

If the universe is morally ordered, there must be a final judgement, when those who have killed and hated are confronted by their acts. If that’s the case, what sort of God does the judging?

Here we are led to our understanding about the nature of God. The picture we carry around about God in our hearts and minds affects how we pray (or don’t pray), and how we live our lives. Based on a broad sweep of the symphony of Scripture, there is a progressive revelation of God’s character.

The biblical language used, like a ‘wrathful’ God, is an attempt to express divine dis-ease, divine dissonance, agony, fury even. Anger at the poor who get forgotten; anger at the environmental carnage our consumptive lives reap upon the world; anger, yes, at such acts of terror and destruction we’ve recently seen.

Alongside this, is the image of a God of peace, goodness, of love, of inclusion and compassion. If that is how we view God, it will shape how we view judgement when we (metaphorically) stand before God our creator.

It’s not a judgement of vindictive retribution, cutting us off completely and eternally from divine love. Judgement is facing the truth about ourselves, which is not easy, and it’s about loving transformation.

My view is that it is the judgement of a loving father, a judgement that purifies, redeems, a judgement that ultimately heals and makes us all fit for the new kingdom. Cardinal Hume describes what judgement really means. His perception is that, ‘Judgement is whispering into the ear of a merciful and compassionate God the story of my life which I had never been able to tell.’

It will be an awesome moment for those who have given their lives over to evil and darkness, when they face the shimming light of God’s love. And what about us? I think a healthy sense of awe of God is important. Moses took off his shoes at the burning fire. He was told on mount Sinai that he couldn’t see God and live. Isaiah, felt deeply unworthy to appear before the Lord, his lips unclean to speak of God.

And yet, 1 John 4:18 tell us, ‘There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment… ‘. So a sense of awe yes, but we don’t want a faith based on fear. That’s unhealthy religion.

Do look at the painting on the front cover by Anselm Kiefer. The title is taken from the Advent prose we heard sung. It’s from the prophet Isaiah who pleads that the clouds might ‘rain down righteousness’.

The dominant motif here is from Isaiah 44:22: ‘I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you’. In the painting, there is a bright yellow sunburst radiating from the top and centre of the canvas. The dark clouds of sin, thick with blood and transgression, are being driven away, or else transformed to a Turneresque radiant splendour.

Martin Luther understood verse 22 to refer to Christ as the sun, rising each morning gradually to disperse the mists of sin, so that the sinner might daily see more clearly in the light of Christ. And that is what judgement entails, seeing clearly. In Kiefer’s painting, the clouds do not vanish, but the clarifying, redemptive heat of the sun precedes, illuminates, and steadily transforms them.

As the sun-nourished flowers testify in spite of the clouds, God’s redemption is always already at work: ‘return to me, for I have redeemed you’.

The painting depicts our journey during Advent. It’s the invitation of Advent, to prepare, to get ready, not in fear but expectancy.  It’s is a time to be awake, to be alert, and reflect upon our lives. To open up the whole of our lives – the sheep and goat parts – to the redeeming, healing and transforming light of Christ.

Reference

Works of art by Anselm Kiefer, ‘Drop Down Ye Heavens’, Commentary, Giles Waller, Link

Re-Thinking Christianity, Keith Ward, Chapter 6