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Advent-2005
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 27th November 2006
Revd. Matthew Vernon
Mk 13.24-39
This is a wonderful time of year here.
The weather is beautiful:
• blue skies
• and the cool temperature which I love.
Its autumn here,
• but it reminds me of happy summer days in England as a child.
It's also the time for Christmas decorations – I'm sure you've noticed.
The buildings and shops around Central are decorated once more with wonderful, colourful, bright decorations.
In Statue Square the enormous Christmas Tree is up
• and with it the Hong Kong winterfest is nearly ready.
What an extraordinary spectacle that is!
All those fake, snow-capped buildings.
• Santa's lodge and Snowy-chapel.
They call it winterfest rather than Christmas,
• but there's still a chapel adorned with crosses.
The weather, the darker evenings, the Christmas decorations in the last couple of weeks have been evocative for me.
Memories are rekindled of previous Christmases here in Hong Kong.
Memories of relatives visiting,
• of merry-making,
• of celebrating the birth of Jesus.
It's a wonderful time of year.
Many people share this experience.
Perhaps you do too.
Most of us who celebrate Christmas have done so for many years.
Many adults have happy memories of childhood Christmases.
The shopping for presents,
• the decorations and lights,
• the going to church,
• all bring back those warm experiences.
Its one reason why we see more people in Church at Christmas time.
Its part of their tradition.
Psychologically, going to church at Christmas is a reminder of childhood.
• candlelit services and traditional carols.
Evoking a longing for those simpler, more comfortable days
• before growing up and the complexities of adult life.
For me, part of all this is having two young children.
Samuel and Joshua are still learning about the Christmas traditions –
• experiencing some things for the first time.
If I'm honest, I hope they will have happy memories of Christmas as children;
• memories that I am lucky enough to have.
I hope that's not just about making them in my image!
I also hope that they will learn about Advent traditions.
We're using Advent calendars and Advent candles in our home.
Kate will tell you I insist on religious Advent calendars
• rather than snow men or wintry city scapes.
After all, we are counting down to Jesus' birthday.
Advent candles are a wonderful symbol.
Each day you burn part of the candle.
At the bottom there's a Christmas image.
The light is powerful symbol – a symbol of warmth and comfort, like those childhood memories, and a symbol of the hope and peace that Jesus' birth brings.
Happy Christmas memories are wonderful if they remind us of God's love for us.
Memories of acceptance, comfort, security and love teach us of God's deep love for us his children.
Of course our awareness of God develops as we grow up.
Our image of God changes and we grow out of the childish image of the kindly old man in the sky.
But knowing the warmth and comfort of God's love for us,
• love that is greater than we can imagine,
• is an important foundation for the journey of faith.
But what if you don't have such happy memories?
What about people who've had painful experiences and unhappy Christmases?
People from abusive families or broken homes.
People whose loved ones have died at Christmas.
Advent helps here.
Advent encourages us to pause before we dive into the Christmas consumption.
Advent reminds us of reality for many people.
It's a time to remember people who are in need:
• people who have been wounded by life;
• people who struggle with low self-esteem,
• people whose lives are darkened by fear;
• people who have not experienced deep love and acceptance.
For those of us who have happy memories of Christmas,
• those of us fortunate enough to have had a happy, loving childhood,
• Advent is a reminder that God calls us to help people who are less fortunate.
In fact, Advent goes further.
Advent challenges our happy Christmas memories.
It disturbs our warm, comfortable recollections.
Advent reminds us of the complexities of adult life and the real world.
In that sense, people with difficult memories at this time of year are at an advantage.
They are closer to reality.
A reality we find it difficult to face and often retreat from.
The challenge of Advent is expressed in our readings today.
Particularly Isaiah and Mark.
Disturbing imagery in Isaiah:
• "O [Lord] that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!"
"as when fire kindles brushwood" –
• a very different fire image to our gentle Advent candles.
Perhaps we should have an Advent fire instead!
Less safe and contained than a candle.
A better image for God's coming.
And strange imagery in Mark:
• "'the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heaven will be shaken.' Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory."
Strange imagery to our modern ears.
Describing the end of the world as people imagined it in Jesus' day.
The second part of the gospel is easier to relate to.
"Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come."
Earlier this year I had a surprise visitor at home.
They turned up one Friday evening;
• I think it was 6th March.
I was expecting them on 6th April.
I had the date wrong in my diary!
"Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come."
These Advent readings remind us of that uncomfortable part of our faith:
• God's judgment.
That is, God's perspective.
• God's view of the way we live and the world we live in.
God's view that we don't always live the way God wants us to live.
God's judgment that our world is not as God wants it to be.
Its uncomfortable thinking about these things.
It disturbs those warm, comfortable childhood memories of Christmas.
But then childhood isn't all happy times,
• for any of us.
Childhood is full of being taught lessons and learning from difficult experiences.
The many, many times of being told off by loving parents.
Being corrected because the way we are living is not as it should be.
Reminders to think about other people in the world.
The loving parent is a good way of imagining God.
God's love for us is constant and deeper than we can imagine.
In Advent we remember that we, God's children, still need God's guidance to live as God want us to live.
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