December 16 NOTES FOR REFLECTION Third Sunday in Advent
Texts: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18
Theme: Anything about Waiting, Expectancy, Hoping, Looking forward, etc. would work in this Advent Season. I'm going with "The Fullness of Time". [I meant to go with "The Fulness of Time", but my Spell-check wouldn't let me.]
Introduction. All three of our readings are about time, and in particular about "the right time". Zephaniah looks forward with the eye of a prophet to a future that may be many centuries away. John the Baptist looks forward with the eye of a meteorologist, warning of imminent danger. St Paul looks forward with equanimity: far or near, people of faith have nothing to fear in the future.
Background. Recently I heard an interview with an author of a number of novels who was describing his somewhat chaotic approach to writing them. Apparently he starts with one small incident, asks himself who might have been involved in that incident, and then "let's the thing develop pretty much under its own steam from then on". In other words, when he starts to write a novel he has no clear idea what it's going to be about, or who is going to be in the novel. It reminded me of a wonderful story I came across some years ago in "The Mind of the Maker", by Dorothy L Sayers. That book is about the creative process of an artist and how, reflecting on that process can help us into a deeper understanding of our belief in God as our Creator. She writes of a male novelist who had been broken-hearted by a woman, and had decided to create a fictional woman who would be perfect in every way. Eventually he had had to abandon the venture because the story just would not turn out the way he had intended: the final straw came when he was writing a dialogue between two other characters in the book, and one of them dropped in the conversation that the heroine actually had a rather shady past life!
Putting these two things together, what do they tell us about God our Creator? First, the contrast: all the evidence suggests that from the very beginning God has had the full story in mind: new things happen "when the time is right" or "in the fullness of time". So the method adopted by the interviewee probably does not tell us anything about God as Creator of the Great Story of All Things. But the experience of the other novelist does sound familiar. How often the characters God has created (yes, including you and me) have done our best to change God's plot as we have gone along! And yet...the story somehow continues to develop as God has intended from the beginning.
Traditionally at this time of the year we hear some of the great Messianic prophecies, particularly those in the Book of Isaiah, and we marvel at their accuracy given that they were uttered 700 years or so before the event – or perhaps we should say, before the Advent. Well, over the last two weeks or so I have been reading a remarkable book called "Thank God for Evolution" by an American religious teacher called Michael Dowd. Printed on the front cover is this a short sentence from John Mather, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006: The Universe took 13.7 billion years to produce this amazing book, which is a very clever and succinct summary of what this book is about. If we now accept (as we surely must) that Darwin got it broadly right, and if we wish to continue to assert (as we surely do) that God created all things seen and unseen, then we have to find a way of understanding the evolutionary process from the Big Bang (or the Great Radiance, as Michael Dowd likes to call it) right down to the present moment as the unfolding of God's purpose, as chapters in the unfinished story in which we live and move and have our being.
To help us get our heads around such vast stretches of time Dowd gives (on page 278) a "Cosmic century timeline": if we take 100 years to represent that nearly 14 billion years since the birth of the universe, then each year represents 140 million years, each month represents 12 million years, each day represents 400,000 years, each hour represents 15,000 years, and each minute represents 250 years. On that basis, he says, assuming the universe was created 1 second after midnight on January 1 in Year 1and we are now living in the last second of year 99, we can say this:
The earliest bipedal apes (hominids) rose up on two legs and looked out across the African savannah less than two weeks ago, on December 20. The first species classified as fully human, Homo habilis, appeared in Africa on December 25 of the 99th year....Our ancestors domesticated fire during the early morning hours of December 29. Homo sapiens emerged just 24 hours ago, at the beginning of the 365th day of the Universe's 99th year of existence.
Or, in our time, we have been around in our present manifestation for about 400,000 years out of the 13.7 billion years that God has been in the process of making all things seen and unseen. That's quite a thought – and quite a story! And yet, even against this background, it still makes sense to us to claim that, "at just the right time" God sent his Son into the world. Or, as Luke put it, "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar...the word of the Lord came to John son of Zechariah in the desert."
One final thought about time for this week. It may be helpful to read again some of the early Christian sermons as we have them in the Book of Acts: see, for example, 2:14-36; 3:18-26; 7:1-53. These give a clear view of the importance of the concept of a "timeline" approach to telling and understanding the Christian story. Somewhat paradoxically, the eternal God is revealed through history – through the passing of time.
And a footnote on John the Baptist. I had just started preparing these notes when I paused to listen to a radio interview with the (still relatively) new Bishop of Wellington, Justin Duckworth. On paper, it would be hard to think of a greater contrast between his ministry before his appointment as the Bishop and his ministry as bishop. He has now held that position for close to a year. What has been the greatest difficulty he has faced so far? Encouraging those who have faithfully served the church for 60 or more years to hand over power to the next generations, knowing that they will do things differently. John the Baptist had only a short time in the limelight, yet was able to say, "He must become greater; I must become less." What a man for our times the unsettling John really is.
Zephaniah. An unequivocal utterance of joy and hope this time. As we read or hear the passage we might expect it to "take a turn for the worse" as such passages often do. But this prophet deals with the tough stuff first, clears it out of the way, and so is able to give the unadulterated good news. This comprises three main elements, and each is introduced with a temporal reference. "On that day" God will be with his people in the Holy City (verses 16-18). Secondly, "at that time" God will deal with Israel's enemies, all who have afflicted them, and raise up the afflicted to new dignity and honour wherever they are (verse 19). And thirdly, "at that time" God will gather up the people and bring them home (verse 20).
Taking It Personally.
· Spend some time reflecting on the "Cosmic Century TimeLine", above. Many years ago, somebody wrote a book called "Our God is Too Small". Does this help you to broaden your understanding of God the Creator?
· Look in the bathroom mirror, and say to yourself, "It has taken the Universe 13.7 billion years to produce this amazing person". Take the time necessary for that thought to sink in, then put it this way: "It has taken God 13.7 billion years to create this amazing person." How do you feel about that?
· Now meditate on verse 17. After 13.7 billion years of creative work God is going to rejoice with the one he has produced. Rejoice with him!
· Zephaniah (and the other prophets) was looking ahead several hundred years. What is your prayer today for the world in 100 years time?
Philippians. It is hard to grasp that this wonderful passage (as well as the rest of this letter, of course) is written by Paul while he is imprisoned in Rome. (He makes a brief reference to his personal circumstances in 1:14.) Far from calling on his followers to resist, flee, or anything in-between, he exhorts them to "rejoice in the Lord always"; to be gentle in all they do; and to pray constantly. Then they will experience that wonderful peace that is beyond all human understanding.
Taking It Personally.
· Take a moment to think about Paul's personal circumstances. He is in prison in Rome. Try to put yourself is that situation – or call to mind difficult circumstances you have faced in the past. Would you rejoice in his shoes?
· Notice the words in verse 6 "by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God". Use that as a template for your prayers this week.
· Are you anxious about anything at this time? Pray about it, and ask God to grant you his peace.
Luke. This week John the Baptist brings us crashing back to earth: from the ethereal, perhaps mystical heights of last week with the lofty quote from Isaiah, he turns on the people present with a savagery of language rarely heard outside of Parliament. He famously calls them a "brood of vipers", not a term advocated by church growth enthusiasts and evangelists. And yet, at the end of the diatribe Luke gives us this summary (verse 18): And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. This is a man announcing good news? Yet the people do not try to stone him, or block their ears, or turn on their heels and go home. They engage with him and ask his advice. They are open to his message. So he gives them the message. He makes it clear that, whatever Isaiah might have meant in his poetic flights of fancy, the way to "prepare the way of the Lord" is repentance. And words of sorrow are not enough: true repentance produces a change in actions as well as thoughts. His other target is their religious smugness. It is not enough to claim descent from Abraham: only a radical turning-back to God in true repentance can save them from the coming wrath.
Taking It Personally.
· A good day for some serious spiritual stock-taking. What may be blocking the Lord's way through to you?
· What might you need to do to remove any such blockages? Be as specific as you can. (See verses 10-14).
· Ponder verse 9. Think of a tree cut down, and how, in certain species, a new shoot will emerge. ("From the stump of Jesse...) Is this a helpful image for you? What might need to be cut down in your life to allow new shoots to grow?
· What role does John the Baptist have in your preparations for Christmas?
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