Advent 4
By Bishop Edward Holland, Sunday 21st December, 2008
St Paul, writing to the Romans, speaks of the mystery that has been kept secret for long ages and is only now disclosed in Jesus Christ. What is that mystery? Paul says it was there hidden in the prophets and is now being made known to the gentiles by the command of God.
In Mary we see a woman who says “Yes” to God. She is afraid, she is very puzzled by the message of the Archangel Gabriel, but she says “Yes. Here I am, the servant of God, let it be to me according to your word”. Mary collaborates with God and in a way that is where the secret lies, though perhaps it is better to put it the other way round for that is what we find ourselves surprised by – God collaborates with Mary.
He does not just impose himself. He waits for her “Yes” before he goes ahead. God and Mary together will give the world Jesus Christ. And this discloses what has previously been a secret because most people’s view of God has been that of a rule-maker, judge and punisher. Yes, God loves those who obey but he will be harsh with those who don’t.
This is most people’s view of God, the picture painted by most religions including often, I am afraid, Christianity. It is one reason why some modern people(and not so modern) reject the idea of God, even hate it. They feel free and don’t feel able to be constrained by a higher power who imposes his will and is not answerable to anyone.
The secret is that God is not like this at all. God has created his creation, which of course is far more than just this world. This is one reason why so-called “Creationism” is so pathetic – it makes God into a little god whose whole achievement consists of 6,000 years of this tiny planet.
But God has created his creation and he loves it and, as love implies, he respects it, and as a crucial part of this creation he has made the human race which he also loves and respects. And he works in partnership with human beings. The love he has for us is best expressed as friendship and then in shared life, not only between God and man, but also between God and man and creation.
This is known in the Old Testament, especially in the creation stories, and I believe it is known in most religions – but it is forgotten or has got hidden and lost.
But in the story of the conception of Jesus it re-appears. God and Mary collaborating to bring about a new creation rescued from the burden of God’s supposed anger and over-whelming power, which has seemed to diminish the integrity of human beings. God says “Yes” to Mary and she says”Yes” to God, and God says “Yes” again and so it goes on in an increasing crescendo of partnership – it’s rather like falling in love.
There’s surprise in it as there was for St Paul and as there was for Mary – “How can this be since I am a virgin”. She has not shared her life with anyone at the deepest level let alone God. But there it is – God’s invitation. And in Jesus himself we see the secret fully displayed, the Word made flesh, the Spirit of God and the spirit of Man made one.
And Jesus lives a life of perfect partnership in which he knows himself at a very deep level to be the Son of a loving Father God – that is his identity. It is why he prays “Our Father” – Abba which means something as intimate as “Dad” and this is reinforced at his baptism when he gives himself in a new way to God and to the human race and he hears those words, “This is my beloved Son in whom I delight”, words repeated again at the Transfiguration as an encouragement before he moves up to Jerusalem to face the cross.
The Son and the Father are one we are told in St John’s Gospel and it is the Holy Spirit who enables this unity of love in life and action. When we look at the Son we can see the Father – indeed it is only in the Son that we can see that God is Father. And so in Mary first and then more fully in Jesus the secret is disclosed – God is not the harsh oppressor of man but his friend and his collaborator. God does not threaten death and punishment but promises life and fulfillment. He does not diminish but rather lifts us up enhancing our understanding of who and how we are.
But we do need to live it. To live with God in that way – to pray with that sense of who God is, not our harsh critic but our encouraging companion who delights in us as he delighted in Jesus, concerned when we fall away from our nature as much loved sons and daughters, members of the family, and delighted when we make the smallest movement of love for him or for one another.
And that’s the other half; living with and for one another in this world. He did not create it to be a battleground of competing interests but to be an opportunity for my best to contribute to your best, and our best to contribute to “their” best, whoever “they “ may be.
God is first of course, But God also puts us first, all of us. And this means that when we put God first then everything counts, everything is given its full value. The trouble is when we put something else first it usually ends up being Self, and then other things come in 2nd, 3rd or 4th and some do not register at all. Put God first and nothing has less value than the value God gives it.
That is the secret made known in Jesus Christ. God has created us to be his friends and fellow-workers and like any true friend he constantly forgives and understands, and never withdraws his love. And that applies to us but also to those whom we may have thought would never get a look-in.
