My dear friends,
Some of the best hymns are those written for the different seasons of the Church’s year. My favourite Advent hymn is ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel!’ which begins:
O come, O come, Emmanuel!
Redeem thy captive Israel,
That into exile
drear is gone
Far from the face of
God’s dear Son.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
‘Emmanuel’ is a title for the Messiah – Christ – and means ‘God is with us’. It is a reminder that – despite popular belief – Advent is not actually a time of preparation for Christmas, for that would mean looking backwards. Rather, Advent is a time when we look forwards, to the future Second Coming of Jesus Christ. As we say in the Nicene Creed (1662 Prayer Book translation): ‘And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick [living] and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end’.
No-one, apart from God the Father, knows when Christ will come again. St Paul said that Christ’s Second Coming – what he termed ‘the day of the Lord’ – would come ‘like a thief in the night’ when people least expected him (1 Thessalonians 5.2). The difference this time is that Christ’s Second Coming will be in glory – his true identity as the Son of God unmistakeable – and will herald the end of planet earth as we have known it. Not for nothing are the four traditional theological themes for the Sundays of Advent death, judgement, heaven and hell.
There used to be a little ecumenical devotional society called ‘The Guild of Prayer for the Return of Our Lord’ founded in 1920. I have not heard of it for a while. Why bother to think and pray about this particular aspect of Christianity? Well, at his Second Coming Christ will unscramble things and completely heal humanity. We shall be united with God the Father, nevermore to be parted from Him. The will of God shall truly be done.
A Benedictine monk once wrote about the ‘Two Histories’ – a concept that I as a Christian and a historian find very helpful. He said there are two sorts of history. Firstly, there is history as written about by authors like me: the histories of kings, queens, popes, bishops, prime ministers, wars, economics, literature, art, science, ideas, etc. But secondly, at the same time as the world exists, Almighty God is writing His own history. At Christ’s Second Coming we shall see God’s history of the world, which means we shall see things as they truly are, and very interesting it will be. The clerical careerist who carefully climbed the greasy pole to become a prelate or a cardinal, for instance, may turn out to be less important in God’s eyes than the obscure Christian man or woman who endured great suffering and went on sacrificially to help or inspire those around them. That, I suspect, is partly behind Christ’s words about the first being last and the last being first (Matthew 20.16).We shall be in for some surprises, and I find that hugely exciting and encouraging as I tread my way along the Christian pilgrimage.
We have a very full few weeks ahead of us in Advent and I should like to take this opportunity to express my thanks and appreciation to everyone who is going to be busy in many ways with all our services. On Advent Sunday, 1 December, there will be an Advent Carol Service at St Laurence’s Church, Catsfield, at 4.00pm. Between 7–8 December there will be a Christmas tree festival at St George’s Church, Crowhurst. On Sunday 8 December there will be a ‘Miscellany of Christmas Readings’ at St George’s at 6.00pm.
Catsfield School will hold their Christmas service at St Laurence’s on Thursday 19 December at 1.30pm and the speaker will be Bishop Will of Lewes. Crowhurst School will hold their Christmas service at St George’s Church on Friday 20 December at 2.15pm.
On Sunday 22 December there will be a Christmas Carol Service at St George’s at 4.00pm.
On Monday 23 December there will be two Children’s Crib Services: at St Laurence’s at 2.00pm and at St George’s at 3.30pm.
On Tuesday 24 December, Christmas Eve, Midnight Mass will be at St George’s at 11.00pm.
On Wednesday 25 December, Christmas Day, our Christmas Family Eucharist will be celebrated at St Laurence’s at 10.00am.
On the Sunday after Christmas, 29 December, there will be just one Eucharist for both parishes, held this year at St George’s at 10.00am.
May God richly bless you and all whom you love during Advent and grant you a blessed, happy and peaceful Christmas 2024.
Father Robert.