Hope

The year begins. Almost unnoticed by the high street, the school, the work place, and even the church – our church year begins today; Advent Sunday. At the abbey we have moved all the chairs so we can celebrate the new church year by falling over each other. The everlasting beauty of the Church of England is that even when we completely change the seating arrangement, everybody still finds their normal place to sit in.

Advent Sunday at 6.30pm the light will come into the middle of the darkness, beauty arrives in the silence, the divine word in the chaos of the world. Advent is a season of hope.  What is it that will remain with us after our Advent Carol Service? For some it will be the beauty of choral worship as it echoes around the 12^th century walls of the Abbey, drawing us a little closer to heaven and the song of the angels. For others it will be the stillness, as we stop and sit in silence and listen to the timeless word of God written 2,000 years ago or more.  For me it will probably be the Advent carols themselves, the richness of the harmonies on the organ and the depth of the longing for God in the texts. But perhaps for many it will simply be the candles, the light shining in the darkness. Most of us have seen a candle before, but not all of us will have stood with 300 others and held candles symbolising the light of God, shining in the darkness of humanity. It is a powerful image.

As 2 billion Christians worldwide mark Advent Sunday today, it is easy to imagine the tangible darkness of the church in the Philippines, or in Egypt, or in Syria; yet they meet in hope today. And as the year ends in the UK each of us knows somebody for whom the darkness is also very real, and it looks like personal debt or job vulnerability or relational breakdown or sickness or loneliness or spiritual searching. But Advent is not a festival of darkness; it is a reminder that whatever shape or shadow the darkness takes in our lives, God is there, and we, the church, will always be a people of hope. The Light shines.

Our advent texts proclaim again that ‘the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.’ Jesus Christ is that light.  May you, and those you love, seek and know His holy presence in the days and weeks of Advent.