The time is nowBy The Reverend David Burgess
Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility, that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Ghost, now and for ever: Amen.
(The Collect for Advent Sunday).
2nd December is the first Sunday in Advent this year, and Advent itself seems to be a season in a hurry. At one level, of course, we’re striving to get as much done as possible, to get everything done in fact, before Christmas descends upon us. We only have to go down to the shops any time in December to appreciate this.
But I wonder if we also appreciate the spiritual urgency of the season? You may know that much of the Advent Collect draws on the words of St Paul: “Now it is high time to wake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light”.
There is an enormous sense of urgency in this, which is well brought out in the New English Bible translation of this passage: “In all this remember how critical the moment is. It is time for you to wake out of sleep”.
So to the Collect again: “Give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now…” Suddenly it’s not the historical past or the unknown future that we bring to mind, but the immediate present: now in the Vicarage at 9:00 pm on Tuesday 30th October 2007, or for you wherever and whenever you may be reading this: it’s now that we are to cast away the works of darkness.
During the course of Advent we look back to Christ’s earthly life and forward to his coming again, but we need to be wary of falling into the trap of having nothing going on in our present life. Something decisive happened in history; something decisive will happen beyond history; but the risk is that nothing decisive happens now.
Unless we allow Christ to enter into our hearts here and now – to visit us in great humility – the story of redemption fails to come alive for us, the work of redemption isn’t fulfilled in us, and Advent descends again into one mad rush.
So let this season be one where you cast away the works of darkness, whatever they may be for you, put upon the armour of light, which is God’s gift and His alone, and in so doing let your preparation for the Christmas season focus on the coming of Jesus Christ in the world and into your own life.