Pointer’s of Promise
Apart from the first two years, all of my childhood and much of my early adulthood was spent in Dunscroft, a medium sized mining village seven miles north east of Doncaster. Though it was a mining village it was surrounded by fields and hedgerows, which were places I loved to explore with friends but very often I would just go off on my own just to be surrounded by nature. On family holidays, which were always taken on the east coast of England, I would disappear for hours just exploring the cliffs and watching the sea. I was totally in awe of the wonder and beauty of creation; it is something that has never left me. When I first came to Wales in the early nineties, I was awestruck by seeing the blue sky disappear from view in the windscreen of the van to be replaced by a blanket of green forest as we drove into Betws Y Coed and captivated by waterfalls that disappeared at the side of the road only to reappear at the other side.
On honeymoon in the Lake District I was held by the majesty of the mountains and lakes, on holiday in Cornwall it was the rugged coastline of Bude and Tintagel. On yet another holiday in Lanzarote it was the bleak and barren beauty of the volcanic landscape and now we live within a five minute drive of some of the most breath taking scenery these British Isles have to offer. Every morning I can look out from our bedroom window and take in the view of Aberdare Mountain and revel in the beauty and majesty of God’s creation and yet, as beautiful as all these things are, they do not compare with that part of God’s creation that was called Paradise.
Paradise originally meant an enclosed garden where the harshness and dangers of the world could be kept out, it was a place that in creation was intended by God to be our dwelling but because of our first parent’s sinful disobedience we now find ourselves exiled from.
You may be forgiven for wondering what all this has to do with Advent?
The word advent literally translated means “A coming”, we associate it with Christmas as the countdown to the day we celebrate our Lord’s birth, the first coming. Ever since the “Fall” and Mankind’s subsequent exile from the first Paradise, the Garden of Eden, God had opened the way to the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The first candle of Advent is for the Patriarchs- Noah, Abraham, Jacob & Moses. Heroic figures whose names are known to us through the history of our faith. These all too human figures with all their flaws and weaknesses are nevertheless wonderfully shot through with God’s presence and central to God’s story and his desire to draw all of his people back into a relationship with him. It is the glimpses of light that we can see in their very human lives that we can glimpse and indeed grasp the light of hope for our own lives. Over the next few minutes we’ll take a brief glimpse at two of these patriarchs, in particular the promises that God made to each of them and the significance those promises hold for us.
Noah
One of the first Bible stories most of us will have learned, would have been that of Noah and the Ark. After the fall, Earth was no longer the perfect paradise that God had intended, out of all the people of the Earth, only one man and his family still worshipped God, that man was Noah. God saw the wickedness of mankind and grieved of creating it, with a heart filled with pain he decided to wipe all mankind apart from Noah, who had found favour with God from the face of the Earth with a massive flood. God instructed Noah to build an Ark and to take on board “...seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.” Genesis 7: 2-3
In June and July 2007, flooding became a personal reality for myself and the people of Doncaster and indeed other parts of South, East and West Yorkshire. In the Doncaster area, the village’s of Toll Bar, Bentley and Sprotbrough were deluged by flood water after 18 days of relentless heavy rain. Toll Bar was the worst affected and in some areas was under ten foot of water, many were forced to evacuate their homes and well over a year after the flood waters had subsided were unable to return to them, having instead, to live in mobile homes. In the case of Toll Bar, the largest part of the flooding could have been avoided, had the local authority heeded the warnings given to them as early as 1990, when a drainage survey of which I played a small part, reported that all the storm relief drains were infact inoperable due to severe blockages caused by people dumping rubbish into the sewer chambers. I’m not about to say that the Toll Bar flood was God’s punishment but it is a valid illustration of what can happen when we ignore the warnings, just as the people in Noah’s time did by filling their lives with sin and wickedness and closing their hearts to God.
Just as the waters subsided in Toll Bar, so did the waters of the great flood of Noah’s day and God made his covenant with Noah, in Genesis 9: 8- 16 “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
The story of Noah stands for that part of us that has not completely let go of God and the joy of knowing that even then God had not let go of us. The sign of the rainbow is elusive; it is real but intangible, always just out of reach but always coming back to surprise us. At a symbolic level it is powerful response to those who regard our faith as having nothing to say in the face of adversity and natural disaster and is a pointer to his future promise of a new covenant in Christ. Our second pointer of promise is found in the story of who all three of the world’s major faiths call their father.
Abraham
At school, many years ago I studied English Literature, apart from Shakespeare, Dickens and Twain, I also studied poets. One of those poets was Wilfred Owen who wrote this poem based on Genesis 22:6- 14, as a protest against the futility of war “So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
and took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
and stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! An Angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
neither do anything to him, thy son.
Behold! Caught in a thicket by its horns,
A Ram. Offer the Ram of Pride instead.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
and half the seed of Europe, one by one.”
At the heart of the passage of scripture, Owen based his poem upon is the realisation that God’s mercy can triumph over his justice. Let us take a look at the actual scripture, turn with me to Genesis 22: 6- 18 “ 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”
It’s the foundation stone of the Abrahamic religions but it’s an example that many of us find hard to follow, unmerciful that we are.
Setting aside our own pride and vengeance, even if the latter is just, is one of the most important things we can do to help bring in the kingdom of God.
I suspect that at times most of us are ambivalent towards the people around us, sometimes they fill our hearts with joy, pride and even wonder. Sometimes disgusting and depressing us, sometimes both in the same person.
This ambivalence could tempt us to give up on others and go it alone, either as individuals or as a group. But like the patriarchs we have covered this morning, other people are pointers of promise to us and a responsibility laid on us and we are called to bless them as they bless us.
Just think what it might mean for you or me to be a blessing to those around us now. To be a blessing to individuals, to nations or to the generations that will follow us.
If we withhold the blessing we have received from God from others, the world can and become a dark place and can lead to sectarianism and violence that is not only an historical fact but also a present one. God’s promise to Abraham of a land has become a dark one, through misinterpretation. Read again verse 17 of Genesis 22“17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,” Substitute “cities of their enemies” for “towns of the Palestinians” Verse 18 reads 18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”
Jesus who is the one this verse speaks of said that we should “Love our enemies” not ill treat them and cast them out of their homes. We need to work together for a future that is a blessing for all.
That Abraham’s promise is inherited by the three major faiths of today’s world is a good starting point. During my summer placement at Penge last year, I shared the role of street chaplain with Commissioner Bill Rivers, on my rounds I got to know the local shopkeepers on the High Street, most of whom were Muslim. As I got to know them better as they did me, we shared conversation about each other’s religions and found our common ground was that under Abraham we had a joint identity as Friends of God, which isn’t a bad place to start. In this time of advent and beyond let us remember to share the rich blessings we have received from God with each other and with other faiths, then perhaps this will truly be the season of good will to all and peace on Earth, shall we pray.
“Blessed are you, Sovereign Lord, God of our ancestors; to you be praise and glory forever!
You called the patriarchs to live by the light of faith and to journey in the hope of your promised fulfilment. May we be obedient to your call and be ready and watchful to receive your Christ, a lamp to our feet and a light to our path; for you are our light and our salvation. Blessed be your name forever, amen”
