Advent Devotions for 2022:

The Apostles’ Creed

For the Anglican Parish of the Upper Kennebecasis

© 2022
The Rev. Dr Chris McMullen, B.A., M.Div., D.Min., CTS
 Advent Devotions for 2022:
The Apostles’ Creed
Dear Folks,
This year I thought we may reflect on the Apostles’ Creed during Advent.
Though named for the faith of the Apostles, it appeared in its present
form in the Sixth and Seventh century, as a summary of the faith that
candidates (or their parents and/or other sponsors) affirmed at their
baptism. Now many Christians continue to reaffirm it at baptisms,
Worship on the Lord’s Day, or in their daily offices or prayer.
The Celtic monks of Bangor, Ireland, affirmed an early version of this
baptismal creed in the daily offices. We have a written record of it from
The Antiphonary of Bangor, a manuscript dating from about 680 AD.
I beg your indulgence in this devotional project, as it is for me a
preliminary outline of a book I am writing It will be a comprehensive
outline of our faith, for today, but in the heritage of those ancient Celtic
Christians (and their heirs in rural Ireland and Wales, the Scottish
Highlands, and even continuing in our Anglican tradition). So I make
references to lessons I have learned from their faith. But space prevents
many examples of their teaching or lives. I object to many dogmas of
the imperialistic Western church (Rome, but also most of its Protestant
daughters) that seem to come from the church’s love for power and
influence, rather than the gracious and liberating love of God in Christ
and the Spirit that the Bible attests. The Celtic Christian movement
thrived and spread from regions that had never been conquered by the
Roman empire. So it preserved an earlier, humbler, more Biblical appre-
ciation of the Gospel, to be recovered for today’s post-church going age.
I recognize that brevity makes the daily reflections dense and thought-
provoking. I appreciate this challenge! But after all, Advent, the season
of Hope, requires some deep reflection and wondering! So, may the…
“God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a
spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that,
with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may perceive what is
the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his
glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable
greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working
of his great power.” (Ephesians 1:17-19)
This creed of course does not have a particularly Advent theme. But we
will think about it in this light, as our special reflections on the meaning
of the Incarnation that we will celebrate this Christmas.
(An index of theological terms is on the inside back cover. The full text of
the Creed is on the back cover.)
--(Rev. Dr.) Chris McMullen, Advent, 2022.
Monday after the First Sunday in Advent
“I Believe…”
When we think of “believing” something we tend to think of certain
convictions: we believe there is a God, that we are forgiven, and so on.
We indeed need certain convictions to anchor and define our faith. But
the Greek word used for “believing” and “faith” in the New Testament,
pisteuō, means “I trust”. The Latin the Celtic Christians used was crédo,
and the Gaelic creidsinn, which can mean “trust” as well as “believe”. If I
“believe” in my friend’s integrity, for instance, I do not simply think they
exist. I believe “in” them; I trust them.
The ancient peoples who became Christians in Ireland and Britain, for-
bears of our Anglican tradition, believed in all sorts of “gods” and other
supernatural powers. But they did not necessarily trust them! Each one
had but limited powers, and their own agendas. To deal with them, one
would use magic, or offer sacrifices that would bribe the deities, “fairies”
or whatever. Even then, we could never be sure that we were safe.
What wonderful “Good News” it was for them, to be informed that there
was but one “High King of Heaven” (a favourite name for God), one all-
powerful God, Who was also true and loving. The cacophony of powers
and influences all about them, some good, some bad, were in fact all in
service to the good purpose and loving will of the Triune God that the
Celtic missionaries like Patrick, David, Brigid and Columba proclaimed.
Today there are also many powers and influences in our lives –some of
which were indeed once deified by our superstitious forbears. Now we
tend to give them impersonal names, but we can still be quite
intimidated by their power over us. The “economy”, the “government”,
“environment”, “weather”, or whatever may frighten or discourage us.
What if all these “powers” have been, as the New Testament proclaims it
(Colossians 1:16), been put into the loving service and plan of a trust-
worthy God? We may not always understand how, or when this will be
apparent. But it is a reality we can trust. God is someone we may trust!
Advent is a season to celebrate, in the light of the Christmas miracle of
the God who shares our human existence so that we may one day share
God’s eternal life, the trustworthiness of “the High King of Heaven”!
“Happy are those who make the Lord their trust,
who do not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after false gods.
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
they would be more than can be counted.” (Psalm 40:4-5)
Tuesday in Advent I
“I Believe in God…”
When we confess our faith with the Creed, we are celebrating our trust
in one true, loving and all-powerful God of the universe. Another way of
saying this is that we believe the ultimate origin, and destiny, of this vast
cosmos in which we find ourselves, is personal. God is not just some
abstract first principle. Scientists seek the GUT, the “grand unified
theory” by which everything can be explained. If such a singular “natural
law” does exist, we know it is not just a chemical or mechanical formula,
but a living will and purpose: “God is love.” (I John 4:8)
There is much in our world that would seem to contradict this. We will
talk about “suffering” on the Thursday in the week of Advent II.
Personally, I have great respect for atheists (and agnostics, who leave
the possibility of a deity open, but are sceptical of the usual depictions of
God). Too often we may be the captives of an overly simplistic or
superstitious notion of the divine. The Second of the Ten Command-
ments, after all, forbids us to worship “graven images” instead of the
one true, incomprehensible God who we must nonetheless trust to be
just and merciful (Exodus 20:4-6). It can too often be, as J.B. Phillips put
it in his famous book (1953 but still in print), Your God is Too Small.
The God we trust is personal. Not just an idea or philosophical principle.
So the Bible cannot define God (by Whom, after all, all else is defined!)
as much as introduce God, by telling stories of how the divine made
God’s self known. What a strange universe, this would be, if the ultimate
reality cannot think, know, or even love, in a way that is surely greater
than our personal realities, but certainly nothing (or no-one!) less!
I have a word for those who tell me they don’t believe in an “old man” in
the sky or other “supreme being”: Trinity. I do not believe (put my trust
in!) such an anthropomorphic deity either. The God I know is above and
beyond all existence (the Father); yet can simultaneously live as a man
on earth (Jesus); and even simultaneously be present and potent in all
things (the Spirit). The doctrine of the Trinity is a sort of negative creed
protecting us from all sorts of over-simplifications. It also attests that we
live our life our faith in a God above us, yet also beside us in intimate
human companionship (Jesus), and yet also within and all around things.
“Understand, O dullest of the people;
fools, when will you be wise?
He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
He who disciplines the nations,
he who teaches knowledge to humankind, does he not chastise?
… the Lord has become my stronghold
and my God the rock of my refuge.” (Psalm 94: 8-10,22)
Wednesday in Advent I
“…God the Father”
Christmas is only one reason we address the First Person of the Trinity
as ‘Father’. (We will think about Jesus’ mother, Mary, on Christmas Eve.)
He (or “She”, as some prefer!) is the One from whom Jesus came and
comes; and the One to whom Jesus prayed with the unprecedented
intimate Aramaic title, Abba –literally, “Daddy”. In turn, he spoke of our
Father in Heaven and invited us to pray in a similar way (Matthew 6:9-
13). This speaks of our ultimate destiny, in Christ, and potent and active
even now, as God’s own children: “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is
God’s very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”
(Romans 8:15-17) So it is not too far-fetched to see the address
“Father!” as in fact an Advent title for God, who is coming to embrace us
into eternity. “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has
not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed,
we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” (I John 3:2)
It is important to remember this Biblical context for the title “Father,”
because many have been the victims of a patriarchal, oppressive notion
of God based on flawed human thinking rather than revelation. This sort
of revisionist theology arose during the Enlightenment, and reached its
climax in the liberal German Christians who supported Hitler: “God” for
this school is the name for a transcendent intuition in the human mind,
not the deity revealed in the Bible (which was dismissed, antisemitically,
as Jewish superstition). And what is the best sort of person we can
imagine? Well, of course (to them!), a good, caring but aloof, righteous
and dignified Prussian father! Therefore, we should call God “Father”.
That is not the sort of “father” who, in Jesus parable of the Prodigal Son,
compassionately abandons all self-respect and comes running out to hug
and kiss his returning lout of a son (Luke 15:20)! The prodigal son came
home in shame to ask but for a servant’s job. But his father welcomes
him as his son. That is who our Advent, “coming” God is like!
“Sing to God; sing praises to his name;
lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds
—his name is the Lord— be exultant before him.
Father of orphans and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
God gives the desolate a home to live in;
he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious live in a parched land.
…Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation.” (Psalm 68:4-6,19)
Thursday in Advent I
“God the… Almighty” (1)
The phrase “Almighty God…” is the most used title for God in our Book
of Common Prayer [BCP]. It is frequently used in Scripture. Paul com-
bines several Old Testament verses to assert, in continuity with yester-
day’s theme: “I will be your father and you shall be my children, says the
Lord Almighty.” (II Corinthians 6:18) But like “Father,” it is important to
understand this phrase in the light of God’s revelation to us in Jesus, as
attested in the Biblical narrative. So we will spend two days thinking
about this affirmation in the creed: “We believe in God, the…Almighty.”
“Almighty” of course means “all-powerful”. Isaiah proclaims this Advent
warning and invitation: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come
like destruction from the Almighty!” (Isaiah 13:6) The critical question is:
But what kind of “power” is the energy, purpose and direction by which
the Creator enacts and “rules” over all things? The answer has to be the
sort of “power” and “rule” or leadership we see in Jesus.
Jesus had quite a bit to say about “power” in the sense of leadership
(Mark 10:35-45, Luke 22:24-30, John 13:1-10). When his disciples were
caught arguing about “greatness” and who would be their leader after
Jesus brought in the Kingdom (literally, “the reign”) of God, he said: “…
whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and
whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son
of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom
for many.” (Mark 10:43-45) The kind of “power” we see in Jesus above
all, a power of love. Not the power of force, but truth (John 18:37).
Too often we think of power in terms of imperial rule (God on a throne),
or, from Newtonian science, mechanical force. God’s almightiness may
be thought of in that way. Yet quantum physics now states that, from
the sub-particles of the atom to cosmic space, there is an element of
unpredictable spontaneity built right into the make-up of creation. There
is real freedom in the human story, too. If not now, then when Jesus
comes again. “…creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to
decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
(Romans 8:21) In the Bible, “Almighty God” is constantly changing his
plan, but not his purposes, to accommodate the free –if wrong-headed–
choices of his people. God’s power is of a loving “Father”, not a dictator.
“I wait for the Lord; my soul waits,
and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning...
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.” (Psalm 130:5-7)
Friday in Advent I
“God the… Almighty” (2)
Yesterday I asked us to think of power not as raw force, but of free love,
accommodating the spontaneity given to creation itself, and especially to
humans. Sometimes we get angry with God, whom we have been led to
envision as a supreme tyrant who predetermined the tragedies we face.
But what if we are not the victims of uncaring fate, so much as children
called to maturity, who, as part of our vocation must overcome, with
God’s help, the free yet bad actions of ourselves and others? “Endure
trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children, for what
child is there whom a parent does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:7)
This raises the question of providence: does everything, including evil
and its sad results, come from God? And if not, as the Bible maintains,
why doesn’t God put a stop to it? Answer: because it is only temporary.
This requires a sophisticated appreciation of God’s “almightiness” as it
applies to time and history. God has sovereignty, according to the Bible,
even over time itself. We creatures live in linear time. The past is
irrecoverable; the future yet to be. Only the present is real and vital and
free for us. But that is not so with the eternal God. God’s eternity, as
taught in the Bible, is not simply an unending time. (That would be
infinitely boring!) It is an unlimited liveliness where creation’s past and
future are as alive and available to God as the present is to God, and to
us. “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past
or like a watch in the night.” (Psalm 90:4) Peter quotes this when he
speaks of folks’ impatience about Jesus’ second coming: “Do not ignore
this fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years,
and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his
promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting
any to perish but all to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:8-9) (I promised
you our reflections on the Creed would be rich with the Advent theme!)
This idea that God’s eternity is “time-full” rather than “timeless” is key to
appreciating the meaning of Christmas. Jesus’ birth, in our creaturely
story, took place about 2018 years ago. But in God’s all-encompassing
and overflowing eternal life, it is an always present and potent miracle,
as is Good Friday and Easter. It is also the promise that tragedy will end!
“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye wastes away from grief; my soul and body also…
But I trust in you, O Lord; I say,
‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your steadfast love.” (Psalm 31:9,14-16)
Saturday in Advent I
“Creator of Heaven and Earth”
For Celtic Christians, the truth that the beautiful natural world was the
handiwork of God, was an inspiring and comforting truth indeed. John
Scotus Eriugena (c. 880-887) and St. Columbanus (453-615 AD) both
taught that for Christians, there were two “books” which we must study
to know about God. One was the Bible. The other was God’s creation.
Celtic Christians were thus sponsors of what became science. Virgil, an
Irish missionary to Salzburg (c. 700-787 AD), for instance, was reported
to the pope for teaching that, contra Roman doctrine, the world was
round! God is faithful; therefore, creation is rational and may be studied.
It can even, at times, attest the truthfulness and beauty of the Lord.
“The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to
human beings.” (Psalm 115:16) God is the Creator of “earth” –all that is
available for human study and stewardship (and this might include some
parts of the sky!); and also, of “heaven” –all that reality which is beyond
human study and control, too. It is still under the reign of God. Of course
“heaven” in this sense is gradually becoming “earth”, as science makes
more and more wonders of creation known to humanity. This is one
example of how trust in God, may lead to trust in ourselves –properly
redeemed from sin and error– as God’s stewards on earth.
Celtic Christians also taught that creation is based on the incarnation.
One reason why Christmas is so central for Anglicans. It is the stunning
teaching of the Bible (Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-4; John 1:1-14)!
Not that some pre-existent Son of God created things, but that Jesus of
Bethlehem did. For the human Jesus is always Son of God in his eternity.
There is another meaning to “heaven”, as in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This refers, not to some “place up
there”, but to God’s eternity, beyond created time. Which is of course
our future, and our destiny. We are back to another Advent theme: our
lives, indeed all creation’s story, is destined for the “New Creation” in
God’s time-full eternity. Christmas, an advance breakthrough of this
destiny in our human experience and history, makes science possible.
“O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all...
These all look to you to give them their food in due season;
when you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things...
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
…I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise
to my God while I have being.” (Psalm 104:24,27-30,33)
Monday after the Second Sunday in Advent
“I Believe in … Jesus Christ”
If you were mystified by yesterday’s meditation, that is the way it should
be. Celtic Christians understood that the whole Triune God was involved
in creation. Father, Son and Spirit are intimately in communion with the
natural world. Psalm 33 (below) declares God created through his “word”
(in the New Testament, that is Jesus, John 1:14, Hebrews 1:2) and his
“breath” (Hebrew ruach, the same word translated “Spirit” elsewhere).
“For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for
whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things
and through whom we exist.” (I Corinthians 8:6)
The Reality we know in Jesus is that by which everything is real. That is
why we “believe in”, i.e., trust in, Jesus. The cradled child of Christmas is
the instrumental reality by Whom the Father creates all things (in the
“power of the Spirit” –we’ll reflect on Saturday after Advent III). Jesus is
called the “firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). As one of our
standard Christmas readings says, “…when he brings the firstborn into
the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’” (Hebrews 1:6)
We might say that all creation’s linear history is heading toward God. But
to speak that way would make God a passive, static being, assigning life,
growth and progress only to creation. That ancient philosophical notion
of an “Unmoved First Mover” has bewitched much (non-Celtic!) Western
Christian thought. But it is not Biblical. God is alive and active; the
ultimate source of all activity. And so, our Advent theme: God “comes”
(Latin adventus) to us. God “came” in Jesus; God “comes” to us each
day and moment by the Spirit; God “will come” to us at the end of time,
in One comfortingly human and familiar in Jesus, to bring in his promised
New Creation. “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the
former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isaiah 65:17)
The Creed does not mention the “Trinity”, but it is “triune” in form. We
may trust in the Triune God. Its second paragraph attests God the Son.
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made
and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
he put the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him,
for he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm...
The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord; the people
whom he has chosen as his heritage.” (Psalm 33:6-12)
Tuesday in Advent II
“…Jesus Christ, God’s Only Son, Our Lord”
The New Testament names Jesus as “LORD” (an exclusive Jewish name
for God); the “Word of God” (as we’ve seen); “Christ” (from the Greek
for the Hebrew messiah, meaning God’s anointed king, who is
sometimes called “son of God” in the Old Testament); and God’s
“firstborn” (see yesterday). But its most frequent title is “Son of God”.
In the Ancient Near East, kings were often called a “son of god”. So, the
Creed follows the New Testament in adding the exclusive qualification,
“only Son of God”. After all, “…for us there is [only] one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus
Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (I
Corinthians 8:6) Though sometimes Jews gave the coming Messiah this
exclusive title. So in Psalm 2:7 (see below), which Jews in Jesus’ day
understood as a prayer for and promise of the Messiah. The Voice of
God alluded to this at Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:17).
The title “only Son of God” is not meant to be a comparison to or put-
down of people we may honour as other great religious figures of
teachers. It isn’t about “my religious founder is bigger than your religious
founder” (!). Too often Christians talk this way, as if somehow our faith
makes us better than people of other faiths. It becomes about us not
about God. But this is important: We do not trust in “our faith”. Our faith
is a trust in the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So the Apostles’
Creed, like the Nicene Creed, takes a strict Trinitarian form. Moses, the
Buddha, Mohammad, Zoroaster, Confucius, etc. were and are great
spiritual and religious figures, that we may honour and learn from. Many
understand Jesus to be in that category of “great prophets” too. As
Christians, it is not our place to try to measure such things. Our vocation
is to worship the one God, who has definitively made Himself known to
Jesus’ followers as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).
The title “Son of God” is mainly informed by how Jesus distinctively
called God Abba, his Father. It is not (as Muslims think) a claim that God
gave birth to a son through Mary. That is uninformed paganism.
“I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me,
‘You are my son; today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage
and the ends of the earth your possession.’
…Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear; kiss the Son,
or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Happy are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 2:7-8,10-11)
Wednesday in Advent II
“Jesus… Was Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit”
To appreciate the wonder of this truth, we must recall three things. First,
remember that linear time is a dimension of created reality. It does not
constrain the time-full living simultaneity of God’s eternal vitality. What
for us is a moment in history, is for God, an eternal reality (see Friday in
Advent I above). Second, God created, and creates, all things through
His “Word”, Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Saturday in
Advent 1). “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all
their host by the breath [Hebrew ruach, ‘Spirit’] of his mouth.” (Psalm
33:6) Third, let us recall that God’s creative power is not a mechanical or
blunt imperial act of force, but personal acts of love which build freedom
into the very fabric of creation itself (Thursday in Advent 1 above).
Did you ever notice that in the majestic narrative of creation in Genesis 1
(which reads more as a poem than a literal history or scientific account),
God actually gives permission to creation itself to create? Along with four
commands by mere fiat (“let there be!” Genesis 1:3,6,9,14) there are
three “permissions” (“let the earth/water bring forth…” 1:11,20,24). So
Genesis 1 teaches evolution! This has taken millions of years in our time.
Yet it is but “six days” in God’s eternity. At Jesus’ birth, God’s spoken
Word and Spirit (Genesis 1:1-3), gave all of creation before and after its
reality: everything leading up to the Incarnation, and everything after it.
Without these three truths, Jesus’ “conception by the power of the Holy
Spirit” will seem like a deviant intervention in “the nature of things” from
“outside” reality as we know it. People are not born of virgins! But we
now know (from Quantum physics) that the Biblical witness that the
“predictability” of creation as discerned by science is not because of any
immutable “natural laws”, but because of the faithfulness and rationality
of a personal Creator. That is why there are so many prayers in the Bible
for believers to know and live by God’s “Word”, “law”, “statutes”, etc.
The fact that folks are not born of virgins, according to this Biblical
thought, is due to the reliable faithfulness of God’s personal reign in
creation. Jesus’ birth of the Virgin Mary is not an “exception” to a “rule”.
It is the foundation of the “rules”, i.e. how God, by his Word and Spirit,
creates and is creating. Jesus “was descended from David according to
the flesh, and was declared to be Son of God with power according to
the Holy Spirit by his resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:3-4)
“The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes.
You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word.
Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I trust your commands.
Before I was humbled I went astray, but now I keep your word.
You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.” (Psalm 119:64-68)
Thursday in Advent II
“…He Suffered under Pontius Pilate”
I have already mentioned (Tuesday in Advent 1) the good reason why so
many doubt the reality of an Almighty yet All-Loving God: the presence
of so much evil and suffering in the creation. It is reassuring, then, to
see that the Creed frankly mentions this reality. It does so, however, by
affirming that the Son of God himself suffered at human hands. We are
not alone in our suffering. Indeed, to read the rest of the Creed’s Second
Article, we are joined in our suffering by One who conquered it on our
behalf, and promises us a destiny beyond its anguish and evil.
In Jesus, as Psalm 60 puts it with a powerful image, God has “set up a
banner” to which we may “rally” in our trials and tragedies. According to
the Old Testament prophets, as well as the expectations of the Book of
Revelation, at the Day of God’s Coming, not only human but all of
creation’s suffering will be healed and vindicated. Paul reassured his
readers: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning together
as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but
we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while
we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8:22-23)
The theological discipline of “apologetics” seeks to answer the question
of evil. This is usually done by saying that humanity’s neglect and abuse
of God’s world and God’s way causes all evil. Now we even know that
our pollution of the planet badly effects the weather itself! That might be
fair punishment to the human race, but the actual suffering is most often
experienced by the innocent. This is especially true of all other creatures.
The Celtic saints had two answers for the problem of evil. The first, was
that in Jesus (who knows his own suffering eternally and not just for the
few years we see in linear time), and by the omnipresence of God’s Spirit
in all creatures, God himself shares in the grief and pain of his creation.
The second, was their conviction, as in the Creed, that suffering would
come to an end, and be healed, when Jesus comes to bring in God’s
New Creation. Advent is the season when we especially claim this hope.
The Celtic saints were famous for their love for and help to distressed
animals, birds, etc. They anticipated God’s promise of a restored “Garden
of Eden” (Genesis 2-3) by helping their fellow creatures. So should we!
You have made your people suffer hard things;
you have given us wine to drink that made us reel.
Yet you have set up a banner for those who fear you,
to rally to it out of bowshot.
Give victory with your right hand and answer us,
so that those whom you love may be rescued.
…With God we shall do valiantly;
it is he who will tread down our foes. (Psalm 60:3-5,12)
Friday in Advent II
“Jesus…Was Crucified, Dead and Buried”
In our personal lives, yet also as we worry and pray for others, and
indeed in those mystical moments when our heart bleeds for the pain of
innocent creatures in the natural world, we need to have a comforting
and promising experience of Jesus’ presence in suffering solidarity with
us, and will all God’s creatures. Advent is not only for celebrating Jesus’
promise to come in glory at the end of creation’s pilgrimage, but also for
renewal in a consoling awareness of his daily “advent” or coming to us.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies and the God of all comfort, who consoles us in all our
affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any
affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are consoled by
God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also
our consolation is abundant through Christ.” (II Corinthians 1:3-5)
Anselm (1033–1109 AD), Archbishop of Canterbury, distorted Western
Christianity with his book Cur Deus Homo? “Why did God become man?”
A Norman lord, he created the theory of “propitiation” of sins by Christ’s
death. Jesus had to be born a man so that he could assuage the right-
eous wrath of our “lord” by paying a human yet infinite (as he was God)
penalty for God’s offended dignity. The Western church loved his theory.
It was a way to frighten folk into obeying it and receiving its sacraments,
by which the profit of Jesus’ punishment was to be credited to believers.
Today this idea of “propitiation for our sins” (even though it seems to
explain the Bible’s teaching that sin has real consequences and must be
atoned for), makes little sense to people. How can the loving God we
proclaim at Christmas have an anger problem? And how does someone
else’s pain somehow fix that problem? Cannot God just forgive?
Anselm’s feudalistic notion of atonement gradually suppressed an older
appreciation of the Cross believed by Britain’s first, Celtic Christians. That
understanding sees Jesus’ suffering as God’s healing of all tragedy, by
his solidarity with us, and his transforming it into a way by which we can
be made fit for eternity (Hebrews 4:15-16) –become saints ourselves!
“Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name;
deliver us and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes.
Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die.
Then we your people, the flock of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation
we will recount your praise.” (Psalm 79:9-11,13)
Saturday in Advent II
“He Descended to the Dead”
The Prayer Book translation of the Creed reads, “he descended into hell.”
“Hell” translates the Greek Hades, which originally referred to an admit-
tedly mythological notion of an underworld. But Hades in turn in the New
Testament translated the Aramaic Gehenna, which was originally the
place where the paraphernalia of idolatry, garbage, and even remains of
idolatrous pagan priests were taken to be burned outside the holy city of
Jerusalem, in order to preserve the Holy City’s spiritual and moral purity.
Thus the final vision of the “New Jerusalem” in the Book of Revelation
promises that “nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices
abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s
book of life.” (Revelation 21:27) So the BCP translation as “hell” alluded
not so much to everlasting punishment as purification, refining, and yes,
the burning or elimination of anything (or one) would might compromise
God’s holy love and justice. The New Creation will not be jeopardized!
The Inter-Church Consultation on Common Texts picked up on one new
translation of Hades or Sheol as “place of the dead”, in order to avoid
the unbiblical notions of unending fiery torture that the Medieval Church
used to intimidate its believers. (The “fire” of Gehenna was an image of
refining and eliminating, not punishing and torturing.) Thus, it accurately
translates the Creed’s affirmation that Jesus really did die for us.
The “harrowing of hell” is a rich idea in Christian devotion: Jesus allowed
Satan to kill him and take him even to hell! But if the Lord of Love and
Life is in Hell, then hell as a place of separation form God is no longer!
The victorious Christ has tricked and defeated the devil, and his gracious
presence sets all Hell’s inhabitants free! Something like this seems to be
affirmed by Peter. Jesus “…was put to death in the flesh but made alive
in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the
spirits in prison.” (I Peter 3:18-19) Similarly, Paul speaks of the Cross: By
his death Jesus “…disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public
example of them, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15)
Seeing Jesus’ death and descent into “the place of the dead” as a victory
–the image of Christus Victor– was central to Celtic Christians. We may
trust this as a victory not only over death, but over all that is deadly.
“Such is the fate of the foolhardy,
the end of those who are pleased with their lot.
Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
Death shall be their shepherd; straight to the grave they descend,
and their form shall waste away; Sheol shall be their home.
But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me.” (Psalm 49:13-15)
Monday after the Third Sunday in Advent
“On the Third Day He Rose Again”
Continuing from yesterday’s reflection, we need to emphasize that the
New Testament affirms Jesus’ death itself as God’s victory over evil and
death; not so much his resurrection. The Resurrection is Gods confirma-
tion and revelation of the victory of divine self-surrendering love over sin
and death. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power
and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
(Revelation 5:12) Easter is the proof and demonstration that God has:
“…saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace
was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now
been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel.” (II Timothy 1:9-10)
It is not a case of the risen Jesus sort of going “nah-nah-nah-nyah-nah!”
to the devil and death, as if his death but a trick, and wasn’t really real.
Jesus really did suffer and die, and thus healed and transformed the
tragedies of suffering and death themselves. His death itself defeated
death, and all if its attendant shadows in life. “God raised him up, having
released him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for him
to be held in its power.” (Acts 2:24) Later in the Book of Acts, he is thus
called “the author of life, whom God raised from the dead.” (Acts 3:15)
Though we have used the term “first-born” above in relation to Christ’s
Incarnation, the New Testament also uses it to refer to Jesus’, and
through him our, rebirth in God’s New Creation: Jesus is “the firstborn
from the dead” (Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5).
In Jesus “…God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether
on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
(Colossians 1:20) Celtic Christians believed the Resurrection was not only
for humans, but in fact for “all things”, all creatures haunted by pain and
death. They believed that if they got up on Easter morning early enough,
and sincerely enough, they could even see “the sun dancing” in the sky
as it arose, celebrating the joyous victory of the Resurrection. So may we
be able to pray and rejoice, as the Psalmist predicted the Messiah would:
“The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of hell assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry reached his ears.
…I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt.
Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.” (Psalm 18:4-6,23-24)
Tuesday in Advent III
“He Ascended into Heaven”
It is one thing to affirm that Jesus rose from the dead. So did Lazarus
(John 11), and several others in the Bible –and perhaps, even today,
when some seem to revive after the doctors pronounced them dead. But
Lazarus, and everyone else, did eventually die again. Jesus did not. But
he did return to eternity; he did go from existing in linear time, “from
Bethlehem to Golgotha” as one of my professors liked to say, to an
eternal reality that is equally present and vital in all times and places. To
God’s eternal “time-fullness”. “When [Scripture] says, ‘He ascended,’
what does it mean but that [Christ] had also descended into the lower
parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far
above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.” (Ephesians 4:0-
10) By “filling all things” St. Paul meant that Jesus was not only vitally
present himself, but indeed giving glorified reality and life, to all reality.
In other words, even though St. Luke records Jesus ascending forty days
after his Resurrection appearances on earth “up into the clouds” (Acts 1:
9-11) (how else could his disciples “see” and comprehend Jesus’ tran-
scendence into eternity?), we need to appreciate that Jesus in reality did
not so much just go “up”, as into God’s own eternal dimensions, so that
the Son, as the Father and the Spirit, may be present at all places, and
at all times. (Even “times” before, in our linear history, he was born!) It
may be helpful at times to think of Jesus’ “ascending into heaven” not so
much as going to an “upper place”, as to the future glorified reality and
“New Creation” to which we are destined as well, in him.
Most of us have come to accept the paradoxical truth that God and Jesus
can be “in all places at the same time.” Well, wonder and confidence can
fortify our faith (our “trust”!) when we also learn to affirm that Jesus –in
God’s time-full eternity to which he has “ascended”– is also present to us
“in all times at the same place”. That “place” being what we in time
apprehend as our future glory. This says something glorious about us, as
it does about the Lord. “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we
will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when
[Jesus] is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And
all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (I
John 3:2-3) The Christmas Child makes us God’s own children!
“All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your faithful shall bless you.
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power,
to make known to all people your mighty deeds
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and
your dominion endures throughout all generations.” (Psalm 145:10-13)
Wednesday in Advent III
“…And Is Seated At the Right Hand of the Father”
The image of God’s “right hand” is a frequent one in the Old Testament.
Jesus himself used it to speak of his return to glory with his Father
(Matthew 26:64). It is a reference to the potent activity of God in his
creation. Behind it is the practice that a king’s prime minister would sit at
the monarch’s right hand in formal sessions. So it is a poetic way, using
Jesus’ own image (quoting Psalm 110:1, of the Messiah), for the Creed
to affirm that God’s rule and activity in the world is exercised though
Jesus. Again, let us remember we are not speaking of an abstract sub-
deity “sitting” on a chair somewhere “up” in this universe. God’s eternity
is unrestricted by created linear time. We are speaking of the Triune God
reigning over creation through the reality revealed in Jesus of Nazareth:
The Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So human life is not dominated by abstract principles and moral codes
(as handy as they may be in guiding our love, and loyalty to truth), nor
by the deterministic hand of either a cosmic fate or a foreordaining deity.
Our life is guided by the personal direction and invitation of Jesus. This
free grace, and the liberty Jesus lovingly wants to give to us, is the
highest, most powerful “law” in the creation! A truth worthy of our trust!
So St. Paul can say, “…if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to
the law.” (Galatians 5:18). It may often feel like we are the victims of
uncaring powers and forces beyond our control (Paul was referring to an
inflexible application of Jewish laws in his day). But one day, if not now
already at times, we may know the personal, loving and merciful reign of
Jesus. We can anticipate and experience that now, with lives open to the
Holy Spirit. We do not see this fully yet, unfortunately; but we did see it
fully, within our linear time, in Jesus’ life. (Hebrews 2:8-9, commenting
on Psalm 8:5-8’s claim that humanity is to fully exercise God’s dominion
over the earth, as Genesis 1:26 says.) And Jesus is risen; ascended; and
reigning at “God’s right hand”! We may put our trust in the Triune God!
“You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land….
Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven and see;
have regard for this vine, the stock that your right hand planted.
It has been burned with fire; it has been cut down;
may [its destroyers] perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong for yourself.
Then we will never turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call on your name.” (Psalm 80:8,14-18)
Thursday in Advent III
“He Will Come Again…”
We come to the most mystical of the three main Biblical messages of the
Advent season: (1) Jesus has come; (2) Jesus comes daily to us in the
Spirit; and (3) Jesus “will come again, to judge the living and the dead.”
God has given all humans an inherent instinct that the present life is but
the beginning of our existence and purpose. Spiritualities and religions all
across history and around the world give witness to this –usually, in the
form of myths about our somehow surviving death. Our “soul” or spirit
floats away to live on, perhaps as a ghost in this world, or an angelic
being “in heaven”. In Hindu and Buddhist thought, we may be given
another body in this world. If we have matured enough, we may move
on to another one. In many Indigenous religions, our ancestors are still
somehow all around us, in a ghostly plane of life accessed by memories.
Curiously, the people who gave us the Bible thought such notions were
but pagan superstitions. God gives us this life on earth. When we die, we
die! Yet God loves us, and so we maybe live on in God’s memory, which
is surely a powerful, even lively reality? For Jesus, that is the only real
assurance of the Resurrection. God made promises to Abraham, Moses,
and many others. But “God not of the dead but of the living.” (Matthew
22:32) Therefore they must be alive, to actually receive those promises.
Jesus said this to take his stand on the issue of life after death as it was
being debated in his day. Sadducees were the conservatives: they taught
that when we die, we die. Pharisees were the liberals. They quoted some
hints in the later prophets (e.g. Isaiah 25:6-9, Daniel 12:2-3) of some
kind of “resurrection” of the faithful. Jesus took that side of the debate;
and of course, claimed he would personally prove the point with his own
resurrection, and future coming again to raise us up as well (John 6:40).
So Christians should talk not of our “going to heaven”, but rather of God
in Jesus “coming” (i.e. “advent”) to us, at the climax of this creation’s
story, to bless us with resurrection, as part of a whole “New Creation”.
“Say among the nations, ‘The LORD is king!
The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved.
He will judge the peoples with equity.’
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar and all that fills it;
let the field exult and everything in it.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the LORD, for he is coming,
for he is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness
and the peoples with his truth.” (Psalm 96:10-12)
Friday in Advent III
“…To Judge the Living and the Dead”
Life is a pilgrimage, a journey through time. But in the admittedly inade-
quate symbol-talk of the Bible about God, the Universe and Eternity, the
language of journeying toward glory is paradoxically superseded with the
symbol-talk of “advent”: the Eternal God, in Jesus, “coming” to us.
We need not be discouraged by the use of symbol-talk about God and
our eternal destiny in and with God. Science, too, uses symbol-talk when
it seeks to describe realities beyond our everyday experience, e.g., the
“the big bang”, which of course was not really like an explosion as we
know it! But to what else could we compare it? Yet unlike the mechanics
of the universe’s beginning, the reality of God is personal. Images from
human life and love are appropriate ideas with which to speak of the
God who after all became human for us God’s Self in Jesus. Theologians
call this the analogia fidei, the “analogy of faith”. Or “trust”! We may
trust the infinite, eternal God to communicate truly to us in personal
images like “coming,” because, after all, “God is love” (I John 4:8,16).
If God was not love, then perhaps it would be presumptuous and foolish
to think of God “coming” to us. The ancient hopes of our souls somehow
passing into eternity might be the best way to express our hope. But the
constant Old Testament promise that God would “come” is realized and
vindicated for us by the Christmas miracle. In Jesus, God has “come”!
A very essential element of this promise that God will “come”, even as it
is given detail by the New Testament hope that God will come in Jesus,
is the assurance that he will come “to judge the living and the dead.”
The bullying preaching of much Western Christianity has taught us to
fear “the Judgement” as a scary thing. “God will get you for that!” But
for the people who gave us the Bible, the promise of a final judgement
was comforting, hope-giving news. (Think of the Biblical Book of Judges,
which is not about legal magistrates damning people, but freedom-
fighting heroes leading people to liberty!) God will set things right! God
will vindicate and redeem all victims! God will liberate all that is truly
human from all that is evil. And God will do that, in no other than Jesus!
“The Lord judges the peoples;
judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous,
O you who test the minds and hearts, Righteous God!
God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge
and a God who has indignation every day.” (Psalm 7:8-10)
Saturday in Advent III
“I Believe in the Holy Spirit”
As Christmas reassures us that the Ultimate Reality who is “coming” to
wrap up and fulfill creation’s story in glory is revealed in Jesus; so the
wonderful truth that God comes to us each day in the Spirit is also to be
understood and trusted through Jesus. The Holy Spirit is also called the
“Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:17). God comes top us humanly, and lovingly,
full of mercy, just as we know God to have revealed himself in Jesus.
In 1994 Dr. Forbes Elliot (for whom the UNB gymnasium is named) was
dying of cancer. As I visited him, he spoke gratefully of his wife Marion’s
interest in the reality of the Holy Spirit. “I grew up believing in God, and
in Jesus showing us how to love God,” Forbes told me. “You know what?
I am thankful to have lived long enough to learn that it’s the Holy Spirit,
who brings all that goodness of God down to earth.”
The Holy Spirit is the Creator, God’s Self, giving energy and reality to all
created things. But more than this, the Spirit is the Creator intimately
present with us, God’s Spirit in communion with our spirits, encouraging
us and empowering us to be truly human, truly who we are meant to be.
In other words, truly more like Jesus. And we may “trust” in this Spirit!
“God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches
everything, even the depths of God. For what human knows what is
truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one
comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we
have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from
God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.”
(I Corinthians 2:10-13)
The fruit of this communion of the Holy Spirit with our human spirits is
called “sanctification,” from the Latin sanctus, meaning “holy”. That is
also the root-term from which we get the word “saint”. The “Holy Spirit,”
or, equally in Biblical Greek and church Latin, “Spirit of Holiness”, is the
Spirit of the Triune God not only giving life and reality to all created
things, but also especially giving a truly holy, i.e. Jesus-like, character, to
all who are called and destined to be the Triune God’s children for ever.
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he
who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies
also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)
“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:10-12)
Monday after the Fourth Sunday in Advent
“The Holy Catholic Church”
The Creeds are in a three-fold form to acclaim our “trust” in the Triune
God. The Third Article confesses faith in the Holy Spirit. It is important to
appreciate this, and not think it is just an appendage tacked on after the
Father and Jesus: “…Oh, yeah, and we believe a lot of other stuff!”
Everything in the Creed’s third paragraph is to be understood as the
result of the presence and ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the human
story. Especially as this is activated, or overtly named in following Jesus.
One of the first visible things the Spirit does in the world over which
Jesus reigns, is to gather believers together into a community of worship
and mission in and to the wider world. The adjective “holy” says this
movement of Christians is of and for God. “Catholic” is not a denomina-
tional title (though some outfits try to monopolize it that way), but a
reference to its mandate and aspiration to be universal, reaching across
all cultures and places. On the human side, there are many different
expressions and organizations formed by Christians for their particular
times and places. But there is only one holy catholic Church, with a
capital “C”, inspired (we pray!), in all its varieties, by the One Spirit.
The great Anglican theologian Richard Hooker (1554-1600) called the
Church a community human and a community divine. We often focus on
the human side –the church as an institution: buildings, memberships,
budgets, activities. The medieval church presumptuously set itself up as
a mediator of the blessings of God to its members. God’s grace and help
was to be received through the ministry of its clergy and sacraments.
Today, there is much suspicion –often with good reason– and even
resentment about the church and its leaders. But there is, more vitally, a
divine dimension of the Church, accessible by faith in the Holy Spirit.
“Fellowship”, the communion of believers, is very important in the Bible.
“For where two or three are gathered in my name,” promises Jesus, “I
am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20) It is in Christian fellowship that
we will best know the Lord, and discover our place in God’s reign. The
Psalmist compared it to how Aaron may have felt, when his “big brother”
Moses ordained him as Israel’s High priest (Exodus 29:1-9). He also
compared it to the mystical thrill of experiencing the morning dew on a
hill-top. May all of us often have that experience in our church-life!
“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.” (Psalm 133)
Tuesday in Advent IV
“The Communion of Saints”
Christian fellowship takes many forms. Celtic Christians were notorious
for their apparent indifference to the detailed organization, hierarchy and
regulations of the ever-presumptuous and expanding Church of Rome.
Celtic communities sprung up all over Britain, and even Europe, led by
saints who kindly adapted their mission and life to the local cultures in
which they established their missions. These Celtic missionaries and
clergy were fiercely loyal to their own communities and traditions,
proudly tracing them back to their founding saints, usually Irish or
Welsh. But they also appreciated and accepted other church groups, as
long as they held to a Biblical faith in the Triune God. One might say that
this lack of central and uniform organization is the root of the sometimes
frustrating diversity and liberality in the Anglican Communion.
The Church, for Celtic Christians, was the Spirit-gathered and sanctified
community of the saints. They have left us almost no formal theological
tomes. But they preserved countless lives of the saints ( hagiographies),
“Rules for Life” (like the brief one on page 555 of the Book of Common
Prayer), and Penitentials, guidelines for spiritual directors (called anam-
charas, “spiritual friends”) as they encouraged their mentees in their
growth toward maturity and holiness. For them, to be a Christian is to be
a person who intentionally takes up the calling from Jesus to be a saint.
The “Communion of Saints” refers to this fellowship Christians may have
with each other by our faith, and the uniting and healing work of the
Spirit. In the New Testament, all Christians are called “saints” (Acts 9:13,
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:2, etc.) More often than not, it often refers
to the redeemed community of folks who have already been taken up
into eternity or (we may say) “heaven”; and who, by the intimate inter-
play of God’s ever-present eternity with our existence in created time
here “on earth” yet continue to be present in the “fellowship of the Holy
Spirit”. In mystical moments of feeling the presence of a departed loved
one, or in inspiring times of prayer and fellowship with other Christians
on earth, we may know and thank God for this “Communion of Saints”.
“O how abundant is your goodness
that you have laid up for those who fear you
and accomplished for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of everyone!
In the shelter of your presence you hide them...
Love the Lord, all you his saints.
The Lord preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts haughtily.
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 31:19-20,23-24
Wednesday in Advent IV
“The Forgiveness of Sins”
The presentation of the Creed is in startling contrast to the way sin and
forgiveness are presented in the Western Church. The famous tract,
“Four Spiritual Laws” are a standard summary of this (www.4laws.com/
laws/englishkgp/default.htm): (1) God wants a relationship with us, but
(2) we are sinners; (3) Jesus alone can save us from damnation; so (4)
we must accept him as our personal Saviour in order to not go to hell.
St. Augustine (354-430 AD) came up with the doctrine of “original sin”:
We are born in an alienating sin, which God abhors. The Western Church
found this very handy, especially paired up with Anselm’s doctrine of
Christ’s propitiatory punishment in our place (see Friday in Advent II
above), as a means of controlling its people. Its degradation of human
dignity also served the agendas of many tyrants and colonial exploiters
of non-christians (such as in the slave trade). In the Creed however, the
forgiveness of sin is only affirmed near the end of its affirmations. This is
vitally important. But it flows from many other important truths.
There is an honourable line of theologians who were defrocked or
excommunicated from the Scottish Presbyterian Kirk because they held
to an older, we could say “Celtic” appreciation of the order of salvation.
(Robert Leighton, 1611-84; Ebenezer Erskine, 1680-1754; Edward Irvine,
1792-1834; John McLeod Campbell, 1800-72, to name but a few.) They
taught that forgiveness came first in God’s eternal will, for God is love (I
John 4:8). Forgiveness motivated his coming to us in Jesus and suffering
with and for us, to help us (not God!) escape from the ruinations of sin.
Jesus saw the serious sins are not the bad we do (sins of “commission”),
but the good we fail to do (“sins of omission”, Matthew 25:40,45). Celtic
anamcharas diagnosed our bad deeds or thoughts as symptoms of a
serious flaw in one’s character: a lack of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians
5:22-25). For them, God’s forgiveness meant not just God’s pardon. It
meant God’s healing of the sick, immature soul. Forgiveness bore fruit in
lives of repentance and growth. The repentance did not “earn” forgive-
ness. God’s forgiveness enables and inspires our eager repentance.
“Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
While I kept silent, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long...
Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the guilt of my sin...
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.” (Psalm 32:1-3,5,7)
Thursday in Advent IV
“The Resurrection of the Body”
The New Testament identifies the risen Jesus not only as the “firstborn”
of the Resurrection (Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5); but also the “first
fruits” of the “general” resurrection of the dead. We have already
mentioned how this paradoxical promise is very different from the more
general human instinct that interprets our natural longing for life beyond
this linear finite timeline in which we live as our “souls” journeying off to
some “heaven” somewhere. The Bible speaks of a “New Creation”, or a
revamping, transformation and glorification of the created life we now
know; but without the injustices and sufferings that compromise it so. (A
“reboot” after an “update” of creation’s “program”, if you like!)
This seems mind-boggling to us. We want to ask, what kind of life will
eternal life be? Paul struggles to provide an answer to this, or at least a
correction against over-simplifications, in I Corinthians Chapter 15. We
can see he stays close to what we can know from what is revealed to us
in the risen’s Christ’s existence. We will enjoy “bodily” lives, but our new
“bodies” (or interactive presence to each other and with God) may be
hoped for in the analogy with a flower to a seed, or a sun to a planet (I
Corinthians 15:37-41). His point is this: As Jesus now is, so shall we be!
This idea of “resurrection” dawned slowly on the people who gave us the
Bible (see Thursday in Advent II above), as they discerned from the
revelation of God’s promises that this life and this world would be healed
and vindicated from all evil; including the efforts of the faithful to serve
God, in spite of the failures and contradictions their suffering service so
frequently experienced in this life.
The soul floating off to another “place” would end and contradict all that
we know and love in this life. But a resurrection and New Creation would
mean a glorification and fulfillment of our best work and hope in this life!
That is why Paul concludes his mystical reflections on the Resurrection
with this encouraging exhortation: “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast,
immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know
that in the Lord your labor is not in vain!” (I Corinthians 15:58)
“I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up
and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you healed me.
O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the grave.
Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
(Psalm 30:1-5)
Friday in Advent IV
“And the Life Everlasting. Amen.”
Let us not think of “life everlasting” as unending linear time. After a
thousand years playing those commonly imagined harps, we would get
bored! Rather, the Creed follows the Bible in speaking of a richness of
vitality, sharing and delight that we cannot imagine (Friday in Advent I).
Think of a butterfly trying to tell a caterpillar what it will be like one day,
when it flies! We will be glorified from our created four-dimensional life
(Einstein, 1879-1955, proved that “time is relative”, but a fourth dimen-
sion of this reality) to the “time-full” “perfection” of eternity!
Such a reality cannot be compromised by sin, or it wouldn’t be perfect!
The Bible’s word for “sin” is hamartia, meaning “falling short” of a target
or goal (Wednesday in Advent IV). “All have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) But by the Holy Spirit –thanks be to God!–
we can grow toward that eternal goodness. And our “resurrection” will
“reboot” us in that goodness. How much of us will go to glory, and how
much be eliminated by that “refining” (I Corinthians 3:5; II Peter 3:10)?
It would be a handicapping “sin” –a “falling short”– for us to think of the
“Communion of Saints” (Tuesday in Advent IV) as only the fellowship of
the redeemed in glory. By the interplay of God’s “time-full” eternity with
the created linear time which we now experience, those who are already
in the fullness of everlasting life are with us today, as well as for ever.
We do not see that yet, or experience it except in mystical moments. But
on the Day of the General Resurrection, we shall experience it in person!
And those “departed saints” deserve to know us “at our best”. That is
why “sanctification” is so important. More than that, God, who has done
so much for us as our Eternal Father, forgiving and redeeming Son, and
ever-present and empowering Holy Spirit, deserves our best. The Triune
God seeks “…to present you holy, blameless and irreproachable before
him, provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the
faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you
heard, which was proclaimed to every creature under heaven.” (Colos-
sians 1:22-23) “Every creature.” Here is the promise that God’s gift of
“the life everlasting” is for all of creation, as well as especially for the
Father’s human children, sisters and brothers of Jesus!
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for you are with me….
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:1-4,6)
Saturday in Advent IV: Christmas Eve
“Born of the Virgin Mary”
I moved our reflection on this, the most “Christmassy” part of the Creed,
to the end of our journey, so our last time of wonder, gratitude and joy
may focus on God’s loving, in-person inauguration of our Advent hope.
The Creed mentions two humans (other than Jesus) by name. Pilate, a
ruler of so much power, now appears in history as but the criminal who
put our Saviour to death. That death was key to God’s plan; but that is
of no credit to Pilate! On the other hand, Mary is attested for her unique
role in submitting to the Father’s will and becoming the Mother of our
Lord: “‘How can this be, since I am a virgin? ...Here am I, the servant of
the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”” (Luke 1:34-38)
Too often, Christians have opted for Rome’s imperial power, like Pilate;
rather than for simply trusting, if wondering faith, like Mary. But now we
live in a time when the power of the Church is a thing of the past, barely
remembered or respected. Even when it is remembered, that becomes
more of an occasion for anger and resentment about abuses, humiliation
of people, and misappropriated wealth while so many go in need.
As the Irish Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland gained influence
in Celtic cultural regions, suppressing laypeople’s older faith, devotion to
the Virgin Mary became popular among common folks. I think this was
because both Ultramontane Catholicism and Calvinist Presbyterianism
both taught the transcendent remoteness of a legalistic, angry God, and
even His Son Jesus, so much that folks seeking mercy and help felt they
would have a better hearing with their fellow human, Mary. Surely she
could “put in a good word” with her son for us? Yet the favourite title of
the Celts for addressing Jesus was, in fact, “Mary’ Son”. In spite of the
intimidating and even humiliating legalism of most of the preaching they
heard, they found comfort and companionship for their daily challenges
in Jesus –who after all lovingly became a poor human like they were. So
even though the Puritans, during their ascendency, went so far as to
outlaw Christmas, this holiday continued on among Anglican people as
the most popular and celebrated Christian holy day of all.
A blessed Christmas, and a vital faith and hope, to you all!
“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.” (Psalm 131)
 Index of Some Theological Terms Used
(“Tu1” First Tuesday in Advent, “M3” =Third Monday in Advent, etc.)

Advent or “Coming” of God, Jesus M1, W1, Th1, F1, M2, Th2, F2, Th3,
F3, S4 (See also: “New Creation”)
Celtic Christians: M1, S1, M2, Th2, F2, S2, M3, Tu4, W4, Th4, S4
Cross of Jesus, Atonement: F2, S2, M3, W4
Eternity, “Time-fullness” and Linear Time, Eternal Life: F1, S1, F2,
W2, Th2, S2, Tu3, W3, F3, Tu4, Th4, F4
Evil: F1, Th2, M3, F3, Th4 (See also: “Sin”, “Suffering”)
Forgiveness: F2, W4
Faith, “Trust”: M1, Tu1, S1, Tu2, S2, Tu3, F3, S3
Freedom: Th1, F1, W2, S2, W3, F3
Hell, “Sheol”: S2, M3, W4, Th4
Holy Spirit: T1, W1, M2, W2, Th2, Tu3, Th3, W3, S3, M4, Tu4, S4
Judgement: Th3, F3
Love: M1, Tu1, Th1, F1, W2, Th2, F2, S2, M3, W3, Th3, F3, S3, W4,
Th4, S4
Mary: W2, S4
Messiah, i.e. “Christ”: Tu2, M3, W3
New Creation: S1, M2,Th2, S2, M3, Tu3, Th3, Th4
Resurrection: M3, T3, Th4, F4
Sanctification: S3, Tu4, F4
Science and modern theology: Tu1, Th1, S1, W2, F3, F4
Sin: S1, F2, W4, F4
Suffering: Tu1, Th2, F2, W1, M3, W4, Th4
Triunity of God, Trinity: Tu1, M2, Tu2, W2, W3, S3, M4, F4
 The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again
to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
--Translation by the International Consultation on Common Texts,
1971 (as found in the Book of Alternative Services, 1985).

Collect for Advent

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 thy 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 quick and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, 1962, page 95)