Two emblems of Christ - Advent Quiet Day Addresses

Talk One: Introduction

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The Lord be with you
And also with you

Advent is not a time for wrapping Christmas Presents and fretting about whether we should have started the Christmas Cake yet. It is, rather, a time for spiritual preparation for one of the most significant events in the history of the world. Someone once said that the Incarnation was a stake planted in history, around which the whole world rotates, and we seem to have lost some of that sense. Advent is supposed to be the time of preparation for the incarnation.

Lent still maintains at least a small element of penance, but we seem to so often forget that Advent is also a Purple season: Purple vestments, no flowers in Church and no Gloria said or sung. Advent is a time for us to consider what is portended to come, to look for the signs and to make ready for the coming of the Lord.

Christianity is a faith which is unique in that it emphasises not only Christ’s Divinity, but also his humanity. Only in Christianity does the all-powerful and Almighty come down to our level, and come alongside us as one of us, and yet remain at the same time so distinctly other that he could only be God himself.

As we enter Advent, we look at a couple of key signs of Christ as used by the early Church and still seen today. Through these ciphers we discover a growing sense of the Christ who is, already, in our midst and see how the early church, the church fathers and the councils came to understand the incarnation.. Over these two talks we will call to mind two of these symbols and will end the day in the ultimate symbol of the faith – the Eucharist. In the act of Holy Communion Christ comes amongst us, as he does at each and every mass, hiding (as St. Francis of Assisi put it) under an ordinary piece of bread. In the other times of this quiet day you have the opportunity to reflect on what I have talked about, to consider your response to it, and also, if you would like, to come and spend some time with me, praying together, in spiritual direction or support and if you would like, to undertake the sacrament of reconciliation – to make your confession to God and to receive through the sacrament of priesthood, his absolution and reconciliation.

INRI - Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum

So, now, our first sign: that displayed over Christ’s passion itself – the sign which Pilate wrote.

One of the strengths of having 4 Gospel accounts is that even though they may differ slightly in detail, they agree where it is important. Just as four people watching a football match or a play would describe events with different emphasis, so the Gospel writers have different recollections, different traditions, different target audiences even and so when a feature such as this is common to all Gospels then you know it must be important.

Modern Biblical Criticism suggests that Matthew and Luke share a common source: the Gospel of Mark and a document now lost in the midst of time. This collection of the oral tradition is known by its German name Quelle (meaning source) or simply as Q.

Let us examine each Gospel:

Matthew 27: 35-37 “This is Jesus, King of the Jews”
Mark 15: 22-26 “This is the King of the Jews”
Luke 23: 32-38 “This is the King of the Jews”

John’s Gospel clearly uses different authorities and spends much time on the interaction between Christ and Pilate.

John 18:17-22 “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” [in Hebrew, Latin and Greek]

Note that John is the only version to tackle the tension between the claim to be the King of the Jews and the notice as a statement of fact.

We forget how common crucifixion was as a form of execution. In the eyes of all who saw this, it was not an assassination, but a shameful criminal’s death. Above each criminal would be found their indictment:

“Judas of Bethany – Stealer of Sheep”
“Joshua of Nain – Murderer”
“Jesus of Nazareth – King of the Jews”

Pilate himself wrote this indictment, not the Captain of the Guard. He might have been making a clear statement about what he thought (for his encounter with Christ in John (See John 18:38) and his question “what is truth” shows him to be sensitive to more than the mere politics of the situation), or alternatively, it could have been a viscous putdown: saying to the crowds, almost all of them Jews, who gathered to jeer:

This is your King
This is your Kingdom
This is how important you are to us [ie not very]

The taunt is clear – not just of Christ himself but of the whole people of Israel: a miserable backwater of the empire with quaint customs and a broken man as a symbol of their aspirations.
INRI - Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

But, as Isaiah 55:8-9 says “[Yahweh declares] My ways are not your ways…” and what would appear to be a most ungracious insult turns out to be a bold proclamation of the truth. The paradox of the incarnation is that God comes to us in the form of the child, and although signs and miracles both foretold his coming and heralded his life, it was only through his Cross and Passion that the completion of the prophecies would be fulfilled. This rightful, secular form of title, is uniquely linked to the spiritual level of kingship and the King of the Jews is revealed on the Cross, yes, through the victory of the cross, to be the King of the World.

Turn now to Matthew 1:1-17.

You will see 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile in 597BC and 14 from the exile to Jesus.

14 is a magic number in Hebrew, representing the tetragrammon or YHWH – Yahweh – the true name of God. Here Matthew is speaking subtexturally and saying “God… God… God…”

Jesus can claim direct lineage of the house of David. Lineage by adoption is just as valid as lineage by birth. Why else would God use such language as ‘adoption’ of the people of Israel as his chosen people. Just as God adopted the Jews through the covenant, so the son of God adopted by Joseph ben Jacob (Matt 1:15-16) is a truly valid heir of the line of David.

The lowly son of the carpenter had a legitimate claim to royalty. This is why the wise men brought Gold amongst their gifts and why they sought him at first in the palace of Herod.

But God works differently – a king born in a stable; a member of the aristocracy forced to become a refugee and flee into Egypt; a noble whose hands bore splinters and calluses as he worked in his father’s trade.

That adoption is available to all of us. Look up Romans 8:16-17

“We are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs in Christ”

You are heirs.
What does being an heir mean to you?
What does that entitle you to?
Does it carry any obligation to anything or anyone?

Last week a small baby was brought to Church by its proud parents. The child was only 2 weeks old and I have a special affection for children: I am a parent of three, although sadly none of them are as small, as fragile, as vulnerable as this little one now. I scooped the child up and carried her to the front of church and I felt like Simeon in the Gospel of Luke. Turn to Luke 2:25-35, as I held this tiny bundle of vulnerability in my arms and blessed her.

This child is an heir. You are heirs. You have been given an invitation to become adopted into a royal family, and to share in that link between the royal family of Israel and the salvation of the world.

You have the power to be the light to all nations. Amen

Talk Two - IHS – Iesus Hominum Salvator

Earlier we saw the title given to Jesus by Pilate and considered its significance as a statement of both the divinity and the humanity of Christ: the drawing together of the paradox which is at the heart of the incarnation and which Advent draws us to consider.

Now I want to ask you the age old question, What’s in a name? Well, to quote the song, a lot’s in a name. Let’s now look to the name and title given to Jesus by people of faith, IHS which draws us again to the link between the incarnation and the crucifixion. We see the letters IHS often carved into pulpits, extravagantly embroidered on vestments or altar frontals or engraved onto sacred vessels. They do not, as often mistakenly believed stand for “In his service” but for the latin inscription

Iesus Hominum Salvator
Jesus, Man and Saviour

Christmas itself is about the incarnation, about God becoming enfleshed. Recall from your Spanish: Carne (as in Chile Con Carne) means meat or flesh. When you encounter an ikon of the Pantocrator, take the opportunity to examine the hand held up in blessing. An ikon is filled with significance and in this simple gesture, the depth of the incarnation is revealed: the three fingers (two fingers and thumb) together represent the Trinity, and the two joined third and little fingers indicate the two natures: fully human and fully divine.

From one perspective, St Paul had it quite wrong when he sought to separate the Spirit from the Flesh. Let us look at Romans 7:5-6; 7:25 and 8:1-4 (and the whole of this section of his letter)

See how he separates it out: Spirit = Good; Flesh = Bad. The Greek word for flesh is sarx (think of sarcophagus) which implies decay and all kinds of nasty associations.

For Paul, his only encounter with Christ was in the post-Resurrection with the spiritual Christ. He did not sit down and break bread with Jesus. He was not breathed upon as they were in the Upper Room; he did not get to put his hand into the side of Christ as Thomas did (John 20:26-29). So he missed out on the tangible reality of Christ and could not see that Christ came in the flesh, as a saviour to the flesh; not as a saviour to the spirit, which is in the realm of God anyway.

The God become Man validates us as humanity.

If we turn to Matthew 12:45-50 we see the validation of humanity in Christ. Often this text is seen as belittling Our Lady – a discourtesy which the sinless one would never afford his first disciple. When he asks “Who are my Mother and my Brothers?” he is not reducing his kinfolk, but rather elevating his followers to the special relationship of kin. Christ validates our humanity by his presence among us and showing as he did on the Cross that we were worth bothering with.

There are many times when we ourselves do not think that we are worth bothering with, when we feel devalued by our nearest and dearest and by society. We may feel that our faith is belittled by a cynical media, undermined by local councils who celebrate a “winter festival” rather than Christmas and ridiculed by the general public, but no matter – we are all valued by the most significant person on earth; valued so much that we were considered worth dying for – “greater love has no man that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)

But in this phrase, IHS we see the sacred name of Jesus. No name in the Scriptures are inconsequential or insignificant: Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel, Saul becomes Paul and each name change signifies meaning.

The most meaningful is first encountered in the book of Exodus: look at Exodus 3:1,2,6,13-15 where God reveals his true name. It is represented by the Tetragrammon YHWH – Yahweh. It means “I am who I am becoming”. Such was the power of this name that subsequent writers when they encounter Yahweh’s sacred name they substituted it with the word LORD [in capitals].

Where you see LORD you have Yahweh
Where you see Lord [lower case] you have the name/title Adonai
Where you see God, you have Elohim.

Since we have been promised that through Christ we will see God face-to-face, we are no longer required to hide behind LORD [in capitals], and is one of the reasons why the Jerusalem Bible does not shy away from the name of Yahweh, and why you should not either.

As I mentioned earlier, all names in the Bible are significant. A common name of the time was Yah-Shua – “God saves” or “Salvation”. If you look at the story of Zaccheus, where Jesus declares that today “salvation has come to this house” it would have been “yah-shua” – salvation. It was (and is) a name filled with portent. Transliterated into English Yah-shua becomes Joshua. Filter it through the Greek and Yah-shua becomes Jesus.

So, the name of Jesus, is literally “God Saves” or “Salvation” and the sacred name is not merely a label for someone but a commentary on what he is and what he will do for us through the victory of the cross. This explains why, perhaps, there is a devotion to the sacred name of Jesus, and why in all its forms: Hebrew, Greek and our own language it is a powerful meditative force.

At some point today, I invite you take the opportunity to stop, and pause and to contemplate on the sacred name. To use it as a mantra and a focus for prayer, and to take that deep knowledge of salvation into your heart, to suffuse you with its power and warmth.

Paul quotes a well-known hymn of the time in his letter to the Philippians (Phil 2:5-11). It is not thought that Paul wrote this, but was citing it as a common point of reference.

"You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross! As a result God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — in heaven and on earth and under the earth —and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. "

(Philippians 2:5-11)

It is called the Kenotic Hymn because it speaks in verse seven about kenosis or ‘pouring out’. Christ coming not as God, but as one of us, so that “at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow” and not just in the sense of that rather jolly hymn.

So, when we think of the sacred name of Jesus, what do we think?

Does it trip off our tongue as an expletive? (and how many of us these days are offended by the almost innocuous use of the phrase ‘Ohmigod’ as though it means nothing – I have even heard it in infant school!)

Does that name provide us with comfort? Solace? Power?
Does it, or will it from now on, remind you that Yah-shua – God saves?
And if so, what does that mean for us?

Yah-shua – God Saves. In the midst of tumult and chaos, God saves. In the face of poverty and debasement, oppression and fear, God saves. In the cry of the hungry, the addicted and the imprisoned, God saves. In the cold and in the alienated, God saves.

As we turn towards Advent and think of the outrageous nature of the incarnation – the notion that the Almighty could become one so fragile, one so like us in the form of a child, we realise that it is only because of God’s almighty power that he is able to do such a thing. Think back to that image of the young child cradled in my arms in church last week. Can we see Jesus as this weak and defenseless thing too? Only God has the power of kenosis, the power to save: Yah-Shua. It is through the King of the Jews that we become heirs.

Yet we know that the Resurrection could only come through the suffering of the Crucifixion and the Crucifixion could only come through the Incarnation. In our fragile world of suffering the need for us to be people of prayer invoking the transforming power of God, Yah-Shua remains.

May our prayer this Advent truly be: ‘O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.’

For the one with power to save is at the same time the one who came to live among us and died on the Cross and who still comes to us in the transforming power of the Eucharist which we will now celebrate.

‘O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.’

Amen