Peace and Goodwill

In this present age, I wonder how we would react if we were confronted suddenly by an angel announcing to us that our Lord had returned after two thousand years?

            Would we react as the shepherds, as they watched their flocks, had done when an angel appeared to them to announce the birth of the baby Jesus? And then, on top of it all, what would we do if we then saw a great company of angels joining the first angel singing praises to God? No doubt, many would be terrified at such a spectacle,  just as the shepherds were.

But then, while some would be overawed with the wonder of such a sight, perhaps there would be others who would look at the scene in the modern way, which might lead them to suppose that an alien invasion was taking place, or that perhaps someone was messing around with a laser projector making shapes in the sky and that someone else had left their hi-fi on too loud!

            Certainly, the shepherds were wise in the ways of the land and their flocks, and they lived their relatively simple lives in the yearly round of work associated with their flocks. Indeed, the angel and the heavenly host didn't appear to any sophisticated person living in a town or city – they appeared to simple-living folk in the open countryside and who would possibly be more attuned to their message anyhow than the townies of their time!

Anyone who has gone for a walk in the country on a still, frosty, moon-lit winter's night looking down into a valley with the spaced-out lights of farm-houses shining like distant stars in the darkness will understand the feeling of peace that the shepherds would have felt as they sat wrapped against the cold by their watch fires, perhaps chatting or dozing.

            Again, any farmer who has gone to check his stock last thing at night in the shed will have stood listening to his stock pulling at their hay or lying down quietly chewing the cud. In my case, there was always the feeling of peace as my gaze wandered over the animals in the shed. And on a Christmas Eve, this would turn to a feeling of wonder when I thought of the myth, that the animals might have knelt down before the baby Jesus – well one could almost imagine it happening in that peaceful place too.

And that's one of the things I've always loved about Christmas – the message which the angels gave to those simple shepherds two thousand years ago – 'peace on earth' – how wonderful it would be if we received such a message from a heavenly host now - that all was to be at peace, world-wide.

But would we understand and accept that message if it was given to us in this way, I wonder? Would we believe that the pain of destruction and war, of death and violence, of hunger and deprivation, of loneliness and sickness which many now seem to take for granted, which encompasses us from every side, is coming to an end, forever?

Certainly, I would like to think that if we heard the message that the shepherds received, we would be so glad, so relieved that at last, peace is about to come upon us all and that the pain and evil that is covering the earth is to be taken away finally. Well, at least we have been promised that that would happen once Jesus has returned to the earth – no more death, no more wars, no more mourning and no more tears – how wonderful indeed.

And so, as we finally come to the end of the Advent season and prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus, should we not also continually hope and earnestly pray that our Lord will indeed return a second time, this time in great majesty to rule the whole earth, sooner rather than later?

Then we would be able to join in with the angels and the rest of the heavenly host by singing joyfully – 'glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and goodwill to all men'. That, I'm sure you will agree would be the greatest Christmas present of all. Certainly it's on my wish list!

Advent

What does Advent mean to you? Does Advent mean that from 'Stir up Sunday' we start looking forward in anticipation to Christmas? Yes, perhaps that is the immediate reaction of many people, and regrettably, like a lot of the church's festivals these days, Advent and the lead up to Christmas has been hijacked by the cathedrals of commerce so that the spiritual aspects are buried beneath the avalanche of presents, tinsel, lights and rubbishy Advent calendars.

So, what then do we really mean by Advent, spiritually? Of course, it is the time of preparation that leads up to the celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus some 2000 years ago, an event which is described in the Bible as being the wondrous thing it is – of the Christ child being born in such lowly conditions, of the simple shepherds coming to see Him and to welcome him into the world after they had been told of the wonderful event by the breathtaking singing of a choir of angels – 'Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, peace to all men' – and He, taking on our nature by our Lord so that He might die for us all and redeem us on the first Easter.

But what else? Many times in the Bible we are told that our Lord will return - as the disciples are told when Jesus ascended – 'This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven'. So shouldn't we be looking forward also to the Second Advent? – to the second coming of Christ? – when, as we are told, He will return in glory, surrounded by His heavenly host (Matt. 24. 30; Rev. 1.7). Jesus first came as a weak child born in humble earthly conditions, but when He comes a second time, it will be in great spiritual glory and then He will take up the government of the earth.

No matter how much man tries, the world is becoming a darker and darker place – as some say, 'it's getting madder and badder by the day'. What is happening in the world today is a tragic exhibition of man's utter failure to rise above this darkness or to deliver men from suffering. And falsehood and deceit have become a recognised means to achieve men's aims.

And why should this have occurred? Is it not the belief that by his own works man will overcome all, that he will even go so far as to attempt to play God by trying to create life? Should we not also realise that Christians are making Christ into a symbol of their faith in man, that this is the attitude of a vast number of so-called professing Christians? – where they imagine in a distorted fashion that by adopting the high moral standards which Christianity demands, man will prove himself capable of his own deliverance? And when the Bible seems too strict to the 'modern' way of thinking, it is 'adapted' to suit the thinking of the moment – just as the Jews did in Jesus' time.

And what should we do? In the Bible, we are many times exhorted to repent - we should ask God's forgiveness for the way man has gone his own way and not God's way, that we have allowed our faith to become earth-bound and not heaven-bound, having allowed ourselves to become 'comfortable' in our earthly material condition and forgetting that it is our spiritual condition for which we should be searching and striving.

Therefore, let us be like the Five Wise Virgins awaiting the Bridegroom, prepared and waiting with wicks trimmed and spare oil for our lamps - that is, we should be full of spiritual hope and longing for our Lord, and together we will wait patiently and pray fervently for the only thing which will save this world from total darkness – the coming of the Bridegroom to the Wedding Feast - the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in all his glory.