Vicar's
View
The Darkness is in the Waiting
When I first attended St Mary’s, there was an evening mid-week service during the weeks of Advent. The congregation was quite small and we sat in the choir stalls and celebrated communion at the high altar. I remember one of the services very well. Michael Morphy, who was the vicar then, when he had read the gospel, instead of beginning a sermon, walked to the back of the church and turned off all the lights. We sat there in silence for several minutes surrounded by the blackness of the December evening. Michael then lit a single candle, and the effect was dramatic. The darkness was broken. He carried the candle through the church and placed it on the altar and said just six words, ‘The darkness is in the waiting’.
At the first communion service of Christmas, the gospel reading is taken from the opening words of St John’s gospel. Here John describes Jesus, who has come into the world, as the light that shines in the darkness and which is never overcome by that darkness. This is the wonder of Christmas, that the darkness of this world is transformed by the light of Christ. The weeks of Advent which lead up to Christmas are a time of getting ready for the big celebration ahead. In church they are weeks of sober preparation. As in Lent, the church is devoid of flowers, and the services have a more sober character. We don’t sing the Gloria, occasionally we sing the Song of Light – ‘Longing for light we wait in darkness’. Each Sunday we light one of the Advent candles leading up to the final candle being lit on Christmas Day celebrating the coming of Christ, the light of the world. The themes of the gospel readings reflect the time of waiting. We have the story of John the Baptist proclaiming the coming of Christ, the story of Mary in Luke’s gospel where the Angel Gabriel proclaims that she is to give birth to the Christ, a nine month wait, or in Matthew’s gospel, the angel appearing to Joseph to reassure him about Mary’s pregnancy and its significance. It is all about waiting for Christmas.
The Advent Calendar represents waiting in another way; by counting down the days one by one between Advent Sunday and Christmas Day. Of course, the chocolates or other little presents hidden behind each window help. Day by day, the coming of Jesus comes closer. Day by day, the darkness of waiting gives way to the Light of the World becoming a reality.
But if we look out into the world around us, we see very different ways of preparing for Christmas. Advent is a time of hectic activity, spending money urged on by commercial organisations who look to Christmas as bringing in a substantial part of the annual earnings. Of course, we do need to prepare for Christmas, a successful family celebration needs presents to be bought and wrapped, the house made ready for visitors, the tree decorated and food cooked. Many of us still send Christmas cards to friends and these need to be bought, written and posted, whilst presents to distant members of families need to be posted in good time.
Advent can be a very busy time, especially if all the preparations have to be done in addition to our normal patterns of work. Sadly, we can easily become caught up in the secular preparations and forget the spiritual preparations. We don’t want to collapse into a heap of exhaustion on Christmas Day ground down by the weight of all that we needed to do, we want to be ready for the excitement of the coming of Jesus into the world as a tiny baby in Bethlehem all those years ago. The Light shines in the darkness; the darkness of waiting s over.
Geoff
