The Red Herring of Advent

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the fourth Sunday in Advent

Suppose you want 

to stop a fox hunt

or a rabbit hunt.

What do you do?

One practice is to get

a smoked fish, 

wait until its gone

a bit ripe -

well, okay, a lot ripe,

and drag it across the track 

behind the rabbit

as it flees.

The stinky trail

will send the dogs off

in completely the wrong direction.

And which type of fish

would be best?

A herring!

And, if you leave it

for long enough,

it will turn red.

That's where 

the red herring 

comes from.

The red herring

is designed 

to throw us off the scent

and confuse us

so we don't see

what's going on.

Is St John the Baptist

a red herring?

[PAUSE]

The priests and Levites 

might think so.

There in front of them -

a man calling for them

to repent,

and not mincing his words.

Who is he?

Is he the Christ? 

No.

Well, that seems 

straightforward enough.

Is he Elijah?

No?

Except that he is.

God says through 

the prophet Malachi,

"Behold, I will send you 

Elijah the prophet 

before the coming of 

the great and dreadful day of the LORD."

God is not being literal

but identifying

the last prophet with Elijah

Jesus Himself

will say that St John

comes in Elijah's spirit.

But hang on!

All this is a red herring.

We are being side-tracked.

Do you see that?

[PAUSE]

What is the real issue?

Who is this John the Baptist?

We've just seen one red herring

perhaps this man is another.

Hear him,

"I am the voice of him

that crieth in the wilderness,

'make straight 

the way of the Lord!'"

That's as far from being

a red herring as you can get!

A red herring is

supposed put you 

off the scent 

not put you on it.

St John clearly 

points the way to Christ

so why don't the rulers

of Jewish society

go the way that 

St John is pointing?

The have received 

another red herring.

They are seeking the Christ

but they are not seeking Jesus.

Their senses have become

confused with the different

scents of the previous centuries.

Israel has erred and strayed

from the way of God 

like a lost sheep.

Israel has been overrun

and conquered

ruled by Emperors 

that think they are gods,

and by self-important kings,

like Herod,

who want to be gods.

The people of Judaea

seek the Christ,

but their eyes have become clouded

by politics,

and expectations,

and battles,

and protests,

and invasions,

and rulers in it for themselves.

This is the smell 

of the red herring,

one thrown into draw people

away from Christ

by the Devil

who knows that the time is near

when his head will be crushed

by a virgin bearing a child.

Only St John

in his rags,

poverty,

and disrespect 

for human vanity

points the way clearly

in exactly the same way

that the prophet Elijah might.

Only those

who sniff past

the stench of this world's

depravity and degradation

will smell the sweetness

of Christ Himself.

[PAUSE]

Our Advent has been spent

clearing our noses

from Hell's smells.

We smell the mulled wine,

the pine needles and mince pies 

the candles and the frankincense

but we know that 

they draw us on to the Lord

because we recognise 

His presence with us

despite the aroma of

the world outside.

[PAUSE]

The more we know Christ

the more we will be able

to sniff Him out

despite the red herrings

that are thrown at us.

An Anglican Catholic prophesies about Advent

 Why prophecy is so much more than people think.

'Tis the prison to be merry.

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury on the third Sunday of Advent

Why does God hide Himself?

Have you ever wondered that?

Everyone would be a Christian

if they could see Him.

Wouldn't they?

But we can't see Him

and so we are 

left wondering.

Why does He hide Himself

from us,

His church?

[PAUSE]

St John Baptist

sits in prison.

It's deep, dark and cold,

but he can still get messages

to and from his disciples.

But he is out of the loop.

He remembers that man,

a cousin of his, 

in fact.

He remembers

baptising Him.

He remembers

the water,

the Spirit,

the voice from above.

And then silence.

Silence as He decreases

so that the Christ increases.

Thrown into prison

for telling the king

that he cannot steal 

his brother's wife.

There are rumours.

Oh yes there are rumours,

but this Jesus

is not revealing Himself

in the way that Israel expects.

He is not revesling Himself

in the way 

that St John expects.

Can it really be Him,

the one that is to come?

Or is it someone else?

So St John sends disciples

to find out.

[PAUSE]

They return with the message:

the blind receive sight

the lame walk,

lepers are cleansed,

the deaf hear,

the dead are raised

and the poor have 

the gospel preached to them

and blessed are they

who are not offended in Jesus.

At this St John rests assured.

God has not hidden Himself.

St John rests assured,

but do you rest assured?

Does this answer 

the question for you?

Why does God hide Himself?

[PAUSE]

The answer is 

that He doesn't

though not many

will be convinced at that.

We don't see God the Father.

Why not?

This is a bit 

tricky to understand.

How does Bugs Bunny

know the width of the film

that he is recorded on?

How does Desperate Dan

know the colour of the paper

he is printed on?

How does the algae

that spends its life

on the pond surface

know how deep the water is?

We cannot see God

with our created eyes.

It's not possible.

To do so,

we need to step outside

existence itself

to see Him.

But God wants to be known.

So what does He do?

He becomes like us.

God reveals Himself

not in the way that we think.

Never in the way 

that we think.

Our preconceived ideas

about what constitutes

the Messiah

are always transformed

by how He has

always revealed Himself.

St John's preconceived ideas

are challenged

but presented

with what he knows

in his heart of hearts.

As soon as he hears,

he knows it to be true.

Jesus isn't hiding Himself.

He is making God visible.

Anyone who sees Our Lord

sees the Father and the Holy Ghost.

But why does He hide Himself now?

[PAUSE]

For us here, 

we know that He doesn't

hide Himself.

We shall see Him

not with these eyes

but with the eyes of faith

when we see Him 

in the Blessed Sacrament.

When the priest elevates the host,

we are staring

for a brief moment

at the Centre of the Universe

at Our Creator

and Redeemer.

A consecrated wafer

is God's promise

to one

who cannot have the eyes

to see Him

in His glory.

And,

when we are raised,

we will have eyes to see Him

as He is.

But what about the others?

Why is God hidden from them?

Well, all they have to do,

if they really, really  want to see 

that God is not hiding from them.

is look in the manger

on Christmas Day.

An Anglican Catholic legalises Advent

 

What is the relationship between the Law and Advent

Turning the last page

Sermon for the second Sunday in Advent

Why do we want 

to know the future?

To be fair,

some of us don't.

Some of us are terrified 

of the future.

It seems that we have

a love-hate relationship

with the things that are to cone.

For many, 

the future stands before them

like the black hooded figure

in A Christmas Carol

ready to point out their grave.

But, think now.

What do you see the future

looking like?

[PAUSE]

There are lots of 

doom mongers out there.

Some use horoscopes

or pendulums

or will even claim

to talk with spirits

about the future.

Some will use science

and scientific data

to predict what will happen.

Some will even use the Bible

or the apparitions of saints

to discern the future.

But why?

We already know

what's on the last page.

[PAUSE]

Turn to the last chapter

of the Book of Revelation

and you see exactly

what Our Lord is telling us.

There will be disruption:

disruption to countries

disruption to the Earth

disruption to the Heavens

disruption even in Heaven itself.

Things will be turned on their heads

and then Christ comes.

That scares us.

We don't like disruption.

We like things to follow a pattern,

even if we are a bit ofba daredevil.

We might love a bit

of drama and chaos

but ww still have

an expectation

that things behave consistently.

We might like the adrenaline rush

but the thought of the Moon

crashing into our planet

would still be a concern.

Even we Christians

who know what it says

on the last page

are frightened of the future.

Why?

[PAUSE]

There are two reasons

at least.

First,

there might be the possibility

that we're wrong

and that the last page of the Bible

won't happen.

This requires faith.

Based on what we know of gravity,

if we throw a ball.into the air

in normal circumstsnces

we have good reason

to believe that it will 

fall back down.

This is faith in the law of gravity.

Based on what we know of God

and how He loves us

and how He wants every human

alive yesterday, today and tomorrow

to be saved,

we can have faith that the last page is true.

Second,

we might be afraid of the future

because

even though God loves us

Christians have gone through

and still go through

the most awful tribulation

to get to the last page

and He doesn't take away

the possibility of

extreme suffering from us.

Yes, this is disturbing.

But this is still an issue of Faith.

Our Lord chooses the death on the cross.

He specifically chooses it.

Even if He has to be executed

He chooses crucifixion,

slow and agonising,

rather than something quick

He does not have to choose it

but He chooses extreme suffering

so that our extreme suffering.

would end in Heaven.

This is our faith.

[PAUSE]

While the future 

may look scary

the back page is still true.

Of course,

people will say

that Our Lord's generation

has come and gone

and He has not returned

We can see why.

Our children and our children's children

still need to know the love of God

even if they have not yet been born.

They are still the generation

of the Apostles.

We are still the generation

of the Apostles

because,

while people are still being baptised

they are still being regenerated

into the Family of the Church

and of the Body of Christ.

The Church has not passed away.

And that's because Our Lord's worda

will not pass away.

[PAUSE]

We do not need to see the future

because we already know what it is.

We still have the Holy Spirit.

The Church is still the Bride of Christ.

The Spirit and the Bride

say, "come!"

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

An Anglican Catholic falls into Advent

 

Why St Andrew opens the door to our failure and to our salvation.