Advent Sunday Lincoln Cathedral 2023
There has been considerable controversy over the discontinuation of the famous Lincoln Christmas Market. My personal view is that it requires a careful re-set. It certainly promotes the city and county but was becoming strangled by its popularity.
It needs to be commercially viable, offering quality, and above all a pleasant and safe experience. And an Advent spiritual experience in which the Cathedral is central. A moment to grasp a huge opportunity for faith in the public square.
The commercial Christmas (fun as it is) should not drown out the deeply reflective period of Advent in which we ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ’ in alert watchfulness for the coming of the Saviour. We watch, we wait, we wonder.
Advent is a season of expectation as the Church joyfully prepares both to celebrate the coming of Christ in his incarnation, and sombrely reflects upon God’s judgement and the Last Things.
In our part of the world the Advent season falls at the darkest time of the year. The natural symbols of darkness and light are powerfully at work in our worship. Bible readings in church weave patterns of promise, preparation, and fulfilment.
Against the darkest winter nights, advent brings growing light and warmth, pointing us daily towards Christmas. In particular, the custom of lighting of candles on an advent wreath in our churches and homes.
There is no limit to imagination. 24-day Advent Calendars can open day by day in shop window by shop window, or house front door by door along our streets. I have seen a roundabout transformed into a huge Advent wreath with enormous candles.
Children of course find the approach to Christmas very exciting. Advent calendars, and decorating Christmas trees in homes capture the anticipation in delightful ways. How many sleeps till Christmas? ( 22 ) What will Santa bring?
But for now, on this first Sunday of Advent, we join Isaiah in the struggle between human failings, and a God who waits for those who do right. We join St Paul, who encourages the Christians in cosmopolitan Corinth to remain blameless and faithful as they await the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep awake, announces St Mark’s Gospel. Stay alert, for you do not know when the time will come. Mark’s apocalyptic discourse reveals a future and the heavenly realm. The vindication of God at a time unknown is the hope that wrestles with present suffering and darkness. A chink of light for the vulnerable and dispossessed.
When we look around us at events afar, or closer to home, or within our personal lives, we are startled by the challenge of Advent. The birth pangs of Jesus’ coming pervades the season. There is so much that needs to be put right, in plain sight. The seasonal emphasis on charitable giving and kindness to strangers is welcome, even if it should be year-round.
There are pressing reasons to struggle with waiting watchfulness, to put on the armour of light. As we await Christ who comes to seek and to save that which was lost.
Amidst the understandable busy-ness of Christmas preparations, making ‘quiet moments for God’ is what we might aim for, offering to God all that we are, all that is going on in our lives and who we might become. To wait well.
Rt Rev Dr Nigel Peyton – Assistant Bishop, Lincoln Diocese