That we may be ready to meet you
This Sunday is Advent Sunday, the first Sunday in the Church’s liturgical year. Advent consists of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. It’s a penitential season of preparation and waiting. “Advent” means “coming”, and there’s a sense of eager expectancy, as we look forward to the coming of Christ into the world at Christmas. In this season we also celebrate the coming of Jesus into our lives daily, at our death, and at the end of the world. And this thinking about the end of the world, especially, leads us to thinking about God’s judgement.
God’s judgement of us is a subject I’m never entirely comfortable with. The differences in theology between the conservative and liberal wings of the Church just confuses me. If I’m asked for an opinion, I usually just admit that I don’t know, but am happy to leave myself to the mercy of an all-loving God, a God who I know loves me far more than I do myself.
I heard a story today, though, that just struck a chord for me. I gather it, or something very like it, has been used as an illustration about judgement in the more evangelical Churches for many years. But coming from a more catholic tradition I hadn’t heard it before.
The story is told of a man who was taken to court to pay a £1,000 fine for a crime that he had committed. The man had no money to clear his debt and pleaded for mercy from the judge. The judge could not just let the man go free or else justice would not have been done. So he ordered that the fine of £1,000 must be paid. Then, in an act of self-sacrificing love, the judge stepped down from his chair, went to the clerk of the court, and wrote a cheque to pay the fine in full. The judge then said that because the penalty had been paid the man was free to leave the court and return home. The judge had ordered that the penalty be paid, but had then paid it himself. This illustrates both the justice and the love that God offers to each of us, by sending Jesus to pay the price and the penalty that our wrongdoing deserves.
As I said, this story really struck a chord for me. If it helps us to feel less fearful of the judgement that must surely come — the Bible seems pretty clear on that — then it must be a good thing. Because if we’re less fearful, then perhaps we’ll be more ready to meet God in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin to the
light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.Additional Collect for The First Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council
About Paul Sibley
Andrew Gosden (now 16) has been missing from his Doncaster home since 14 September 2007. The search continues.
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